A USTelecom initiative aims to improve broadband data and mapping, starting with a pilot in Virginia and Missouri. It will use "modern-data analytics" to develop a "comprehensive database of all broadband serviceable locations in our two pilot states -- and a road map for a collaborative government-led effort to expand the system nationwide," said CEO Jonathan Spalter at an event Thursday. He said ITTA, the Wireless ISP Association, USTelecom members and others will participate. The coalition hopes the mapping effort will be "useful in the FCC’s quest to modernize its broadband data collection process, and supportive of other related federal and state initiatives," he said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the April 12 commissioners’ meeting will focus on 5G for a second straight month. It includes the public notice for the auction of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands and a plan for sharing the 37 GHz band between industry and DOD. 5G is “the next big thing in wireless,” Pai blogged. He plans votes on nixing a rural telco USF rate floor and granting part of a USTelecom forbearance petition seeking ILEC relief from certain structural-separation and reporting duties. And there's a media modernization item, among others in the pipeline (see 1903210072).

Many asked the FCC to delay broadband performance testing by Connect America Fund recipients, scheduled to begin July 1. AT&T, ITTA and the Wireless ISP Association discussed with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai a petition for reconsideration of CAF performance metrics filed by USTelecom, WISPA and ITTA. Despite "productive meetings," the associations remain "concerned by the mismatch between the Order’s treatment of latency vs. speed testing as well as the harsh compliance framework adopted for even minor misses of latency and speed targets," filed AT&T, ITTA and WISPA in docket 10-90 Monday, noting USTelecom agrees. "Given the work still to be done to finalize the performance metric rules, we strongly urged the Commission to delay" testing. The order "adopts a reasonable one-test-per-hour and 80/80 compliance standard for speed testing, but by contrast requires one-test-per-minute for latency and maintains the prematurely adopted 95% compliance standard," they added: Latency doesn't fluctuate "to the degree that requires such granular testing."

CLECs urged the FCC to deny ILECs relief from an "avoided-cost resale requirement," at least for TDM-based phone service over copper loops, as USTelecom requested in a forbearance petition targeting Telecom Act wholesale network-sharing duties. USTelecom hasn't met its burden to demonstrate that the public and competition "will be advantaged by forbearance from that requirement," and a Dec. 28 AT&T letter "provides no basis for the Commission to conclude otherwise," filed Granite Telecommunications, Manhattan Telecommunications and AccessOne, posted Thursday in docket 18-141. They derided "baseless" AT&T arguments attempting "to explain away the inadequacy" of petition information and data by asserting the FCC need not analyze relevant TDM service geographic and product markets, where ILECs have "substantial and persisting market power." WorldNet discussed its opposition to the petition as applied to Puerto Rico, it filed, posted Friday, on meetings CEO David Bogaty and others had with Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Mike O'Rielly, their aides, aides to other commissioners and Wireline Bureau staffers. Incompas said a Feb. 21 AT&T letter and a Feb. 27 USTelecom letter "further demonstrate that USTelecom’s original Petition fails to meet the basic procedural requirement that forbearance petitions must be complete as-filed." The FCC should grant a petition dismissal motion of Incompas and others, filed the CLEC group, posted Thursday. USTelecom and members "discussed publicly available data and data in the record" supporting its "request for a finding that Section 251(c) unbundling and resale mandates are no longer necessary," filed the ILEC group on meeting an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. The data "demonstrate significant competition for voice and broadband service for consumers and businesses."

The FCC voted 5-0 to approve a rural call completion order with few changes, as expected (see 1903140051). Democratic commissioners partially concurred, saying stronger actions are needed. The item sets "flexible" service-quality standards that require intermediate providers to take reasonable steps to ensure calls they handle are completed, a release said. "Intermediate providers will now have an obligation to take action and ensure that calls are completed," said Commissioner Brendan Carr at Friday's meeting. The order also eventually sunsets "covered" originating provider recordkeeping duties.

Comedian John Oliver's critique of the FCC for not doing enough to cut illegal robocalls became the latest partisan commissioner dispute over Telephone Consumer Protection Act enforcement and regulation. After commissioners' Friday meeting, there was a war of words over whether the FCC is doing enough, quickly enough, whether wireless and other telecom service providers can do more, and whether the agency has more authority than it has used under Chairman Ajit Pai. Democrats want more agency and industry action, while Republicans said TCPA enforcement is front and center under Pai, and there may not be authority for the crackdown Oliver sought March 10 on Last Week Tonight.

