Commenters said NTIA could improve broadband data quality and accuracy to help mapping efforts, including by using geocoding, but some also noted limitations. An NTIA notice "recognizes that the starting point for any discussion of broadband mapping is the FCC’s Form 477 data program," said NCTA, urging NTIA to work closely with the FCC without duplicating its work. "NTIA could augment the FCC’s broadband availability data" to "ensure that any future national broadband map includes information on locations where providers have committed to future construction in exchange for government subsidies." NTIA hasn't yet posted comments due Monday, but some parties forwarded us their filings.

Telco competitors made their case for the FCC to retain regulated wholesale access to incumbent local loop and interoffice-transport lines despite a USTelecom forbearance petition seeking ILEC relief from requirements to lease out the connections as discounted unbundled network elements and related resale services. The UNEs and resale services "are critical" to competitor ability "to serve consumers and facilitate fiber deployment," said an Incompas filing on a meeting it and 13 upstart providers had with Wireline Bureau staffers, posted Monday in docket 18-141. "Many of the providers utilize unbundled bare copper DS0 loops to provide residential and business customers with voice and data services. ... Access to UNEs such as DS0, DS1, and enhanced extended loops ('EELs') also allows [CLECs] to serve underserved rural and urban areas, including areas where the CLEC is the only available broadband provider." The filing said there are "no economically viable alternatives" to UNE interoffice dark fiber transport to serve rural markets, and cited a "lack of special access or commercial alternatives for certain UNEs." The competitors said existing rules allow "a natural elimination of unbundling obligations" as ILECs retire copper. They said USTelecom's proposed delay in eliminating UNE access until February 2021 "falls woefully short" of giving competitors sufficient time to transition to alternatives: "Rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all timeframe ... the Commission should adhere to the 'natural forbearance' under its current rules. In markets where ILECs have completed copper retirement, they gain full relief from DS0 unbundling obligations. In markets where ILECs have yet to discontinue copper, CLECs should be able to retain access to UNEs." That would ensure CLECs can continue providing consumers in underserved areas competitive alternatives to ILEC copper services, they said.

Cable and telco groups voiced support for FCC efforts to identify unserved areas through the collection and mapping of data drawn from existing Form 477 filings. "In assessing proposed changes to the Form 477, we encouraged the Commission to focus on alternatives that would avoid unnecessary administrative and financial burdens for broadband providers and for the Commission itself," said a filing Monday in docket 11-10 on a meeting representatives of NCTA, USTelecom, ITTA and the American Cable Association had with Wireline Bureau staffers.

Uniti Fiber is "deeply concerned" by USTelecom's forbearance petition for ILEC relief from wholesale unbundled network element (UNE) discounts, but Frontier Communications and Windstream cited UNE details they say support the petition. "While we are foremost a 'facilities‐based' service provider, we nonetheless also use significant numbers of unbundled network elements to expand our reach, meet customer demands, and establish access to new markets," said a Uniti filing posting Friday in docket 18-141, noting it provides cellsite backhaul and small-cell solutions for wireless carriers and other network services. Uniti said it buys DS1s and DS3s, and relies heavily on dark fiber interoffice transport to connect customers in distant central offices to its network. "While Uniti may be able to overbuild some of these routes, many are in locations and over geographic obstacles that would be extremely costly, if not impossible, for us to re‐create. Without access to these network elements, Uniti Fiber would lose access to some customers. Loss of these inputs would ... slow deployment of broadband, especially to remote and rural areas." Frontier said the supportive data it provided USTelecom was from states containing a large majority of its total UNE loop demand and representative of its overall territory, both rural and urban. "There is very limited demand for UNE Subloops and no demand for UNE [network interface devices]," it said. Frontier said there's "very little" CLEC ordering in rural areas, and mostly for business locations that could be served by at least one other facilities-based provider. Windstream outlined its CLEC business use of analog and digital DS0s (voice-grade, dial-up and Ethernet-over-copper data services), DS1 (1.5 Mbps) and DS3 (45 Mbps) UNEs, and "discussed the various factors," including price, availability and service characteristics sought by customers, "that play a role in determining which service to purchase (such as UNEs, special access or commercially available alternatives)." Windstream, also an ILEC, said the February 2021 UNE elimination it proposed with USTelecom was sufficient time for CLECs to shift to other services, "including next generation networking."

