Telco groups pressed the FCC to shore up funding for high-cost USF support. NTCA highlighted the need to "remedy shortfalls" in support it sees as "undermining the effectiveness" of the program. The FCC should "pursue readily available paths toward helping to mitigate the insufficiency of USF support," including "the immediate use of existing program reserves" pending a further review and long-term measures, said an NTCA filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. The group said its May 2016 petition for reconsideration provided a vehicle for near-term relief. USTelecom backed "both long-term and short-term solutions" to ensure support is adequate. Insufficient funding affected "broadband providers' ability to build out fiber to rural areas," said its filing on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Seven Tennessee rural telcos receiving USF support through an Alternative Connect America Model urged the FCC to act by year-end to "authorize additional A-CAM funding up to $200/month per eligible customer location to enable more rural consumers in Tennessee to have the broadband connectivity necessary for jobs, education, healthcare, and economic development," said a filing. Some parties lobbied on the planned Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of support for fixed services, including a rural coalition of electric cooperatives, NTCA, the Utilities Technology Council and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. They urged the FCC to reject advocacy that "would reduce accountability and potentially undermine an efficient and fair auction process by delaying (or preventing entirely) the Commission’s review of information essential to confirming the technical and financial qualifications" of bidders. They disputed opposition to the coalition's proposal that wireless parties be required to provide spectrum propagation maps of their planned coverage areas in short-form applications. The American Cable Association urged the FCC to use census blocks, not census block groups as proposed, as the minimum geographic bidding unit. "[A]lthough many census blocks may be economically viable, the census block groups -- in which these blocks are found -- often are not," said an ACA filing on a meeting with agency auctions task force staff. "This is because these groups include extremely high-cost census blocks, whose reserve price is capped at an amount often far below what a bidder would need to meet its deployment obligations."

USTelecom cited a survey in seeking new FCC "reforms" to pole-attachment regulations. A survey of incumbent telco members shows the FCC "should move forward with its proposal to create a presumption that ILECs are entitled to competitively neutral rates when attaching to investor-owned utility (IOU) poles, which in turn will remove significant barriers to broadband infrastructure deployment," said the group's filing in docket 17-84 Tuesday. "ILECs remain at a significant rate disadvantage, despite the commission's 2011 reforms," said an attached report on the 2017 survey, following up on a 2008 survey. It said the new survey shows: "1) the rate goals for ILECs set in the Commission’s 2011 Pole Attachment Order remain unrealized; 2) due to the continuing disparity between IOUs and ILECs in pole ownership, ILECs remain in a lopsided bargaining position; and 3) significant disparities remain in pole attachment rates paid by ILECs to IOUs and those paid by CLEC and cable broadband competitors to ILECs." Separately, Verizon pushed its "one-touch, make ready" (OTMR) pole-attachment proposal "to allow attachers, as well as pole owners, the option to use pole-owner-approved contractors to coordinate and do all work to add a new attachment or perform other make-ready work." On a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr, the telco said, "Instead of multiple parties performing sequential make-ready work on the pole, a new attacher could use a single pole-owner-approved contractor to complete all of the work at one time. OTMR thus replaces multiple truck rolls with one, thereby speeding the attachment timeline and reducing aggregate make-ready costs."

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday at just past 11 a.m. EST he's circulating a draft "restoring internet freedom" order to be voted on at the Dec. 14 commissioners' meeting, abandoning the agency's "failed" 2015 "heavy-handed, utility-style" approach. The draft will be released Wednesday, he said. Already, stakeholders including Free Press and USTelecom began reacting.

Major telco and cable entities sought FCC rules to curb access stimulation, and AT&T withdrew a forbearance petition in docket 16-363. "Despite prior Commission efforts, a handful of carriers continue to take advantage of the intercarrier compensation system through the use of services, like free conference calling, that generate high volumes of inbound calling to ordinary telephone numbers associated with remote locations," said a filing posted Friday in docket 01-92 by AT&T, Frontier Communications, NCTA, NTCA, Verizon, Windstream, WTA and USTelecom. "Those practices result in substantial charges for transport of the stimulated traffic to reach those locations, which are ultimately paid for by interexchange customers." The commission should "adopt rules to require carriers that are engaged in access stimulation to bear financial responsibility for all terminating switched transport costs (including both flat-rated and usage-sensitive charges) between their end office (or remote or functional equivalent) and the tandem switch to which the terminating carrier requires inbound calls to be routed," they said. "Carriers engaged in access stimulation would not render bills to interexchange carriers for terminating tandem switched transport with respect to stimulated traffic, and would be required to pay the terminating tandem switched transport charges in lieu of interexchange carriers for these calls to other access providers of such transport. Such rules would resolve a significant component of AT&T’s forbearance petition." An AT&T statement Friday, noting it had asked to withdraw its petition for forbearance from certain switched access rules, said: "The Commission has recently sought comment to refresh the record on more comprehensive reform. Moreover, AT&T joined a number of other parties in proposing a consensus solution to a substantial portion of the arbitrage activities that AT&T’s petition targets. AT&T urges the Commission both to adopt this consensus solution promptly and to complete the comprehensive reform of intercarrier compensation that it launched in 2011.”

