An April 23 FCC-approved item making much-anticipated changes to the Connect America Fund (CAF) remains stuck inside the commission and has yet to be released. FCC officials tell us that commissioners approved the order six weeks ago, but they're still fighting over edits. The order was approved over a partial dissent by Commissioner Ajit Pai and partial concurrence by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. The order does away with the much-criticized quantile regression analysis formula and makes other tweaks to the 2011 CAF order, which was aimed at part on refocusing USF on broadband deployment (CD April 24 p2).

CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom jointly asked the FCC to “proceed expeditiously” in selecting a new Local Number Portability Administrator, but to keep cost savings in mind. Providers have been raising concerns about the “escalating costs” of the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) databases since 2005, the associations said. The cost will increase by 6.5 percent in 2014 under the current contract’s terms. “Our members -- and ultimately all voice customers -- are the ones paying this sizeable bill,” the groups said. The current contract expires June 30 “and our members are hoping to achieve material cost savings at that time, regardless of which vendor is selected,” they said. The letter was filed in docket 95-116.

Senators pressed telecom regulators, officials and consumer advocates Thursday on possible IP transition dangers and the need for reliable networks that don’t leave vulnerable communities behind. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., also requested a GAO study of the resilience and reliability of IP networks.

Basic voice service is “still vital to public safety” and “day-to-day personal and business communications of millions of people,” Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin plans to tell the Senate Communications Subcommittee Thursday. That’s according to written testimony (http://bit.ly/1l6qxGW) for the 9:15 a.m. hearing on the IP transition and public safety in 253 Russell. “Unfortunately, we are already seeing complaints arise across the country that indicate the network compact may start fraying at the edges if policymakers don’t step in to protect consumers,” Griffin will say, pointing to companies “forcing customers off of traditional copper-based phone service” and problems that may just be the tip of the iceberg. “We have also already seen complaints from rural residents experiencing degraded service due to rural call completion problems.” The FCC should retain authority to oversee such problems and make sure customers have reliable service, Griffin will argue. She focuses on how the IP transition could affect certain groups such as the elderly and a need for the FCC to clarify its Communications Act Section 214(a) standard, which involves when a company can discontinue, reduce or impair service to a given community and is not, according to Griffin, suited for an IP era. Other witnesses represent APCO, the FCC, NARUC and USTelecom.

The Senate Communications Subcommittee scheduled its Thursday hearing on the IP transition and public safety for more than one hour earlier than initially announced, it said in a news release this week. The hearing (http://1.usa.gov/1pPo58t) at 9:15 a.m. in 253 Russell is on “Preserving Public Safety and Network Reliability in the IP Transition.” Witnesses are APCO International President Gigi Smith, FCC Chief Technology Officer Henning Schulzrinne, NARUC President Colette Honorable, Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin and USTelecom Senior Vice President-Law and Policy Jonathan Banks.

Maine’s Democratic U.S. Senate challenger, Shenna Bellows, wants the FCC to reclassify broadband as a Title II telecom service to allow stronger net neutrality rules, one of many telecom and media issues that have crept into a 2014 midterm election cycle. Bellows has many priorities in telecom, from the importance of rural broadband access to phone surveillance concerns to opposition to Comcast’s proposed $66 billion buy of Time Warner Cable.

AT&T’s proposed buy of DirecTV is unlikely to sway forces lobbying Capitol Hill on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization this year, stakeholder companies and lobbyists told us. But the deal worth about $67 billion including debt would ultimately raise AT&T’s stakes in the video market and may promise longer-term lobbying ferocity on issues such as retransmission consent, they said. STELA expires at the end of the year. DirecTV has pushed for aggressive changes incorporated into reauthorization, closely aligning with Dish.

One House bill would stop the FCC from reclassifying broadband as a Title II telecom service rather than as an information service, a key point of contention as the agency moves to reinstate net neutrality rules. House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, had announced intentions for such a bill during a recent FCC oversight hearing and formally introduced the six-page piece of legislation as expected (CD May 29 p6) Wednesday, which industry welcomed Thursday.

The Senate must pass the Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency (EXPIRE) Act, a group including CTIA, Fiber to the Home Council Americas, ITTA-the Voice of Mid-Size Telecommunications Carriers, NCTA, TechNet, the Telecommunications Industry Association and USTelecom told all U.S senators in a letter sent Tuesday. “The EXPIRE Act will extend the tax provisions that expired at the end of 2013,” which “benefit a wide range of taxpayers,” the letter said (http://bit.ly/R9RiP8). “The lack of timely action to extend these provisions injects instability and uncertainty into the economy and weakens confidence in the employment marketplace.” Don’t wait until the end of the year since companies are making choices now, the letter added. Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced the act and it cleared that committee April 28. It includes a provision on bonus depreciation that several industry stakeholders have sought from Congress in recent months.

Incumbent providers’ continued dominant positions in the market for interconnection services let them delay the IP transition “because competitive IP-based carriers lack the leverage necessary to demand IP interconnection,” Cablevision and Charter Communications told the FCC in a letter posted in docket 12-353 Friday (http://bit.ly/1mOVoIB). They were responding to a USTelecom letter arguing ILECs are no longer dominant providers in the relevant markets. Cablevision and Charter have experienced the problem firsthand as they've tried to negotiate for such agreements “absent legal guidance from the Commission on the applicability of Section 251(c) to IP-to-IP interconnection,” they said of the Communications Act. Despite competitive providers’ gains in some local markets, interconnection agreements typically cover entire states or regions, and no competitive providers have market penetration comparable to ILECs over such large areas, the cable companies said. The FCC should ensure that ILECs carry out their statutory duties under Section 251(c) and provide IP-to-IP interconnection on reasonable terms, they said.