INDIANAPOLIS -- A now-combined state telecom commissioners' resolution asking the FCC to halt changes to the billion-dollar-a-year phone and broadband program for the poor passed its NARUC committee unanimously, in minutes. Such quick passage, while not atypical, shows lack of controversy among industry and state regulators for waiting on Lifeline revamps, attendees told us. There was no public discussion immediately before the vote and no one abstained, another sign stakeholders are on the same page, they noted.

The FCC should equitably address discrepancies between the number of rural locations a broadband provider is funded to serve after alternative Connect America cost model (A-CAM) auctions and the number of actual locations the provider encounters during a network build-out phase, industry said in comments to FCC posted through Monday in docket 10-90, rather than impose penalties to providers when pre-bidding estimates turn out to be wrong (see 1907110003). The agency's Wireline Bureau "should study the impact of actual location discrepancies before deciding what measures are appropriate for A-CAM support recipients that experience location shortfalls," ITTA said.

Competitive LECs want more time to move away from regulated resale of voice-grade copper TDM phone services bought from incumbents if commissioners vote soon to proceed with a forbearance order as expected (see 1907020058). The draft addresses remaining aspects of a larger petition for regulatory relief USTelecom filed in May 2018 (see 1805040016). The draft proposes a three-year transition for CLECs or their customers to find new voice service arrangements or for CLECs to negotiate new contracts. CLEC allies are optimistic the agency will extend the time as they seek.

Karan Kapoor, ex-Clear Capital Advisers, rejoins Pagemill Partners, technology advisory practice of Duff & Phelps, as managing director ... Enterprise Wireless Alliance names Jennifer Garry, ex-Arlington (Virginia) Chamber of Commerce, as membership director ... AshLee Strong, ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., establishes Granite Peak Communications.

USTelecom renewed the contract for President-CEO Jonathan Spalter for three more years, through 2022, it said Thursday. Spalter started in January 2017 (see 1610040059). His reportable compensation that year was $1.43 million, according to the association's most recently available IRS Form 990.

The FCC Wireline Bureau begins a two-week quiet period Friday at 11:59 p.m. EDT on a forbearance petition USTelecom filed in May 2018 seeking relief from "outdated" mandates that "distort competition and investment decisions," said a public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest on docket 18-141 (see 1907020058). The deadline starts two weeks before the Aug. 2 statutory deadline for action on the remaining forbearance questions. After the deadline, all presentations to decisionmakers on the petition are prohibited.

House Commerce Committee leaders are eyeing a potential House vote as soon as next week on the compromise Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375) after successfully advancing the measure out of the committee Wednesday. House Commerce voted 48-0 for the bill. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., meanwhile, told us he's now more optimistic about the chances Capitol Hill negotiators will be able to reach a conference agreement to marry HR-3375 and his Senate-passed Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (S-151).

The FCC should deny a request by the Maine Public Utilities Commission to implement number pooling in the 207 area code for the same reasons industry commenters say it should deny the New Hampshire PUC's request to implement individual number pooling in 603 (see 1905310029), USTelecom said, posted Tuesday in docket 99-200. "The same public policy considerations weighing against the NHPUC's petition, which have national implications, apply with equal force to Maine's request."

Relying on census block reporting for broadband availability is problematic, with 2011 census data for Missouri residential structures disagreeing with other census block data used for Connect America Fund modeling 64 percent of the time, USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter blogged. He said USTelecom's pilot broadband mapping effort in the state found more than 4,000 census blocks with 100 percent more structures than the 2011 census data, and more than 13,000 census blocks where the structure count was between 81 and 100 percent less than 2011 census data. The FCC's Aug. 1 vote on new broadband mapping data-collection methods (see 1907110071), along with the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act (S-1822), are progress toward more accurate broadband mapping, he said in a post the association emailed Friday. He said USTelecom still expects to deliver findings on its mapping pilot project to the FCC by month's end, as expected (see 1906200048). In a docket 11-10 posting Friday, Free Press urged "caution" on reforms to the Form 477 reporting process that could result in less understanding of the U.S. broadband market. It worried about the USTelecom pilot being used to eliminate or lessen public access to the underlying data sets. It said Form 477's heavily criticized deployment data shouldn't be confused with its capacity and adoption data. It said 477 deployment data is generally "highly accurate and very useful," though there needs to be better geographic granularity in rural areas and a less-vague definition of deployment. It said FCC mobile broadband deployment maps contain "an unacceptable level of overstated availability," which its fixed broadband deployment maps don't, due largely to the differences in determining where a mobile signal is available vs. where a wireline is located. The group said telecom companies might claim address-level deployment data is competitively sensitive, while finished maps aren't: Remember that companies have "a history of ... non-disclosure requests." The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said Friday the FCC should update Form 477 methodology specifically to ensure better measurement of broadband availability in underrepresented and marginalized communities where connectivity historically lagged. It said the form should include data on pricing, quality of service and actual speeds, race and other key demographics and usage and subscription rates.

The FCC will give relief to incumbent LECs, granting them forbearance from pricing regulation on lower-speed legacy transport and requirements to sell the transport as unbundled network elements (UNE) to competitive carriers that then use them in their business data services, voting unanimously at its meeting Wednesday on a petition from USTelecom (see 1905130050). The agency issued a draft order in late June in docket 18-141 (see 1906190044). The new order allows CLECs to continue to buy the UNE transport from ILECs for the next six months, and gives them three years (concurrently) to transition away from the transport networks or negotiate new business agreements with the ILECs.