The fun and games of previous national political conventions hosted by the TV networks and telecom companies will be lacking next week at the Democratic gathering in Denver and the week after at the Republican get-together in St. Paul, Minnesota. Cited as the reason, besides the economy: Tough new congressional rules on accepting gifts. “We're not doing shit,” said a lobbyist for a Fortune 500 communications company when asked his organizations plans for both conventions. He said his company will send only two executives to each city.

The FCC shouldn’t adopt phantom traffic proposals that lead to indirect rulings on broader intercarrier compensation issues, said Alaska carrier General Communications Inc. In an ex parte filing, GCI said it doesn’t “oppose generally applicable traffic identification requirements.” USTelecom and the National Exchange Carrier Association have proposed signaling rules that “appear to stray -- whether unintentionally or by design -- into the potential predetermination of (in the case of IP traffic) and the overruling of (in the case of intraMTA CMRS traffic) applicable intercarrier compensation levels,” GCI said. It’s not certain that “so-called” phantom traffic hurts incumbent carriers, the company said. The lack of evidence isn’t surprising, it said, because rate-of-return rate setting principles and the tariff pooling structure “ensure that little, if any revenues are actually lost due to untracked or untraceable access minutes.” Rate-of-return ILECs “fail to acknowledge [their] own role in traffic identification problems,” GCI said. “Many ILECs are not themselves passing necessary originating signaling information and cannot use the call signaling information they are demanding.”

Don’t stay the Universal Service Fund high-cost interim cap, said USTelecom and Verizon. They separately opposed a petition (CD Aug 6 p10) by the Rural Cellular Association and a group of small wireless competitive eligible telecom carriers. The interim cap “is a fair and balanced response to the growth of the high cost fund, a very real problem that threatened the sustainability of the universal service system and resulted in rapidly growing costs to consumers who pay for the fund,” Verizon said. The RCA and the carriers seeking a stay have “a vested financial interest in maintaining a system under which competitive ETCs can obtain high cost subsidies without limit,” USTelecom said. “But while such a system may be good for their businesses, it is bad for nearly everyone else.” The RCA and allies raised no new questions of fact or law, it said. Instead, their argument “primarily observe[s] that the rate of growth of support to competitive [ETCs] declined in recent years and predict[s] that the cap will not be effective,” Verizon said. That evidence is no good, said USTelecom. “While Joint Petitioners may take issue with the data relied upon by the Commission, their doing so cannot obscure the fact that competitive ETC support has grown significantly.” Nor did the petitioners show irreparable harm, USTelecom and Verizon said. The RCA and allies make “bold claims about alleged harms resulting from the interim cap,” but don’t “offer any proof that such harms have occurred or are certain to occur in the future,” USTelecom said. If a competitive ETC is harmed by a cap, it added, it can “avoid the cap altogether by filing cost data with the Commission.”

The FCC should use phone numbers for Universal Service Fund contribution, said the USF by the Numbers Coalition. Members from AT&T, Verizon, CTIA, USTelecom and IDT met last week with Amy Bender, aide to Chairman Kevin Martin. Group members not represented at the meeting are NCTA, GCI, Megapath and the VON Coalition. The FCC assesses USF contributions based on a carrier’s interstate revenue. The coalition wants contributions based on how many phone numbers a carrier owns. That would be easier, provide certainty to consumers and stabilize USF funding, said the coalition.

The FCC finding against Comcast network management may prompt other ISPs to limit the amount of bandwidth broadband customers can use or at least test such caps, said cable and telco officials. The FCC order against Comcast’s blocking of peer-to-peer file transfers deals only with that company, but it may spur a variety of ISPs to change their broadband policies, such as by improving disclosure to customers of network management, said executives and analysts. The order, approved 3-2, said Comcast must fully disclose its network management and stop treating P2P traffic differently than other Web usage (CD Aug 4 p1).

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin apparently deems it a priority to bar programmers from forcing pay-TV companies to carry multiple networks so they can distribute one they want, said communications lawyers on both sides of the matter. Martin recently signaled in private that he’s weighing a broad order (CD July 10 p2) to ban compelled wholesale bundling, forbid cable operators from withholding their networks from rivals and require cable operators to make quick decisions on whether to carry independent programmers, they said. But the Media Bureau doesn’t seem ready to circulate a draft order, cable lawyers said. The document probably will reflect arguments in recent filings by small cable operators, Free Press and other groups, cable lawyers said.

