A federal bankruptcy court eased an automatic stay affecting Great Lakes Comnet to allow federal and state appellate courts to continue their consideration of intercarrier compensation cases involving GLC and AT&T. Responding to a joint AT&T/GLC request (see 1603070033), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Michigan ruled that appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the Michigan Court of Appeals could "proceed to conclusion, provided however, that nothing herein shall permit, as part of such proceedings, the liquidation of the amount of damages or claims by AT&T against the Debtors" (Great Lakes Comnet, Inc., et al., Debtors, Chapter 11, Case No. 16-00290 [JTG]). The bankruptcy court's order was filed in a letter Thursday with the D.C. Circuit, which is reviewing a GLC challenge to an FCC decision siding with AT&T (Great Lakes Comnet v. FCC, No. 15-1064). The Michigan Court of Appeals is separately reviewing an AT&T challenge to an unfavorable Michigan Public Service Commission decision.
Verizon said the FCC should allow the telco to retire copper loops in a New York City wire center without delay, despite an objection from Transbeam. Verizon said residents served by the West 36th St. wire center had already "overwhelmingly made the decision" to shift to Verizon's fiber-based services or to competitor services. "Completing the migration to Verizon’s more advanced and reliable fiber facilities, and retiring the legacy copper loops in this wire center, is not just a logical and efficient step, but an incremental one," Verizon said in a response Thursday in docket 16-40. "One objector, Transbeam, seeks to delay the copper retirement for a time period well beyond the length contemplated by the rules or else halt it altogether. But Transbeam misconstrues the nature of the facilities being retired, ignores the fact that it has already been offered several alternative products to serve its customers after the copper is retired, and fails to support its claims as required by the copper retirement rules. Its objection is meritless."
The FCC opened a pleading cycle on Birch Communications' planned buy of certain assets from Primus Telecommunications, debtor-in-possession (Primus has filed a petition under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code). Initial comments are due March 24, replies March 31, a commission public notice said Thursday in docket 16-43. Birch operates CLECs that offer or are certified to offer service across the country, while Primus is a CLEC that offers or is certified to offer service in nine states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Birch plans to "purchase certain assets and customers of Primus, including certain customer accounts and receivables, certain customer agreements and contracts, certain vendor agreements and contracts, certain equipment, and certain intellectual property," the PN said.
Price-cap telcos can use Connect America Fund Phase II model-based support "to serve locations in eligible census blocks where the price-cap carrier has served or intends to serve a location or locations using Phase I Round 2 incremental support," the FCC clarified in an order Wednesday in docket 10-90. Carriers accepted about $1.5 billion collectively in annual CAF II support over six years for broadband-oriented deployment and service. But before that, many of them received less incremental broadband support in two rounds of CAF Phase I funding. The order issued Wednesday also made various modifications to letter of credit requirements for recipients of rural broadband experiment (RBE) support. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn partially dissented from the order, saying it reversed a previous decision that prevented price-cap carriers from using Phase I funding in the same census blocks receiving Phase II support, which she said was aimed at preventing waste. "Today’s item reverses that course and allows providers to use support from both CAF Phase I and CAF Phase II to serve the very same census block," she said. She said the order didn't explain why the change was preferable to the previous policy. "Adequate cost controls should be a hallmark in every program and I find the reversal here especially troubling given the magnitude of universal service support at issue," she said.
