CTIA and USTelecom called on the FCC to act on their request for clarification and reconsider, or alternatively waive, broadband reporting requirements for eligible telecommunications carriers under the Commission’s USF/intercarrier comp transformation order. “Specifically, the Commission should limit the obligation to file relevant broadband performance data and to prepare five-year service quality improvement plans and associated progress reports to those ETCs receiving Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II support; ETCs whose universal service support is being eliminated or that receive CAF Phase I support or Phase II Mobility Fund support should not be subject to such obligations,” the groups said in reply comments to the FCC (http://xrl.us/bnmsgs). “The Commission also should eliminate any requirement that an ETC certify that ‘frozen’ Interstate Access Support (IAS) was used, at least in part, for broadband deployment (or actually use IAS support for this purpose) -- a certification that cannot be reconciled with the Commission’s rules which require that IAS support be used for interstate access rate reductions.” CTIA and USTelecom noted that in the initial comment round, all agreed the reporting requirements are “ambiguous and confusing.” Also, “there is universal concurrence among commenters that extending broadband reporting requirements to ETCs whose universal service support is being eliminated would be ‘inappropriate,’ ‘unnecessary,’ and ‘unduly burdensome,'” they said.

The 2012 version of the FCC’s annual Section 706 report released Tuesday said once again that broadband “is not yet being deployed ’to all Americans’ in a reasonable and timely fashion.” Commissioners Robert McDowell and Ajit Pai issued blistering dissents. McDowell said the FCC majority has “co-opted” the 706 process, using it to justify a “'cynical cycle’ of regulation,” including the approval of net neutrality rules in December 2010.

Executives from USTelecom, CenturyLink, AT&T and Verizon met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell Wednesday to urge the commission to quickly issue a mandatory data request to assess the level of competition in the market for special access services, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnjbf9). “The Commission must avoid making substantive findings concerning competition for these services until after a comprehensive data request is issued and complied with by the competitive industry."

The U.S. formally opposed attempts to wrest control of the Internet away from its current governing organizations in favor of the United Nations’ ITU, the U.S. delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) said in documents filed Friday. The Dec. 3-4 meeting in Dubai will focus on revising the ITU’s treaty-level International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), last revised in 1988. The U.S. State Department released the documents to the public after the filing (http://xrl.us/bnjbef).

ISPs working with the FCC on its ongoing broadband speed measurement program are concerned about the introduction of formalized “Principles for Open Measurements,” presented at the agency’s July 25 meeting of stakeholders. ISP representatives we spoke to questioned the value of implementing such formal principles this far into the program, which has already produced two successful Measuring Broadband America reports (CD July 20 p1). ISPs also worried the new principles could turn the group from a flexible and collegial gathering of stakeholders to a more formal and rigid body.

Presentations from NARUC July 21-25 midyear Portland, Ore., meeting were posted online over the course of the last week (http://xrl.us/bnip2t). NARUC staff members have been adding the presentations throughout the conference and in the days since, and any not online by Monday will be soon, a spokesman told us. In Portland, a NARUC staffer estimated all presentations will likely be posted online by Tuesday. There are about a dozen presentations devoted to telecom, from a variety of sources, from the California Emerging Technology Fund to USTelecom to Connected Nation to NARUC’s National Regulatory Research Institute, and subjects include Lifeline reform, the barriers to broadband adoption and deregulation of telecom throughout the states. The NARUC website now also features the complete text (http://xrl.us/bnip29) of the new NARUC resolutions approved July 25, including three on telecom (CD July 26 p12).

All three of this summer’s NARUC telecom resolutions passed the association’s telecom committee unanimously Tuesday. The resolutions will preserve state authority to tax and charge VoIP providers for state USF funds, relay service and E-911; urge the FCC to continue pursuing rural call termination issues and enforcing penalties against violators; and question the agency’s use of what the resolution says is an “arbitrary and capricious” methodology of determining USF funds. The resolution on the FCC’s methodology proved the most controversial, and faced much debate and revision in both the telecom subcommittee and committee. USTelecom voiced multiple objections based on feared delays. Objectors feared delays would result from a resolution provision demanding the FCC refer to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service for many of its decisions (CD July 25 p8). “The FCC needs to get this [USF fund] model right,” said California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval. Resolution sponsor Commissioner Larry Landis of Indiana discussed USTelecom’s concerns at the Tuesday vote and said last-minute revisions had led the organization to be “satisfied” with the changes, which “may assuage the concerns of USTelecom if not all of their members.” The telecom committee clapped upon passing this third controversial resolution. Telecom Committee Chairman and Vermont Public Service Board Commissioner John Burke said voting was “smoother than usual” given the unanimity of all three votes.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Multiple challenges emerged for the FCC at a midyear NARUC meeting. Some regulators and officials questioned USF methodology, called for Federal State Joint Board on USF referral of FCC decisions and questioned the broader direction the commission has moved on telecom in recent years. The strains have manifested in broader misgivings that some panelists discussed about the November USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://xrl.us/bnhyb7) as well as a more focused critique and controversy surrounding a quantile regression analysis for the fund.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The question of wither state regulation was a subtext on all the telecom panels in the initial days of the NARUC midyear meeting. State commissioners observed a declining regulatory role for years and enshrined quite clearly in legislation from the past year, as they said a recent report from the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) made clear. The U.S. is in the midst of “deregulation fever,” concluded a June NRRI report on the various legislatures’ deregulation bills, which “will not subside” (CD June 19 p11). New services that draw on Internet Protocol create new challenges of definition, and regulation no longer covers them in the same way, said commissioners and staff who said they're trying to figure out their roles.

Wireless Internet service providers across the country filed oppositions to CenturyLink’s waiver of rules dictating how it can spend the $90 million in Connect America Fund money the FCC allocated it. Cable associations also opposed the waiver. USTelecom and the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance supported the request, arguing WISP service is closer in capability to satellite service than fixed broadband, and consumers deserve better. CenturyLink had asked for permission to use $32.5 million of the money in areas where it argued the national broadband map was inaccurate and overstated the amount of fixed wireless broadband available (CD July 13 p14). The WISP Association argued CenturyLink’s assertions about poor fixed wireless broadband coverage are “false, flawed and unverified” (http://xrl.us/bngrv4). NCTA said the commission already denied a similar request by the ITTA. This one is “essentially the same” but “even less compelling because CenturyLink makes no attempt whatsoever to determine which locations” in the WISPs’ service area are capable of receiving broadband, NCTA said (http://xrl.us/bngrv6). The American Cable Association said it would be unfair to grant the waiver request, because the issue of whether the national broadband map is accurate should be addressed in a rulemaking, not in a waiver process. “CenturyLink’s waiver petition is based on the premise of the Commission’s order, which is to encourage additional broadband deployment in areas where customers are not served by a reasonably viable alternative,” said Melissa Newman, CenturyLink vice president-federal regulatory affairs. “Our limited waiver -- which is supported by many commenters, including the Washington Public Service Commission, the Minnesota Department of Commerce and other state agencies -- would allow the deployment of real, wired broadband service to thousands of rural households where a reasonable broadband option is not available today. Bringing robust broadband coverage to thousands of new households is a win for consumers and for our national public broadband goals.”