USTelecom debuted a toolkit that aggregates material on national and regional emergency preparedness and response related to telecom infrastructure. The resource explains the roles federal agencies, states and the private sector play, and includes links to situation updates, reports, activities and other public and private information. “As anyone familiar with the vast emergency response networks of our nation can attest, this was no small undertaking,” said USTelecom CEO Walter McCormick on Wednesday. “But at every turn, whether meeting with government officials or our own member companies, it was reinforced just how unique and valuable this educational resource could be. By facilitating access to timely, essential public information, this toolkit can help strengthen understanding of the many different mechanisms in place both to safeguard our nation and to facilitate timely recovery of critical infrastructure.” The toolkit can be found at the USTelecom Web site. USTelecom is distributing a CD-ROM version to member companies, safety agencies and executive and legislative branch staff, it said. Also on Wednesday, USTelecom launched a “social media newsroom” on its Web site. The space includes a blog, press releases, videos and links to USTelecom Facebook and MySpace pages.

Unsatisfied by counterparts’ recent deal with cable Internet service providers, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants Comcast to give in to his demand to block child pornography. Cuomo told Comcast in a letter Monday that it has until Saturday to commit to Cuomo’s code of conduct, which hasn’t been released publicly. Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Sprint, AT&T and AOL have signed on to the code (CD July 11 p4). Otherwise, Cuomo said, he will take “legal action” against Comcast. Last week, NCTA signed agreements on blocking child porn with 48 state AGs. Cuomo didn’t sign that pact. Comcast has “continued to drag its heels when it comes to taking every necessary action to eliminate” child porn on Usenet newsgroups and Web sites, Cuomo said. His code of conduct is designed “as narrowly as possible” to ensure that participating ISPs remove only “felonious material,” he said. Cuomo disclosed that he subpoenaed Comcast May 6 and began talks with the company “several weeks ago” about adopting the code. He played down the NCTA’s effort, saying “cable industry trade groups have recently signaled some interest” against child porn. “These efforts fall well short of the full range of measures” in his code, Cuomo said. Comcast can expect legal action by New York if it lingers “at the back of the pack in the race to fight this scourge,” he said. Comcast probably will fall into line, it indicated. The company said in a written statement that it appreciates Cuomo’s efforts and “we expect to become a signatory to his agreement.” But Comcast also praised “his Attorney General colleagues,” who signed an “unprecedented and highly praised” agreement against child porn. The NCTA agreement drew praise from Hill and federal agencies, with plaudits voiced by Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., sponsors of a child-safety bill, and FCC Commissioners Robert McDowell and Deborah Tate. USTelecom declined to tell us whether the same state AG coalition as reached out to NCTA has approached it, or whether it’s heard from Cuomo’s office. The group shares “the concerns of the state Attorneys General and FCC commissioners” about child porn, it said. Some of its members “already signed on to these agreements,” it said: “We strongly support these goals.” It’s unclear what USTelecom meant in referring to plural “agreements,” since Cuomo is the only state AG known to get telcos’ cooperation. California ISPs at first strongly resisted state officials’ demands that they do as Cuomo wants. But ISPs recently said they plan to announce cooperation with California (CD July 11 p4).

House Commerce Committee Democrats want to kill the “deemed granted” forbearance provision, but Republicans think the rule is a goad to agency action, members said Tuesday at a Telecom Subcommittee hearing. “We need to work to reform the process, not gut the language that makes” forbearance rules work, said Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. But Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., said some companies have “gamed” proceedings with late filings, shortchanging analysis and public input.

The House Telecom Subcommittee Monday announced witnesses for a Tuesday hearing on telecom competition and forbearance. Witnesses include TW Telecom president Larissa Herda; Matthew Salmon, president of CompTel; XO Communications CEO Carl Grivner; Cathy Avgiris, a senior vice president at Comcast; and Jonathan Banks, a senior vice president of USTelecom.