The USF contribution factor for Q4 will decrease from 17.9 percent to 17.4 percent of carrier interstate and international telecom end-user revenue, said industry consultant Billy Jack Gregg in an email update Thursday. Despite a Universal Service Administrative Co. projection that the industry revenue base will fall to its lowest quarterly level ever at $14.2 billion, the contribution factor will drop because USAC had projected Q4 USF demand would drop (see 1608030047). Total 2016 USF demand will be $8.76 billion, "$67.4 million higher than 2015, but $772.7 million less than peak annual USF demand during 2012," he wrote. "However, because of the continued decline in the USF revenue base, the average assessment factor for all of 2016 will be 17.8%, the highest average assessment factor in the history of the USF." The previous highest average was 17.1% in 2012, and it was 16.9 percent in 2015, he said.

Neustar asked a court to consolidate its challenges to a March FCC 2015 order conditionally selecting Telcordia as the next local number portability and a July order approving the terms of Telcordia's LNPA contract (see 1503300036 and 1607250029). Consolidating the cases will "moot any potential jurisdictional objection" to challenging the 2015 conditional order without delaying the litigation, Neustar said Thursday in a motion (in Pacer) that it said was unopposed by government respondents and private intervenors. The cases are Neustar v. FCC, No. 15-1080 and No. 16-1293. Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit are to hear oral argument Sept. 13 (see 1606080054 and 1608240059).

Fran Shammo, Verizon chief financial officer since 2010, will step down Nov. 1, to be succeeded by Matthew Ellis, the carrier said Thursday. Ellis is senior vice president-operations and finance. The company has great “bench strength,” said CEO Lowell McAdam in a news release. “Within months of joining Verizon as treasurer in 2013, Matt led the team that raised a record $49 billion in one day to help finance Verizon’s acquisition of Vodafone’s interest in Verizon Wireless.” Shammo will remain at Verizon through the end of the year to help with the transition, Verizon said.

The Alaska Telephone Association and others lauded FCC adoption of a modified ATA plan to provide broadband USF support to fixed and mobile providers in Alaska high-cost areas served by rate-of-return carriers and their wireless affiliates (see 1608310067). ATA said the plan "ends recent funding declines and secures 10 years of predictable federal support" for providers to expand broadband in underserved areas. "This is a big win for Alaska," said Christine O'Connor, ATA executive director, in a release citing 16 plan "partners," including General Communication Inc. “Alaska carriers like GCI will be able to leverage the federal support to incent private investment and bring Alaskans the kind of service that people in the Lower 48 take for granted,” said GCI General Counsel Tina Pidgeon in the release. Wireless providers must deploy 4G LTE or better mobile service to 85 percent or more of rural Alaskans, up from 9 percent, and participating wireline providers are committed to bringing fixed broadband speeds of at least 10/1 Mbps to 90 percent of the locations in remote Alaska, up from 60 percent, the release said. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who pressed for action on the plan, issued a statement commending the FCC for recognizing challenges facing Alaska carriers. “NTCA has long urged the FCC to take stock of the special challenges of serving Alaska," said CEO Shirley Bloomfield in a statement. "Today’s order attempts to do that, while being careful to make sure the steps taken will not have an adverse impact on smaller carriers committed to serve the rest of rural America." A Further NPRM attached to the order sought comment on the specifics of implementing a process to head off any duplicative support to providers serving the same areas. Dissenting Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai said the order allowed duplicative support and didn't solve middle-mile problems. But Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said duplicative support will be eliminated after five years if it develops. Alaska Communications, which had criticized the original plan as providing GCI a big windfall, didn't comment.

