The FCC Wireline Bureau clarified certain rules adopted in its Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order, in an order released Monday. It said the ability to charge under the VoIP symmetry tariffing provision in Section 61.26(f) is limited by Section 51.913(b), which “does not permit a local exchange carrier to charge for functions not performed by the local exchange carrier itself or the affiliated or unaffiliated provider of interconnected VoIP service or non-interconnected VoIP service.” The clarification came in response to a letter from YMax, the company that sells the MagicJack VoIP product, asking if the rules permit a competitive LEC to tariff and charge the full benchmark rate level even if it includes functions that neither it nor its VoIP retail partner actually provide. The bureau also clarified a high-cost support provision, in response to Verizon Wireless uncertainty about whether the rules superseded a prior merger commitment. “Verizon Wireless will receive support in 2012 based on its merger commitments, as clarified by the Corr Wireless Order, not based on the general phase down of competitive ETC support described in the USF/ICC Transformation Order,” the bureau said. It dismissed in part a petition for reconsideration filed by USTelecom, which asked for clarification that reductions in legacy support resulting from a failure to meet the urban rate floor would extend only to high-cost loop support and high-cost model support. The order had already addressed the issue, the bureau said, ruling that “support reductions associated with the rate floor will offset frozen CAF Phase I support only to the extent that the recipient’s frozen CAF Phase I support replaced HCLS and HCMS."

Lawmakers said online privacy legislation is needed to support the voluntary consumer privacy proposal touted by the Obama administration Thursday. Their comments came shortly after the White House unveiled its proposal for baseline consumer privacy protections online. The Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights is a voluntary code of conduct that aims to protect privacy rights of online consumers while giving them more control over how their information is handled, the White House said.

Democrats and the telecom industry are pushing for “dig once” language to be added to the surface transportation legislation due for votes after Congress returns next week from recess. House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., has an amendment that would require states to evaluate including broadband conduit during the construction of federal highways. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have a Senate amendment requiring states to include the conduit. CTIA, USTelecom and the Telecom Industry Association support the broadband conduit proposals, their officials said.

Calling cyberattacks a “critical threat to our economic future and national security,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked Internet stakeholders Wednesday to address three significant cyberthreats: botnets, domain name fraud, and IP hijacking. Specifically, Genachowski called on ISPs to develop and adopt an industry-wide code of conduct to combat botnets; develop secure routing standards to eliminate maliciously misrouted traffic; and adopt a series of DNS security extensions, called DNSSEC, developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Genachowski said the vulnerabilities were identified after he tasked the FCC’s Communications, Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) with making recommendations in March 2011.

USTelecom filed a petition for forbearance from “a variety of monopoly-era voice regulations that have lost meaning in a marketplace where consumers can choose from a plethora of wireline, wireless, cable and IP voice offerings,” said USTelecom Vice President-Policy Glenn Reynolds Thursday. The petition (http://xrl.us/bmshus) addresses various FCC accounting rules that were designed for “a purpose that no longer exists,” and rules that “introduce delay when companies upgrade their services and networks,” Reynolds said. According to the petition, many of the rules it requests the FCC eliminate were already identified as unnecessary in the commission’s Biennial Review report released two months ago.

The FCC Wireline Bureau got two proposed cost models for its proposed methodology for distributing universal service support under the Connect America Fund, the bureau said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bmsgi2). The models were received in response to a public notice inviting parties to submit forward-looking cost models to estimate the costs of deployment of broadband-capable networks in high-cost areas. The model proposed by USTelecom (http://xrl.us/bmsgiw) uses underlying network topologies based on output from the CostQuest Loop costing model. USTelecom said its model “acknowledges and accommodates the substantial diversity across geography, business needs, and among consumers.” The other model, proposed by the Alaska Communications Systems Group (http://xrl.us/bmsgiy), “estimates the cost to provide broadband in Alaska that a national broadband cost model will not,” ACS said. The company said its model takes into account “unique” Alaskan features, such as a limited road system and lack of an Internet peering location, which would require middle-mile transport via undersea cable.

The FCC unanimously approved an order Wednesday extending outage reporting rules to interconnected VoIP service providers. As expected (CD Feb 15 p3), the order imposes rules similar to those that already apply to legacy systems, is limited to the complete outage of a company’s own interconnected VoIP services, and doesn’t contemplate broadband reporting. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the new rules would close a “glaring gap” that has prevented the commission from obtaining the information it needs to analyze major VoIP outages.

As the FCC prepares to vote on an order on VoIP outage reporting at Wednesday’s meeting, carriers continued to characterize the proposed rules as unrealistic, unnecessary and burdensome. That’s even though they've been greatly curtailed from what was originally proposed.

Telecom provider representatives defended the use of data caps, during a panel Monday at NARUC 2012, while others said they're unnecessary and can punish users. “Data caps miss the point,” said QSI Consulting President August Ankum. The main problem people look at is high-usage customers, he said, but many users using small amounts of data during busy times has the same effect as a few users using large amounts of data. He presented several different approaches to controlling data usage and said data caps don’t account for usage varying at different times of day or in different areas. Data caps are solutions to artificial problems, said Sascha Meinrath, Open Technology Initiative director at the New American Foundation. He compared data to a multi-lane highway in which all lanes but one are closed off. The providers, not the consumers, are to blame for limited spectrum, he said. But networks really are “maxing out,” said USTelecom Vice President-Industry and State Affairs Robert Mayer. Data caps are needed to ensure network quality, said T-Mobile Mid-Atlantic Regional Vice President Chris Hillabrant. Unlimited data plans would cause slower networks, and using data caps keeps networks running quickly. Daniel Brenner, a partner of Hogan Lovells, said data caps are not an issue because it’s so rare for anyone to use enough data to exceed them. Meinrath argued that scientists and researchers use that much data, and they should not have to be punished with fees for exceeding data caps.

NARUC’s telecom committee passed its resolution on VoIP outage reporting requirements at its winter meeting Monday. But the risk of VoIP service outages doesn’t justify the burden on VoIP providers to report outages to the FCC, industry officials said at a committee meeting Sunday. Meanwhile, the 1996 Telecom Act is “growing long in the tooth” and there would be heavy discussions about what comes next over the next year, said Michael Powell, head of the National Cable Telecom Association, during a general session Monday.