The FCC took actions intended to spur wireline and wireless broadband deployment, some more controversial than others, at Thursday's monthly meeting. Commissioners voted 3-2 to adopt a combined order, declaratory ruling and Further NPRM that Republicans said were aimed at removing barriers to wireline infrastructure investments and Democrats said would remove important consumer and competition safeguards as industry transitions from copper-based networks to fiber-based IP systems. They voted 5-0 as expected (see 1711150015) to approve a wireless order commissioners said would make it easier to replace utility poles without compromising National Historic Preservation Act mandates.

With FCC having hired Matthew Duchesne as chief, Office of Native Affairs and Policy (see 1711130036), acting Chief Lyle Ishida remains for some time in ONAP to assist with transition and then remains in Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau "in another position yet to be announced," spokesman says ... Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission adds Norman Kennard as a commissioner after Senate OK'd 49-0; he succeeds Robert Powelson, resigned upon confirmation to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 1708040038); Kennard’s term expires March 31, 2019.

Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and 14 other senators raised concerns Tuesday in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on a draft order on changes to rules on wireline transitions, copper retirements and telecom service discontinuances. Other stakeholders also criticized the draft before a vote on the proposal at Thursday's commissioners meeting (see 1711130041). The proposed changes “cause serious concern for rural Americans ... who rely on landline phone service,” the senators wrote. “Households and businesses ... cannot afford the disruption of having service altered without adequate advance notice, the assurance that an equivalent replacement exists, and a clear understanding of how to obtain and use the replacement.” The proposal would also affect alarm systems and medical monitoring devices, the senators said. USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said “Retiring old copper phone networks will allow broadband providers to lay more fiber to meet the 21st century connectivity needs of families and communities across the U.S., so they no longer have to rely on antiquated technologies like fax machines. Every dollar spent patching up a copper network is a dollar that can’t be spent on delivering more reliable, faster technologies to more Americans -- especially those living in rural parts of our country.” The FCC didn't comment.

USTelecom said an FCC wireline infrastructure draft item would help telcos modernize broadband networks and further close the digital divide. "By removing unnecessary regulatory burdens to retiring outmoded copper networks, and streamlining other processes, the item will incent investment in upgraded broadband facilities and make possible further extensions of modern broadband networks to communities that currently lack access," said a filing posted in docket 17-84 Tuesday on a meeting Nov. 8 with Commissioner Michael O'Rielly. It had similar discussions with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The draft item is on the agenda for Thursday's meeting, with some not expecting major changes (see 1711130041). Verizon voiced support for giving pole attachers the options of using "one-touch, make-ready" processes to help speed fiber and small-cell wireless deployment, said a filing on Nov. 8 meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai, O'Rielly, Clyburn and Rosenworcel, and other agency staffers. Crown Castle discussed its proposals for streamlining wireline broadband deployment, in a Nov. 8 meeting with Wireline Bureau officials.

Lack of financial wherewithal continues to be a barrier to broadband access and adoption, speakers said at an FCBA digital divide event Monday night. "Unfortunately, the quality of your broadband ... depends too often on your economic status," said Diane Holland, USTelecom vice president-law and policy, citing affordability and "relevance" as key limiting factors. Lack of money is an impediment for many, said Aaron Smith, Pew Research Center associate director-internet research. He said almost half of survey respondents who lack broadband cited cost as a main factor. "The bottom line is money," said Nicol Turner-Lee, Brookings Institution fellow, saying people in poorer areas generally have less broadband access and choice. She said many low-income minority families rely heavily on smartphones for their broadband service, but students need better access and shouldn't have to rely on Wi-Fi at libraries and other public places. Microsoft's "Airband" initiative using unlicensed TV white spaces aims to help connect 2 million of about 23 million rural residents without adequate broadband (see 1707110015), noted Paul Garnett, director-affordable access initiatives. The FCC is intent on understanding and sharing perspectives of people on the wrong side of the digital divide in its regulatory efforts to close broadband gaps in both rural and urban areas, said Nathan Leamer, policy adviser to Chairman Ajit Pai.

The FCC delayed an intercarrier compensation reply deadline the day that USTelecom made an extension request. Replies that were due Monday, Nov. 13, are now due Monday, Nov. 20, said a Wireline Bureau order Thursday in docket 01-92 partially granting the motion that sought until Nov. 30. Major telcos and a VoIP group recently asked the FCC to phase out intercarrier compensation for originating calls and terminating certain other calls by transitioning to bill-and-keep arrangements under which carriers don't charge each other for exchanging traffic, in initial comments on a public notice to refresh the record (see 1710310017). AT&T and Verizon held discussions with bureau officials (see here and here) to press for actions to reduce market "arbitrage" schemes in originating access fees for toll-free 8YY calling, and to carry out a broader overhaul. Verizon also cited tandem-switched transport "arbitrage."