The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is looking more closely at the line between private and commercial phones in regard to Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules. Lawyer Todd Bank in March asked for clarity and the bureau sought comment in a Thursday notice. “Bank is an attorney with a law practice based in his home,” CGA said. The phone number Bank uses for his business is listed publicly as both a business and a residential number, the bureau said. “Bank asks the Commission to clarify the scope of its rules to establish a ‘bright-line’ test that when a telephone line is provided as ‘residential’ service by the telephone service provider, it is subject to the Commission’s rules prohibiting calls using an artificial or prerecorded voice to a ‘residential line.’” Comments are due at the FCC May 3, replies May 17.
Limits on inmate calling service (ICS) ancillary charges, other than one stayed set of fees, took effect on March 17 for all calls from prisons and will take effect on June 20 for calls from jails, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday in docket 12-375. The PN was highlighting updated rate regulations after two court stays temporarily blocked the agency's 2015 caps on domestic ICS rates and single-call service fees, and its application of 2013 interim caps to intrastate services (see 1603070055 and 1603230058). For instance, it said, automated payment fees are capped at $3 and paper bill/statement fees are capped at $2 with no charges allowed for electronic bills/statements. The same effective dates cover other rules, including for: rates of calls involving TTY devices (text telephony used by deaf and hard of hearing people), tax and fee treatment, minimum and maximum calling account balances, a prohibition on per-call or per-connection charges and a prohibition on flat-rate calling. The PN said the interim caps still apply to interstate ICS rates: 21 cents per minute for debit and prepaid calls and 25 cents/minute for collect calls. It also said reporting, certification and disclosure rules are subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act and will take effect upon publication in the Federal Register of Office of Management and Budget approval. All other rules and requirements in the 2015 order are in effect, except for a one-time data collection obligation that will occur two years after OMB approval, the bureau said. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued two orders (here and here) granting the requests of various states (Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada and Wisconsin) and Indiana sheriffs' groups to intervene in support of Oklahoma and ICS provider challenges to the FCC rules, plus a request of Network Communications International to intervene in support of the agency.
The FCC sought to refresh the record on Sandwich Isles Communications' disputed cost recovery from the National Exchange Carrier Association. The Wireline Bureau asked for comment by April 18 and replies by April 28 in a public notice Tuesday in docket 09-133. "At issue in the proceeding was whether certain lease expenses incurred by Sandwich Isles were costs that were 'used and useful' and could be included for recovery in the NECA pool," the PN said. In 2010, Sandwich Isles filed a petition for reconsideration of a Wireline Bureau declaratory ruling in September of that year on its NECA cost recovery, and AT&T filed an application for full commission review. More recently, NECA petitioned the FCC to clarify the bureau's 2010 conclusions. All the requests are pending. The PN detailed costs that Sandwich Isles was allowed and not allowed to include in its NECA pool cost recovery under the bureau's previous ruling.
Communications Sales & Leasing's planned buy of PEG Bandwidth was approved by the FCC's Wireline Bureau Tuesday. Related communications license transfers were granted after no oppositions were filed, said a public notice in docket 16-31. The transaction already had gained antitrust clearance (see 1603020028). CSL, a real estate investment trust, is paying $409 million to buy PEG Bandwidth's equity interests from affiliates of Associated Partners, the companies said in January, announcing the deal, which they expected to close in April. PEG Bandwidth provides infrastructure including cell site backhaul and dark fiber for telecom carriers and enterprises and has a fiber network of more than 300,000 miles, said a release.
The FCC should confirm ILECs’ obligation to provide unbundled DS1 and DS3 capacity loops to competitors, said the Minnesota Department of Commerce (MNDOC). In an ex parte letter dated Monday, the department supported other states that have filed in docket 15-1, including Massachusetts, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Vermont (see 1603140070). “The MNDOC urges the Commission to issue a ruling confirming that ILECs’ ongoing obligations to provide DS1 and DS3 capacity loops on an unbundled basis are not affected by the replacement of copper with fiber, or the conversion of transmission from TDM to IP format,” it said. Such a ruling would promote competition, it said. A flurry of filings from ILECs and CLECs have disagreed about market data analysis and possible further FCC regulation of ILEC broadband services in the FCC’s special access review (see 1603280027).
