AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, ZipDX and Level 3 signed a USTelecom letter urging the FCC to use the top 1 percent of minutes per line monthly as an indicator of so-called traffic pumping. At 2009 rates, the benchmark number would be 406 minutes per line per month limit, wrote USTelecom Vice President Glenn Reynolds, ZipDX CEO David Frankel, Verizon Vice President Donna Epps, AT&T Director Brian Benison, Qwest Vice President Melissa Newman and Level 3 Assistant Chief Legal Officer John Ryan. That would be three times the median minutes a line as established by the National Exchange Carriers Association Band 8 LECs, they said.

USTelecom joined the Family Online Safety Institute. Jonathan Banks, USTelecom senior vice president, will join FOSI’s board.

Device and Internet accessibility legislation moved to the president’s desk after the House passed S-3304 and associated technical changes approved by the Senate last week. The House passed the legislation by voice vote Tuesday night. The bill includes provisions requiring manufacturers to make devices more accessible to the handicapped and mandating closed captioning in Internet video. “Whether it’s a Braille reader or a broadband connection, access to technology is not a political issue -- it’s a participation issue,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who authored the original House legislation (HR-3101). “Two decades ago, Americans with disabilities couldn’t get around if buildings weren’t wheelchair accessible; today it’s about being Web accessible.” USTelecom, CTIA, NCTA, CEA and the Telecommunications Industry Association applauded the measure’s passage. The political climate has made it difficult to pass any legislation, but the House and Senate worked hard to reach consensus on the disabilities bill, TIA President Grant Seiffert said in an interview. CEA likes the final bill much better than the original one, said President Gary Shapiro. “Unlike the introduced bill, the final version reflects a more balanced approach to ensuring that Americans with disabilities have access to new and emerging technologies, and that manufacturers have the flexibility to be innovative without being burdened by restrictive, government-mandated design standards.” USTelecom CEO Walter McCormick said the bill provides “a sound legal roadmap for ensuring greater accessibility to cutting-edge communications technologies for people with disabilities.” Andrew Imparato, president of the American Association of People with Disabilities, called the bill “a victory for civil rights in our increasingly digital world."

The FCC seems unlikely to soon change retransmission consent rules as it considers a request for rulemaking by many multichannel video programming distributors, unless a contractual dispute between a TV station and an MVPD leads to an outage for subscribers, an analyst and an FCC aide suggested Wednesday. No executives at a USTelecom event on retransmission predicted quick commission action on the petition by 14 cable, satellite, telco-TV and nonprofit entities. That could change if there’s another instance in which MVPD customers can’t watch broadcasts because of a contractual dispute, as with the removal for less than a day of Disney’s WABC-TV New York from Cablevision’s lineup this year (CD March 9 p2), some said.

The FCC should concentrate on public awareness of cybersecurity instead of adopting a massive security road map that would conflict with other federal agencies’ work and ultimately weaken protections, telecommunications players said in comments filed Wednesday and Thursday with the commission. The comments responded to an Aug. 9 notice about how the FCC should deal with cybersecurity in line with a National Broadband Plan recommendation.

Pay-TV providers should seek alternative ways to make money as consumer video watching habits shift towards online viewing, analysts told a USTelecom conference on broadband. This may require cable and satellite companies to increase their own VoD offerings and partner with content providers and even health care professionals in order to grow, analysts said.

The Internet’s “peculiar market” requires the FCC to act quickly to impose new net neutrality rules, concluded a report by New York University law school’s Institute for Policy Integrity. Business hasn’t invested properly in building the Web because the Internet is “a two-sided market” that charges, or can charge, both providers and users but still benefits from maximizing the number of users, but can’t guarantee that content producers will be paid, found the institute’s Inimai Chettiar, Scott Holladay and Jennifer Rosenberg. “While these underlying market failures … cause underinvestment in the Internet, these failures can be addressed in part through net neutrality rules,” said the study released Wednesday. The report is “silly,” USTelecom President Walter McCormick said. “The facts are that consumers are experiencing no problems in the marketplace, and by the FCC’s own conclusions, an overwhelming 91 percent are satisfied with their Internet service."

The telephone and cable industries “endorse” Universal Service Fund legislation by Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., USTelecom and NCTA executives said in written testimony for a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday morning. HR-5828 “balances many competing interests to modernize universal service and to bring robust broadband to areas of rural America where today’s business case would not support such deployment,” said USTelecom President Walter McCormick.

Telecom markets are competitive and the FCC must resist calls to increase the amount and kinds of data it collects from carriers, telcos and their associations told the commission. But Google and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) said the FCC needs to get better data. The Wireline, Wireless and Media bureaus had sought comment on data collection. “A few commenters suggest that the Commission should take on extensive new data clearinghouse functions,” Verizon and Verizon Wireless said jointly. One company proposed that the agency remake itself into a single-source clearinghouse for pricing data, the carriers said. “The Commission’s role is not to serve as a massive data collection and processing entity … or to make value judgments between competing services,” they said. “Such a function would position the Commission as a competitive arbiter, a role that goes far beyond what Congress authorized.” Verizon submitted with its original comments a list of “outdated” recordkeeping and reporting requirements, which it asked the commission to eliminate. “As the Bureaus look to update their data handling practices in these proceedings the focus should be on eliminating outdated reporting requirements and better aligning the Commission’s data collections with its multiple statutory duties to regularly review and discontinue unnecessary collections,” USTelecom said. “The Bureaus should reject calls by some commenters to take on broad, new data clearinghouse functions, to increase regulatory reporting burdens on the Commission’s wireless licensees, and to re-impose ARMIS reporting obligations.” Telecom markets are changing “dramatically” and becoming more competitive, USTelecom said. The Wireline Bureau “and ultimately the Commission, will find that this increased competition and regulatory changes eliminate the usefulness of many of the Commission’s data reporting regulations,” the association said. Google said the FCC needs better data and should make the information more accessible. The Wireline Bureau “should collect from wireline and wireless facilities-based broadband providers data useful for measuring broadband availability, adoption, and competition, including information regarding providers’ service offerings and network management practices,” the company said. “The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau should collect and make available data on licensed spectrum usage that will assist the Commission’s spectrum planning and policy efforts. The Media Bureau should collect and publish data on interoperability and retail availability of video navigation devices.” CWA said the commission must continue to collect from carriers ARMIS data from carriers, which is on many telcos’ hit list for elimination. “It is the only publicly available data that allows comparisons between companies and states over time,” the union said. “It fills a significant gap because many states do not publicly report service quality data.”

Top phone and cable executives are to discuss Universal Service Fund legislation at Thursday’s House Communications Subcommittee hearing, the Commerce Committee said Monday. The committee also invited FCC Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey to testify on the comprehensive bill (HR-5828) by Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. Representing industry are: USTelecom President Walter McCormick, NCTA Executive Vice President James Assey, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield, Verizon Senior Vice President Kathleen Grillo, and Qwest Senior Vice President Steve Davis. The hearing is 10 a.m. in Room 2322, Rayburn House Office Building.