Timeframes for implementation of the FCC Lifeline order are “unrealistic and could harm the very consumers the program is intended to benefit,” said a petition by USTelecom, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, NTCA, OPASTCO, Western Telecommunications Alliance and Eastern Rural Telecom Association (http://xrl.us/bmxmxs). They asked the commission to postpone until October the effective date for establishment of the interim flat-rate reimbursement amount of $9.25, for elimination of Link Up in non-tribal lands for eligible telecom carriers and for calculation of the Link Up discount for residents of tribal lands. “These tasks cannot realistically be completed within the relatively short time period (less than 60 days) contemplated under the Order,” the petition said. Petitioners sought clarification of several aspects of new certification requirements under Section 54.407(d) of the rules.

The White House offered a scathing criticism of an alternative cybersecurity bill introduced Thursday by a group of Republican senators. Meanwhile, AT&T and USTelecom hailed the Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and Technology (SECURE IT) Act, which competes directly with the Senate Cybersecurity Act (S-2105). The SECURE IT Act is sponsored by GOP Sens. John McCain or Arizona; Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas; Chuck Grassley of Iowa; Saxby Chambliss of Georgia; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; Dan Coats of Indiana; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; and Richard Burr of North Carolina.

USTelecom, CTIA and NCTA urged House and Senate leaders to spurn federal “top-down” cybersecurity regulations in lieu of industry best practices. Their appeal came in a letter sent Wednesday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. It would be “disastrous” for Congress to adopt any plan that “slows industry response time to hostile cyber activity,” said the letter signed by NCTA President Michael Powell, CTIA President Steve Largent and USTelecom President Walter McCormick. “Shifting to a regulatory approach will divert resources and attention from deterrence to compliance with particular rules that will quickly become outdated,” the letter said. “Wherever possible, the government should rely on industry best practices to establish appropriate cybersecurity measures rather than impose prescriptive rules,” it said. The industry groups outlined six priorities that Congress should consider as it works to secure private and public systems from cyberthreats. In addition to avoiding federal cybersecurity mandates, lawmakers should promote “effective sharing of cyberthreat information” between the government and the private sector, it said. “Legislation that removes the current legal barriers to information sharing and establishes the appropriate safeguards for the use of such information would greatly improve cybersecurity.” The government should also update the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), promote cybersecurity investment, increase public cybersecurity awareness and ensure that all industry stakeholders have a role in cybersecurity defense, the letter said. Momentum for cybersecurity legislation has been building following the introduction of S-2105, the Cybersecurity Act, and the Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and Technology (SECURE IT) Act (see separate report in this issue). Separately, a spokesman for USTelecom said it’s unlikely that lawmakers will vote on cybersecurity legislation until the next congressional work period.

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.