As the FCC weighs new pole attachment rates, it should be “mindful of the disproportionate impact that pole attachment costs have on rural rates” and rural broadband deployment, USTelecom said in a proposal filed Monday at the FCC. Costs are higher for broadband providers in rural areas, thanks to the need for more poles and fewer attachers among which to spread the cost. USTelecom said “any proposal or formula that results in higher attachment rates in less densely populated areas will have the effect of suppressing broadband deployment to rural consumers.” Under USTelecom’s plan, the FCC would establish a broadband pole attachment rate “based on an appropriate percentage of pole costs -- rather than requiring pole-by-pole studies by both pole owners and attachers.” Each broadband attacher would pay 11 percent of the pole’s costs to the owner, “regardless of the actual number of attachers on a particular pole or the actual amount of space each attacher uses on that pole,” the group said.

With a lobbying ban looming, telecom interests are making feverish last-minute pitches to sway commissioners on possible overhauls for the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation. Unless the FCC says otherwise, lobbying on the issue ends sometime Tuesday, with release of the commission’s sunshine notice for the Nov. 4 meeting. Verizon recently joined AT&T and Qwest in endorsing comprehensive reform.

USTelecom wants the FCC to hold off on adopting FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s overhaul of universal service and intercarrier compensation, the trade association said Friday in a letter to commissioners. The FCC is to vote on it Nov. 4. USTelecom’s stance is at odds with two of its members -- AT&T and Qwest -- who separately have endorsed the Martin plan. But USTelecom’s roster also includes small and mid- sized carriers that want the FCC not to act comprehensively on the matter Nov. 4. “Based upon our understanding of the broad outline of the proposal and oral descriptions provided to date by Commission staff, we cannot support its adoption because it is clearly not in the overall best interests of consumers; nor will it advance the nation’s interest in rural broadband deployment,” USTelecom said. “Based on numerous meetings with various Commission representatives, we believe the Commission is vastly underestimating the significant negative impact the proposal will have on rural consumers and their access not only to broadband services but also to the highest quality voice services as well.” The Martin plan is “fundamentally different” from previous proposals, and stakeholders need more time to understand it, USTelecom said. “This is particularly the case in the current financial environment and these extraordinary economic times.”

New at Leap Wireless: Keith Buckley, ex-Telecom New Zealand, as senior vice president, supply chain management; Kirk Golbach, ex-Wells Fargo, as Midwest region vice president… Jacqueline Welch, ex-Rock-Tenn Co., joins Turner Broadcasting as senior vice president, human resources… Mark Mercer, ex-Time Warner Cable, becomes vice president of Berliner Communications Cable Services Group… Elizabeth Fleming, South Carolina Public Service Commission, to chair NARUC Committee on Critical Infrastructure, replacing Jim Sullivan, Alabama Public Service Commission… Krish Prabhu, ex-Tellabs, and David Roberts, Carlisle Cos., join ADC board… Cable network mun2 names Alex Alonso, ex-Carat, vice president-marketing… Robert Mayer, USTelecom, elected chairman, Communications Sector Coordinating Council… Film maker Jesse Dylan joins Public Knowledge board.

The duty to prevent identity theft is partly shifting to companies, such as telecom firms and ISPs, that aren’t typically thought of as “creditors” but must comply with new credit transaction rules. Panelists on a USTelecom-hosted webinar said companies that let customers pay after receiving services -- such as ISPs, telephone or cable providers that bill at the end of the month -- and even companies that bill in advance but continue providing service if the customer doesn’t pay on time -- are considered creditors for the purposes of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. They were to have Red Flag policies and procedures in place by Nov. 1, but the FTC granted a six-month reprieve Wednesday because so many companies said that they were unsure how the rules applied to them or that they were unaware of the rules because they usually aren’t covered by FTC regulations and so hadn’t followed the rulemaking. During the webinar, John Kuykendall, director of regulatory affairs at John Staurulakis, Inc., said his company searched in vain for a template or guidebook to help its small clients develop policies. “We concluded there is not [a template]. Because each one of the programs must be specific to each company… those rules are indeed company-specific,” he said. JSI developed a questionnaire to help companies determine which red flags are most likely to pop up in their line of work and how best to handle them, he said. Companies must think about how customers open accounts -- in person, online, on the phone -- and what personal information they collect from customers. Tom Oscherwitz, vice president for government affairs and chief privacy officer at ID Analytics, said companies must also prepare for what happens after the deadline. Developing a policy isn’t enough, he said. They must update policies and procedures periodically, and also think about how to put the rules into practice. ID Analytics performed a study of red flag hit rates and found 33 percent of 700,000 applications received in a 30-day period had an identity theft red flag. There will be lots of false positives, he said, and businesses must handle the red flag hits without slowing down operations to the point of alienating customers. Handling the flags identified in its study could cost between $347,000 and $1.5 million monthly, depending if they're handled interactively or manually, he said. When one in six Americans moves each year, there are sure to be address discrepancies, he said. ID Analytics looked at three data aggregators and found that only 14 percent of the time was a valid address consistent across all three aggregators. In a separate interview, Ed Goodman, general counsel and chief privacy officer for Identity Theft 911, said larger organizations appear to be more prepared for the new rules, because they generally already have fraud detection systems in place. Smaller, rural ISPs and cable providers might not be ready, he said. Goodman said companies scrambling to meet the deadline should make sure to at least have something in place. “Your initial program can be pretty thin, to some degree,” he said. The FTC expects that companies will refine and build Red Flag programs over time, he said. Goodman agreed there will be false positives but said the costs from identity theft probably outweigh the costs of even a robust Red Flag program.