Charter Communications and Georgia Power asked the FCC to dismiss a pole-attachment enforcement proceeding. In a joint motion Monday in docket 14-210, the companies said they settled the dispute that gave rise to a Charter complaint.
Google added a cloud-based home phone service to its fiber broadband service. Google Fiber customers can pay $10 per month for Fiber Phone service, which includes unlimited local and long-distance calling, Google said. For international calls, customers pay the same rates as Google Voice. Customers can port their old phone number, Google said. Like Google Voice and the Project Fi mobile service, Fiber Phone can transcribe voice messages to SMS or email, and customers can receive calls on their landline phone, cellphone, tablet or laptop, Google said. Fiber Phone will be available only in select markets to start, but Google said it will eventually roll out the service to all of its Fiber customers. Landline service is still important, Google said in a blog post announcing the service. “Landlines can be familiar, reliable and provide high-quality service, but the technology hasn’t always kept up.”
The parties to FCC inmate calling service litigation suggested the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit largely consolidate briefing that would last 175 days. The FCC, ICS providers and others -- at the urging of the court -- submitted a joint proposed briefing format and schedule Monday in the case (Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461). The filing said petitioners and intervenors were challenging an FCC 2015 order that "adopts permanent tiered per-minute rate caps for all inmate calling services ('ICS'), asserts jurisdiction over both interstate and intrastate calls, regulates ancillary and transaction fees associated with ICS, imposes annual reporting and certification requirements, and asserts jurisdiction over ICS calls carried over both traditional telephone and other advanced technology such as VoIP." The parties said the challenges raised two distinct sets of issues -- those raised by ICS providers and those raised by state and county officials -- and accordingly asked to file separate briefs. Under the proposal, the 12 state government petitioners and intervenors would file consolidated initial and reply briefs while the five ICS providers -- CenturyLink, GTL, Pay Tel Communications, Securus and Telmate -- would file most of their arguments in initial and reply briefs, while Securus would also file shorter briefs analyzing confidential cost data it submitted on credit card transactions and "single-call services." Under proposed word limits, the FCC and its supporters, which include Martha Wright Petitioners and Network Communications International (a wholesale-oriented ICS provider), would receive the same number of words, 29,500, for their responses as the challengers in their initial briefs. The initial industry and state briefs would be due 40 days from the date of the court's order setting the schedule, followed 60 days later by the FCC response brief and intervenor briefs 15 days after the FCC brief. The challengers would then have 30 more days to file their reply briefs, with final briefs incorporating a joint appendix due 30 days after that. The court previously stayed the FCC rate caps, one set of ancillary fees and application of 2013 interim rate caps to intrastate services, pending further review (see 1603070055 and 1603230058).
State consumer advocates agreed with concerns by state regulatory commissioners about FCC-proposed changes to the Lifeline program. In a letter last week, NARUC blasted Lifeline proposals to simplify provider participation and bypass state reviews in the FCC's planned expansion of the low-income support program to broadband (see 1603180052). In an ex parte letter posted Friday in docket 11-42, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates said it “agrees that cutting states out of the eligible telecommunications carrier designation and review process will increase fraud and abuse -- especially by carriers -- in the Lifeline program as it transitions to supporting broadband services.” States should maintain a strong role in the ETC process, said NASUCA. “These state ‘cops’ should not be taken off the beat.”
The Office of Management and Budget approved three years of FCC information collection on "network change disclosure rules pertaining to copper retirement notices" flowing from an IP/tech transition order (docket 13-5), said a summary of a commission rule published in the Federal Register Thursday, the effective date of the rule. The order, adopted in August, requires ILECs to notify customers and interconnecting carriers and ISPs about planned retirement of copper lines -- including “de facto retirement” -- and to seek permission when they plan changes that discontinue traditional services to retail end users, including of CLECs (see 1508100019).