USTelecom Senior Executive Vice President Alan Roth praised the House Homeland Security Committee Tuesday for marking up the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (HR-1731) and advancing the cybersecurity information sharing bill toward full House consideration. The bill is one of three information sharing bills that House and Senate leaders plan to marry into a single bill in the near future (see 1504140044). “The purpose of this and related bills should be to protect American networks, critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and consumers from incoming threats and cyber-attacks -- not to encourage the second-guessing of decisions that must often be made in a split second by network engineers,” Roth said in a statement. “A public law that renders our networks less safe, or that results in little or no private sector participation for fear of attracting litigation, will ultimately be judged a failure. We hope all interested parties will bear that in mind as the amendment process unfolds on the House and Senate floors.”

CTIA, NCTA and the American Cable Association filed legal challenges Tuesday to the FCC’s net neutrality rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The appeals weren't a surprise -- industry officials had predicted the trade associations would largely carry the load this time around (see 1503300055). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is the former president of both NCTA and CTIA. Wheeler defended the order Tuesday in a speech to the Broadband Communities Summit in Austin (see 1504140045).

USTelecom filed another appeal of the FCC’s net neutrality order, as expected, Monday, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to declare it “unlawful.” The commission’s “overreach is not only legally unsustainable” but “unwise given the enormous success of the commission’s [Communications Act] Title I approach for consumers, businesses and Internet entrepreneurs,” USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a statement. USTelecom and Alamo Broadband (see 1503230066) filed appeals March 23 in the D.C. and 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals respectively under a theory that a 10-day deadline for appeals to be eligible for a lottery to determine which circuit will hear the cases ended that day.

The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance is working with industry to develop a consensus approach for a voluntary transition to model-based support for rate-of-return companies, ITTA President Genny Morelli and officials of TDS Telecom and Hargray Communications told aides to Commissioners Jesssica Rosenworcel and Mike O’Rielly April 7, and aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai and Chairman Tom Wheeler April 9, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 10-90 Friday. The industry representatives discussed an appropriate multiyear transition from legacy support to support based on a cost model, the time frame for the voluntary plan to be made available for carriers to opt in to, the possible utilization of jump-start funding to incent early adoption of the plan, and the need for a simple and straightforward process for determining areas eligible for support, the filing said. Representing TDS was Bob DeBroux, director-federal affairs and public policy, and for Hargray, Trey Judy, director-regulatory and carrier relations. Separately, USTelecom representatives told Wireline Bureau officials April 6 that Connect America Fund Phase II more than doubled the speed requirement from Connect America Fund Phase I, which more than doubles the costs of deployment, said an ex parte filing posted in the docket Thursday. Representing the group were AJ Burton, Frontier Communications director-federal regulatory affairs; Mary Henze, AT&T assistant vice president-federal regulatory; Jeff Lanning, CenturyLink vice president-federal regulatory; and Malena Barzilai, Windstream senior government affairs counsel.

The FCC net neutrality order is to be published in the Federal Register Monday. That means the FCC will know soon which major players will challenge the order in court, industry officials said Friday. CTIA, USTelecom and possibly NCTA are expected to lead the charge against the order, which reclassifies broadband as a Title II service under the Communications Act (see 1503300055).

The FCC sent the net neutrality order to the Federal Register for publication on Wednesday, an agency official said. Publication is likely to set off more appeals to the order (see 1503300055). When it will be published was unknown Thursday. The typical timeline is three business days, the Federal Register said on its site, and it wasn't listed to be published on Friday. Alamo Broadband and USTelecom appealed the order March 24 (see 1503230066). The agency has said they were premature before publication in the Federal Register and plans to file a motion to dismiss the two appeals on that ground (see 1503270036).

FCC’s letter of credit requirement for recipients of rural broadband experiment funding would be “onerous” if applied to Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II recipients, USTelecom said in comments posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. Rural broadband experiment recipients are required to obtain a letter of credit (LOC) equal to the amount they’ve previously received through the 10-year program, plus the amount scheduled to be dispersed to them over the following year. The LOC must also remain open for 120 days after the program's completion, USTelecom said. For CAF Phase II, the requirement should be “tailored to the amount of money ‘at risk’ annually or at most within a one to two year range,” the filing said. An LOC could be required for the first two years, with no more than one to two years of disbursements protected by an LOC, the group said. USTelecom also agreed with CoBank’s proposal (see 1503230031) to reduce the credit amount only to cover funds to be disbursed over the following year, the filing said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is widely seen to count broadcasters as allies as he likely continues a rise through Senate ranks to lead Democrats after Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., retires after his current term expires. Schumer, currently the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat, already has Reid’s backing for the top spot and, assuming no other contenders emerge, would take over in early 2017. Reid announced his retirement Friday, inspiring widespread scrambling and early consensus that Schumer is the likeliest candidate to take over the position that may have serious bearing in a variety of telecom issues, including any rewrite of the Communications Act or the next satellite TV reauthorization process.

Industry groups are upset over an FCC policy statement creating what they call “draconian” treble damages for amounts owed to USF and other funds. CTIA, Comptel, NCTA and USTelecom filed petitions for reconsideration and a stay, saying the statement violates notice requirements and the “inflexible” triple damages violates the Communications Act. ITTA filed comments supporting the joint petitions.

USTelecom last week became the first of the major trade associations to challenge the FCC’s net neutrality rules (see 1503230066), but challenges by CTIA and NCTA also are expected, industry officials said. USTelecom is expected to file an additional appeal after the order is published in the Federal Register, which is when the other major trade groups also are expected to file. Net neutrality opponents say there are good reasons the 2015 order, which reclassifies broadband as a common carrier service, will be more broadly challenged than the 2010 order.