USTelecom backed AT&T on its request to reverse several Universal Service Administrative Co. findings from recent audits of AT&T’s Indiana, Kansas and Oklahoma companies (CD Aug 20 p8). Qwest supported AT&T in separate comments, and no one opposed. The audit findings “are not reasonable interpretations of the requirements of the Lifeline program and represent substantive changes from the FCC’s settled interpretation of these issues,” USTelecom said. “These issues are of concern to all USTelecom members regardless of company size.”

A variety of pay-TV companies failed to get FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to seek a vote on their request that the agency prevent cable operators from withholding from rivals content not distributed by satellite. In Monday letters to Martin, the Broadband Service Providers Association and Coalition for Competitive Access to Content sought a vote on a ban. Oct. 9, Martin told coalition members that commissioners would meet Nov. 4, that group said. But Tuesday, when Martin unveiled items he wanted commissioners vote on by Election Day, the list included no cable-related items (CD Oct 15 p1). “We want to make one final request that the terrestrial loophole be included in the preliminary agenda for this meeting,” wrote John Goodman, coalition president. “The best opportunity to demonstrate that there are enough votes to close the loophole is to have the issue on the preliminary agenda.” The need to close the terrestrial loophole lacks the “recent visibility” of other subjects before the regulator, but “all past FCC actions in his area would indicate an expected bipartisan support” among members, said Goodman. AT&T, Cincinnati Bell, DirecTV and USTelecom belong to the coalition. The broadband association, whose members include RCN and SureWest, said “the most important foundation for video competition is assured access to must have programming.” Its letter to Martin, signed by executive director Goodman, said small, independent pay-TV companies “disproportionately” face hurdles getting terrestrially delivered programming. “We fully recognize that closing the loophole is not the only active competitive issue” among pay- TV companies, said Goodman. “We have provided our support for the Wholesale Untying and other policy issues.” Martin also is said to be keen on requiring wholesale programming unbundling.

In the wake of the financial crisis, government will probably try to do more telecom regulation, said panelists at a New York Law School Advanced Communications Law & Policy forum Friday. Comparing banking to the telecom industry is like comparing “apples and freight trains,” said James Gattuso, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow. But after eight-plus years of market-based regulation, the “knee jerk reaction from government” may be that “we have to do something” different, said Republican Missouri state Rep. Ed Emery.

The FCC should regulate CenturyTel with price caps, wireline carriers generally agreed. In comments last week, USTelecom and the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance backed a CenturyTel petition to convert its rate-of-return regulated areas. But AT&T said it would back the change only if CenturyTel set its price caps using current rates multiplied by historic base period demand. CenturyTel had said it wanted to use 2008 projected demand. The National Exchange Carrier Association said it’s “prepared to make the necessary modifications to its tariff and rate calculations as appropriate and will coordinate tariff filing submissions with CenturyTel” once the FCC grants the carrier’s petition. NECA believes it could submit a revised tariff filing Dec. 17, with an effective date of Jan. 1.

Communications lobby spending is on the upswing in 2008, based on recent figures reported to Congress. The industry spent $194.7 million in the first half of the year, compared with $171.5 million in the same period last year. The industry has increased its spending every year since 2001, with a 40 percent gain from 2006 to 2007. Communications has ranked third or fourth among the biggest spenders by industry, according to CQ’s Political Moneyline rankings. AT&T was listed among the top 10 spending organizations every year since 2000.