Broadband providers played tug-of-war with states and public interest groups in comments last week on how the FCC should release combined broadband data based on Form 477 submissions while maintaining confidentiality. Companies asked the commission to protect their deployment and speed information strongly. But others asked the FCC to share as much information as possible with the state bodies and others involved in broadband mapping eligible to see it. The Broadband Data Improvement Act requires the commission to provide aggregated data by census tract.

The continuation of the FCC’s eight-year-old proceeding to revamp intercarrier compensation has resulted in “a substantial, growing and unnecessary layer of regulatory uncertainty and unpredictability overhanging important revenue flows, interfering with broadband planning and investment,” USTelecom said. In a letter Wednesday to Chairman Julius Genachowski, the association asked that the commission “publish a draft reform proposal for comment this fall with the goal of putting a comprehensive reform plan in place by the end of this year.” Nearly everyone agrees that the current system is broken, and there’s “broad consensus on at least the first steps to fixing this system,” it said. Most agree the FCC should move intrastate access rates to interstate rates, provide a revenue recovery mechanism and begin “modernizing” the Universal Service Fund, USTelecom said. “The Commission should draw on this common ground to create a managed transition to a modernized system of unified, cost-based rates and explicit support targeted to where it is most needed.”

Chairman Julius Genachowski asked for a wide-ranging review of the kinds of information that the FCC relies on, as he seeks to revamp how the commission makes decisions (CD July 22 p1). The “top-to-bottom review of the agency’s systems and processes for data collection, analysis, and dissemination” should be completed within 60 days, he wrote Paul de Sa Wednesday, de Sa’s first day as chief of the Office of Strategic Planning. (See separate report in this issue.)

SEATTLE -- Developing data sets that separate consumer information by county and average revenue per subscriber is an expensive and difficult requirement for providers, said USTelecom Senior Vice President of Law and Policy Jonathan Banks. The task poses security and efficiency concerns to providers who want help expand broadband’s reach through the stimulus, he said during the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners’ summer meeting Tuesday.

Tighter lobbying restrictions haven’t dampened spending significantly, according to preliminary Senate disclosure reports filed Monday, the deadline for second quarter filings. The NAB spent $3.3 million in the quarter, up from $2.6 million first quarter. Sprint-Nextel reported an increase to $756,000 from $550,000. TIA’s spending rose to $195,000 from $190,000. Spending by the Consumer Electronics Association went up to $480,000 from $360,000. But Qualcomm’s spending declined slightly to $1.5 million from $1.6 million. Qwest’s total dropped to $821,000 from $980,000. T-Mobile reported a decline to $690,000 from $903,000. Second-quarter reports from AT&T, Verizon, Verizon Wireless, the NCTA and USTelecom weren’t available right away.

People sending ideas to the FCC on its national broadband plan must do better to submit realistic and workable suggestions, Blair Levin, coordinator of the commission’s plan, said Monday at the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference. The FCC has limited time and a limited budget, so it needs people’s “best ideas” quickly and clearly, he said. But many commenters don’t seem to recognize there are limits and that the plan must include tradeoffs, he said.

The FCC lacks authority to approve three petitions asking it to tell cable operators and telco TV providers how to handle public, educational and government channels, said a filing Monday by AT&T, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance and USTelecom. AT&T is among the subjects of the requests (CD June 15 p12). Approving the petitions “would effectively preempt state and local government authority over PEG programming,” the filing said, and that’s contrary to the “plain language” of the Cable Act. Preventing pay-TV companies and franchising authorities from “cooperatively developing new and innovative delivery models” would be “profoundly bad policy,” it said.

With the FCC considering an investigation into the special access market (CD July 2 p1), USTelecom released a report Thursday showing “growing competition, investment and innovation in high-capacity services.” The report pulls together financial reports and other public information from phone, cable, wireless and other broadband players, said the association, which has opposed calls by competitive carriers and others for new regulation of the special access market. “In a sector characterized by entrepreneurism, growth, investment and competition, there is no rational basis to impose the drastic price controls that some are proposing, and doing so would be inconsistent with incentivizing increased investment in our nation’s broadband networks,” said USTelecom CEO Walter McCormick. Even with the report, McCormick said, the FCC must collect more data from competitive providers if it wants to “obtain a complete and accurate picture of the level of competition.” Supporters of special-access regulation condemned the study. “It may have a fancy new cover, but it’s still the same old story that tries to paper over AT&T and Verizon’s outrageous profits, prices and practices,” said a spokeswoman for the NoChokePoints Coalition. “We've offered to deliver real data to the FCC, and we hope they will act upon it soon.”

Jeff Pulver aims to “reboot telecom” by lobbying in Washington for widespread adoption of HD voice technology, the VoIP pioneer and Vonage co-founder said Tuesday. Pulver plans in September to formally introduce his effort, which seeks to make HD voice the “bare-bone minimum quality” voice standard for broadband, wireless and traditional wireline by 2015, he said.

An AT&T emergency petition on Universal Service Fund contributions is expected to flare up old arguments before the new FCC, telecom industry officials said Monday. Late Friday, the company urged “immediate commission action” to adopt the plan by AT&T and Verizon for a pure numbers-based mechanism, in light of the all-time high 12.9 percent contribution factor that kicked in earlier this month. But AT&T’s foes don’t appear to have budged on the subject.