Rural broadband requires "significant upfront investment," with subsidies "essential for network providers to meet deployment challenges in high-cost areas," said an NTCA/USTelecom release on a study they commissioned by CostQuest Associates with Parsons Applied Economics. "Like other networks, broadband communications networks exhibit economies of linear density, which create an economic barrier to deployment across vast regions," the release said. It's "commercially unviable to deploy network infrastructure at affordable consumer rates in a rural environment without some form of subsidy,” said CostQuest CEO James Stegeman. “If building broadband in rural communities was easy, we would not have a digital divide,” said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield. “Broadband providers are among the leading investors in American infrastructure, with over $1.6 trillion invested since 1996,” said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. “Connecting the hardest-to-reach communities will also require a dedicated federal investment so every American, in urban and rural communities, can benefit.”

The FCC should try harder to thaw the separations freeze, two state members of the Joint Board on Separations and the state chair of the Joint Board on Universal Service said in interviews ahead of NARUC's summer meeting. They complained that the federal side of the Joint Board isn’t engaging to update separations factors set more than 30 years ago and first temporarily frozen in 2001. NARUC members plan to vote next week in Scottsdale, Arizona, on asking the FCC to extend the freeze’s 2018 expiration by two years, and other draft resolutions related to the Lifeline national verifier, IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) and a precision agriculture bill pending in Congress (see 1807030052).

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is likely to raise the bar for FCC regulations if confirmed, attorneys said after President Donald Trump nominated the appellate judge Monday evening to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy (see 1807090060). Not only would Kavanaugh be expected to seek to rein in Chevron deference to agency expertise, but he also is seen as a strong advocate of industry First Amendment free-speech rights, based on his lengthy record at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1807040001). He believes broadband is a Communications Act Title I information service, not a Title II telecom service subject to common-carrier regulation. Some on Capitol Hill and among communications groups oppose the nominee.

Supreme Court prospect Thomas Hardiman has ruled for and against FCC rules governing small business bidding credits in wireless spectrum auctions, but never reversed auction results. The judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 2007 reportedly remained in contention to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the high court, along with the D.C. Circuit's Brett Kavanaugh, the 6th Circuit's Raymond Kethledge and the 7th Circuit's Amy Coney Barrett. Kavanaugh has by far the most extensive record on telecom and media law. Kavanaugh -- in dissenting from 2017's USTelecom ruling (here) upholding the FCC's 2015 net neutrality order -- and Kethledge (here) have voiced skepticism about broadly deferring to regulatory agencies on ambiguous statutes under the Chevron doctrine (see 1807040001). President Donald Trump planned to have announced his nominee Monday night.

Supreme Court prospect Brett Kavanaugh has made a mark in communications law in 12 years as a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit judge. In a dissent from a ruling affirming the FCC's 2015 net neutrality order, he argued the regulation lacked clear congressional authorization and violated the First Amendment. The agency shouldn't get Chevron deference on "major" rules and broadband ISP speech rights can't be restricted absent a market power showing, he wrote. He has also found programming rules violate cable operator speech rights, upheld partial telco forbearance relief decisions and ruled on many other FCC orders, giving him far more telecom and media legal experience than any other contender to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy (see 1806280018).

Incompas and fiber providers pressed FCC commissioners to reject a USTelecom petition to forbear from requiring large ILECs to provide competitors unbundled wholesale access discounts. The providers "leverage unbundled network elements (UNEs) in key places while they are entering a market and building out their fiber networks," said a filing on a meeting with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly attended by executives of IdeaTek, Sonic Telecommunications, Socket Telecom, Mammoth Networks, First Communications and Access One, posted Tuesday in docket 18-141: If some "experience significant price increases, similar to those they faced" after business data service deregulation, "it could eliminate their ability to provide critical services." Some met Commissioner Brendan Carr (here), an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (here) and Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1807020046). USTelecom and Windstream proposed to delay UNE elimination until February 2021 (see 1806260028).