Broadband providers challenged up to 36,897 of 317,243 census blocks on a preliminary FCC list of areas targeted for a planned Connect America Fund reverse auction of $215 million in annual broadband USF subsidies, according to our review. The agency asked interested parties to update the FCC on areas that wouldn't be eligible for auction support because of the presence of a qualifying broadband service -- with 10/1 Mbps, minimum usage of 150 GB or greater at a rate meeting a commission benchmark, and latency not exceeding 100 ms (see 1608110018). Twenty-two parties submitted filings that were posted by Thursday in docket 10-90. Frontier Communications led the way, saying it provided qualifying broadband service to 15,789 census blocks on the preliminary list, based on our tabulation of its submission. JAB Wireless (Rise Broadband) said it served 11,278 census blocks and Windstream said it serves 3,170 census blocks on the list. AT&T serves 2,929 census blocks and Charter Communications serves 1,341 census blocks on the list. The numbers could increase because some parties said they will update their totals, and N.E. Colorado Cellular (Viaero Wireless) filed its list confidentiality. But it's also possible there's some overlap among the census blocks identified by different parties as served, which could reduce the total number of reportedly served census blocks. After the FCC completes the review process, it will issue a final list of eligible census blocks. Some auction rules are still under consideration.

A court revealed the panel to review AT&T's challenge to an FCC VoIP symmetry order that's scheduled for oral argument Sept. 8 (see 1606170012). The panel will consist of Circuit Judge Judith Rogers, and Senior Judges Stephen Williams and Raymond Randolph, and each side will receive 20 minutes to argue, said an order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (AT&T v. FCC, No. 15-1059). AT&T says the FCC impermissibly changed its rule to allow CLECs partnering with over-the-top VoIP providers to charge interexchange carriers end-office switching fees for connecting long-distance calls to customers (see 1507310057).

Correction: Jonathan Cohen of Wilkinson Barker was part of the FCC team that designed the early spectrum auctions in the 1990s, but was not an adviser to the agency on the incentive auction design (see 1608300064).

Henning Schulzrinne is returning to the FCC as chief technologist for a second stint, at the end of the year, the agency said Wednesday. Schulzrinne, chief technologist from 2011 to 2014, replaces Scott Jordan, who did research on net neutrality before joining the FCC (see 1408270030). Schulzrinne will start at the FCC as senior adviser for technology, based in the Office of Strategic Planning. “Henning’s return to the agency ensures the Commission will continue to have outstanding technology expertise on hand as we tackle the policy problems of today’s complex communications networks,” said Chairman Tom Wheeler in a news release. Schulzrinne is professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Columbia University. Jordan was on leave from the University of California, Irvine.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' Monday ruling in the FTC lawsuit against AT&T "appears to have significantly reset the boundaries between the [FTC's and FCC]'s] jurisdictions," wrote Kelley Drye telecom attorneys Steve Augustino and Jameson Dempsey in a Tuesday note. The 9th Circuit dismissed an FTC lawsuit that said AT&T failed to adequately disclose its data throttling policy to customers with unlimited data plans, which amounted to an unfair and deceptive practice (see 1608290032 and 1608300055). Augustino and Dempsey said the decision makes it more difficult for the FTC to bring action against any company claiming to be a common carrier and "even providing only a small amount of common carrier service may be enough to qualify all of a company’s activities for the common carrier exemption." They said if the FTC appeals the ruling, industry and practitioners could get "welcome guidance" and the court decision could "add fuel" to commission's longtime call to end the common-carrier exemption. Augustino and Dempsey said FCC authority to address common-carrier practices on advertising and billing will continue, but the 9th Circuit's ruling "may encourage the FCC to fill any potential gap in coverage by taking a broader view of its own authority to regulate non-common carrier services that common carriers offer to consumers." This might have "significant implications" for ongoing FCC proceedings, including one to revamp privacy rules and requests to classify SMS messaging and interconnected VoIP service as subject to common-carrier regulation, wrote the lawyers. Scott Cleland, chairman of broadband ISP-backed NetCompetition, said in a blog post Wednesday that rather than concern themselves about "duplicative, redundant or inconsistent oversight oversight" cited in an FTC-FCC memorandum of understanding on working together (see 1511160067), they "now have to worry about the unexpected gaping hole in consumer protection authority." Cleland said the 9th Circuit created unintended consequences in the set-top box area, broadband privacy rules, possible common-carrier status for Google and incentive for other companies to try to exempt themselves from FTC oversight. He said both agencies will have to work with Congress "forthwith, to modernize communications, consumer protection, and privacy law to be consumer-centric."

The FCC put out new fee filing guides Tuesday for the various bureaus (see here), one day after the agency in a public notice said application fees charged FCC licensees and permittees increased effective Tuesday to reflect a 1.8 percent change in the Consumer Price Index-Urban.