The FCC appears poised to approve a rural call completion order with only modest changes to a draft, agency officials said. They said the vote at Friday's commissioners' meeting seems likely to be unanimous, though one said some concerns could be expressed. NTCA had urged the FCC to strengthen its proposed "flexible" intermediate provider service-quality standards and make its proposed sunset of "covered" originating provider record-keeping duties contingent on RCC rule effectiveness (see 1903050041). But CTIA and USTelecom backed the data recording and retention relief (see 1903080022 and 1903110070). Major changes aren't in the works, the commission officials said. A requirement for a bureau-level report on rural call completion is expected to be added to the item at the request of Democratic commissioners, and concerns about call-delivery overseas are expected to be addressed, "buried in the details," said one official. Attorney Robert Koppel of Lukas LaFuria said he's "optimistic" the FCC will address a problem he raised on behalf of long-distance providers handing off 100 percent of their voice traffic directly to foreign carriers terminating outside the country. He urged the FCC to clarify "it will not require the final 'intermediate provider' in the United States to ensure that any additional, non-U.S. intermediate providers, are registered" with the commission.

Vermont agreed not to enforce its net neutrality law or executive order, and ISPs agreed to pause their lawsuit against the state, while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit weighs the FCC’s 2017 order rescinding 2015 open-internet rules. “Parties wish to avoid a waste of judicial and party resources,” said a stipulation (in Pacer) Thursday at U.S. District Court in Burlington. An industry motion for summary judgment and Vermont motion to dismiss were pending (see 1902060057). Vermont restricted state procurement to ISPs that follow net neutrality rules. The agreement is “a win for consumers that will allow continued innovation and investment while these deliberations continue,” said the American Cable Association, CTIA, NCTA, New England Cable & Telecommunications Association and USTelecom, adding that Congress should pass a national law. Gov. Phil Scott (R) and the FCC didn't comment. California struck a similar deal with ISPs and DOJ in October (see 1810260045). Free State Foundation President Randolph May said that "from a legal perspective, it just doesn’t make sense for any state to move forward until the Mozilla case is resolved."

The FCC should end price caps on large telco business data service transport, incumbents said in replies posted through Tuesday on a Further NPRM proposal. A 2017 commission decision to end such ex-ante regulation, remanded by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for lack of notice, "was backed by strong evidence and a rational policy choice," replied USTelecom and ITTA in docket 17-144. "Nothing in the record of the current proceeding should alter the Commission’s prior conclusion." AT&T said no party disputes "key facts" showing BDS transport competition was "essentially ubiquitous" in price-cap regions as of 2013 -- even with cable deployment understated -- and it cited "substantial" competitor investments since then. "Reversing course at this juncture would upset industry expectations, disrupt carriers and their customers, and strain the overall [BDS] regulatory framework," said Verizon. In initial opposition (see 1902110027), Incompas and Sprint "just recite arguments" the FCC rejected in 2017, said CenturyLink: "These parties appear to have forgotten that the Eighth Circuit denied all the CLECs’ substantive challenges to the BDS Order and remanded that order solely to cure a single procedural error. ... Given that court decision, the Commission’s key findings in the BDS Order are on even firmer ground today." The 8th Circuit's substantive affirmation of the 2017 order "is in many ways the end of the inquiry," said Frontier Communications. As USTelecom and ITTA said previously, the "FNPRM leaves RLECs wishing to elect price cap regulation for their transport elements in limbo," said NTCA. It backed an "ITTA/USTelecom recommendation that the same policy considerations that the Commission found justified moving price cap carriers’ TDM transport services to incentive regulation equally apply to RLECs’ TDM transport services."

USTelecom urged the FCC to eliminate data recording and retention rules, as contemplated in a draft rural call completion order set for a vote Friday, despite NTCA resistance (see 1903050041). It said the obligations don't provide the commission "any meaningful utility" and are a burden on "covered" originating providers. "While NTCA speculatively argues that the mandate for retaining the data required under the current rules somehow leads to improved call completion, it provides no evidence of a correlation," said a USTelecom filing posted Monday on meeting an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, accompanied by similar filings on meeting aides to other commissioners, in docket 13-39. "Nor could it. There is no evidence in the record demonstrating correlation between simply recording and retaining certain data and improved call completion to rural areas." NTCA repeated its arguments in a filing Friday on meetings with aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr. A counsel representing U.S. long-distance providers that hand off 100 percent of their voice traffic directly to foreign carriers for terminating outside the country urged the FCC to add language to the draft. Clarify it "will not require the final 'intermediate provider' in the United States to ensure that any additional, non-U.S. intermediate providers, are registered" with the commission, recommended Robert Koppel of Lukas LaFuria on discussions with aides to all five commissioners. He said compliance would be "almost impossible" and the agency lacks jurisdiction.