A USTelecom request for ILEC relief continued to draw resistance from rivals and state commissions, and support from incumbent telcos, in reply comments posted this week in FCC docket 13-3. The battle lines were basically the same as in initial comments on USTelecom's 2013 petition asking the FCC for a declaratory ruling that incumbent telcos are nondominant in the provision of switched access voice services (see 1602230069). The FCC asked parties to refresh the record (see 1601210066). "ILECs remain dominant in the switched access marketplace, and USTelecom has been unable to offer sustainable evidence otherwise," said Incompas, representing CLECs and other ILEC competitors, urging the FCC to deny the petition. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Dakota regulatory commissions also said (here, here, here) USTelecom hadn't made the case for the requested relief. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said it based its opposition on the data in the FCC's October 2014 local competition report, which "indicates that the ILEC provision of switched access service still remains a dominant service." The USTelecom petition is premature, it said. But USTelecom said no parties opposing its requests offered "any tangible or new evidence to dispute the overwhelming facts in the record clearly demonstrating that [ILECs] are not dominant in the provision of switched access voice services because they no longer possess sufficient power to control prices in that marketplace." USTelecom said it wasn't seeking blanket deregulation of those services. It wants ILECs to have the same rights as others to (1) file tariffs on one day's notice and without cost support, (2) face a 30-day (instead of 60-day) waiting period for discontinuance applications to be granted and (3) be eligible for presumptive streamlined treatment for more types of transfers of control under Section 214 of the Communications Act. It said the relief wouldn't affect special access services, wholesale obligations or forbearance decisions. AT&T said the current regulation imposes administrative costs and hurts dynamism by "inhibiting carriers' ability nimbly to adjust to changes in consumer demand in today's hypercompetitive marketplace." Alaska Communications also backed the petition.
The FCC Wireline Bureau approved GTCR Onvoy's planned takeover of Broadvox-CLEC, Layered Communications, Minnesota Independent Equal Access, Onvoy and Zayo Enterprise Networks, said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The PN said license transfers were granted under Section 214 of the Communications Act. The acquired entities are operating subsidiaries of Communications Infrastructure Investments.
Parties have until April 18 to weigh in on Puerto Rico Telephone Co.'s plan to serve 323 more census blocks with higher-speed service using Connect America Fund Phase I support, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a docket 10-90 public notice listed in Monday's Daily Digest. Under CAF I rules, other providers get 45 days to indicate if they're already providing 3 Mbps down and 768 kbps up data speeds in any of the targeted areas, and PRTC must certify to the best of its ability whether the locations are unserved.
AT&T and Great Lakes Comnet asked a bankruptcy court to ease an automatic stay to permit a federal appellate court to continue its review of GLC's legal challenge of an FCC order siding with AT&T on an intercarrier compensation dispute, AT&T said in an appellate court filing Monday. "AT&T expects that the bankruptcy court will act on the stipulation as early as this week, and will enter an order consistent with the stipulation that lifts the stay (to the extent it applies) to allow this proceeding to move forward," AT&T told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which has been considering Great Lakes Comnet and Westphalia Telephone Co. v. FCC, No. 15-1064. If the stay is lifted for the D.C. Circuit case, AT&T suggested the appeals court keep its oral argument scheduled for April 1. GLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and said the automatic stay blocked D.C. Circuit review of its challenge to the FCC order (see 1602040034). AT&T asked the bankruptcy court to lift the stay (see 1602250022). Answering a D.C. Circuit request that they weigh in on the matter, the DOJ and FCC told the court in a response Monday that they don't intend to take a position on the AT&T request for the bankruptcy court to lift the stay. If the bankruptcy court lifts the stay in a timely manner, the DOJ and FCC said they don't object to the D.C. Circuit holding oral argument April 1. If the stay isn't lifted, they said they believe the D.C. Circuit's review of the GLC challenge to the FCC order is blocked, and that it wouldn't be appropriate to move ahead with review of GLC subsidiary Westphalia Telephone's case against the FCC order.
A federal court asked the Department of Justice and FCC to respond to a Great Lakes Comnet filing notifying the court of a bankruptcy automatic stay that GLC said barred further court consideration of the company's challenge to a commission order siding with AT&T on an intercarrier compensation dispute (see 1602040034). The respondents should address the effect of the automatic stay on the GLC case and whether they intend to take a position on an AT&T motion for a bankruptcy court to lift the stay (see 1602250022), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in an order Thursday in Great Lakes Comnet, No. 15-1064. The DOJ/FCC response is due Monday.
The FCC modified a protective order to allow parties to use confidential materials from a commission enforcement proceeding -- on an AT&T intercarrier compensation complaint against Great Lakes Comnet -- in the bankruptcy proceeding of Great Lakes Comnet (see 1602040034) pursuant to a protective order to be entered in that case. The action was announced in a letter Thursday from the Enforcement Bureau to AT&T, GLC and their outside counsels.