Qwest rejoined USTelecom, nearly eight years after falling out with the association over membership dues. In 2001, USTelecom suspended Qwest as a member, saying the company was four months behind in paying membership fees and the association didn’t want to create the lower-priced class of membership that Qwest had sought. The same day, Qwest said it “resigned” from USTelecom because it didn’t fully serve its needs. Qwest has rejoined USTelecom as a tier-one member, the same level it was before, a USTelecom spokesman told us Friday. The association doesn’t give out dues information, he said. A Qwest spokesman said it had left “because we believed it to be in our best interests to do so at that time,” but today it is “very excited” to be back. In statements, executives didn’t mention Qwest’s controversial departure from USTelecom. Qwest’s return marks a “formalization” of a collaboration that’s been ongoing “for a number of years,” USTelecom Chairman Ron McCue said. Qwest Senior Vice President Steve Davis said Qwest joined “to work together with their other member companies on important communications issues such as broadband deployment, Universal Service Fund reform, and intercarrier compensation reform, including traffic pumping and phantom traffic.”

RUS and NTIA will further clarify the definitions of some major terms in the notice of funds availability (NOFA), said Cheryl Cook, the agricultural department’s deputy undersecretary for rural development, at a House subcommittee hearing Thursday. Cooke said the clarifications of the terms, including “rural” and “remote,” should come out over the next two weeks.

Verizon and USTelecom endorsed AT&T’s challenge to several audit findings (CD June 8 p6) by the Universal Service Administrative Co., in comments this week at the FCC. They said USAC was wrong when it decided that it should recover toll limitation service support from AT&T California and AT&T Nevada because the carriers requested less TLS support than allowed; that AT&T Nevada was required to separately identify and advertise supported services in Lifeline ads; and that AT&T Nevada was required to provide, on line 9 of FCC Form 497, partial or pro-rata dollars attributable to Lifeline subscribers who entered and left the Lifeline program in the same month. USTelecom said the decision on partial-month reporting in particular was a “substantive” change from the FCC’s “settled interpretation” of the issue. AT&T has previously challenged USAC decisions on partial-month reporting.

A possible FCC decision to reconfigure video relay service rates may be illegal, said Sorenson Communications, the biggest U.S. VRS provider, in comments this week at the FCC. The commission is considering an early change to rates used to determine compensation for VRS under the interstate telecom relay service fund (CD June 26 p6). The agency is currently following a three-year interim rate plan set by the National Exchange Carrier Association in 2007.

Web advertisements may have a whole new look once self- regulatory principles from advertising groups are implemented. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers and Direct Marketing Association released rules for behavioral targeting Thursday. The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) and DMA have agreed to implement “accountability programs” so the targeting universe of advertisers, ad networks, ISPs and others adopt the seven principles.

The administration’s broadband grant rules are likely to attract a sizable number of qualified applicants, said lawyers, analysts and advocacy groups Thursday. But many held off on commenting on the rules until they could study the detailed notice of funding availability released Wednesday (CD July 2 p13) in more depth. Several praised the rules for setting criteria that will ensure projects are financially viable, and will funnel services to areas most in need of broadband.

CTIA, USTelecom, CEA and other industry groups warned in court briefs that legal challenges ASCAP has brought against Verizon Wireless and AT&T could have a chilling effect on the use of musical ringtones. ASCAP asserts in the cases that whenever a musical ringtone goes off in public, it is in effect a performance and violation of copyright law even though the wireless company has already paid a licensing fee.

A decision on an options memo, which started circulating at the FCC last week asking what should be in any special access data request, could come relatively quickly, industry and commission officials said. The Wireline Bureau circulated the memo while Michael Copps was still acting chairman (CD June 29 p1). A special access investigation is one of several dozen items awaiting attention by Chairman Julius Genachowski, though it could be moved to the front of the pack, officials said.

Bucking a view that overhauling special access is just a concern of competitive phone companies, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association endorsed pro- regulation positions of the new NoChokePoints Alliance (CD June 23 p1). In a letter late Wednesday, the association asked the FCC to collect information from Qwest, AT&T and Verizon “and then to act on imposing necessary regulations to restrain anti-competitive pricing and conduct for special access services.” It rejected “as punitive and irrelevant” a USTelecom proposal to collect data from schools, hospitals and businesses of all sizes. Lack of special-access competition reduces the availability of affordable broadband in rural areas, the NTCA said. Many small incumbent local exchange carriers rely on large incumbents’ circuits to provide broadband in rural areas, it said. But there’s “minimal, if any, choice of special access carriers in many rural areas” and no price declines, discounts or flexibility on terms, it said.

Three House lawmakers introduced a bill (HR-3011) that would repeal the federal excise tax on communications services. The IRS stopped enforcing the toll portion of the tax in 2006, after several court rulings, but the tax still applies to customers who subscribe only to local phone service. USTelecom applauded the bill, saying the outdated tax hurts lower income and elderly consumers the most. The legislation was introduced by Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Gerry Connolly, D-Va.