Federal judges denied a Saturn Telecommunication Services challenge to two FCC orders that dismissed the company’s complaint against AT&T for allegedly violating duties on discounted wholesale access to its unbundled network elements (UNEs). Saturn failed to raise any new objections that weren't covered by a 2006 settlement with AT&T, a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a short per curium order Friday (Saturn v. FCC, No. 14-15422). “Under the Settlement Agreement, Saturn released ‘all Demands, Actions, and Claims, whether known or unknown, asserted or which could have been asserted, against [AT&T] related to the'" 2006 dispute, the 11th Circuit panel said. The judges said the agreement “broadly and unambiguously releases all claims that relate to the 2006 dispute and had accrued” as of the effective date. Saturn said AT&T engaged in post-settlement violations. But the Enforcement Bureau, in an order upheld by the full FCC, said Saturn’s new complaints closely related to or were the same as those that were raised or could have been raised in 2006, said the court, which agreed with the commission view. Saturn thus “fails to allege a new, independent violation as opposed to a continuation of the same released misconduct,” the judges said in upholding the FCC decisions. Saturn had no comment.
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly welcomed an FCC request for additional comments on a 2012 USTelecom petition for ILEC nondominance on certain services (see 1601210066). "Although refreshing the record is likely to confirm [what] we already know, I’m pleased that the ball is finally starting to roll on this item as it should allow the Commission to move to final action of providing the requested and appropriate relief very soon. I hope commenters will focus on the petition before the Commission and not esoteric issues, views or concerns," O’Rielly said in a statement Thursday. USTelecom had asked that incumbent telcos be declared "no longer presumptively dominant when providing interstate mass market and enterprise switched access services," said a Wireline Bureau public notice earlier Thursday in docket 13-3. Comments are due Feb. 22, replies March 7.
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought to refresh the record on a USTelecom petition from 2012 asking that incumbent telcos (ILECs) be declared "no longer presumptively dominant when providing interstate mass market and enterprise switched access services," said a public notice Thursday in docket 13-3. Comments are due Feb. 22, replies March 7. "We particularly welcome comment on marketplace or regulatory developments, since the filing of the Petition, that may bear on the Commission’s evaluation of the Petition," the bureau said. "We also encourage commenters to address further the practical impact and scope of the finding sought by the Petition. For instance, if the Commission were to grant the Petition, what services should it appropriately find to be included in the category 'interstate mass market and enterprise switched access services'? More generally, we invite commenters to submit any other data, information, or analysis that would be relevant to the Commission’s evaluation of the Petition."
The FCC teed up the National Exchange Carrier Association's proposals for modifying "average schedule" (rural carrier) formulas for interstate settlements, the Wireline Bureau said in a Thursday public notice in docket 15-298. Initial comments are due Feb. 22, replies March 8. "NECA proposes to revise the formulas for average schedule interstate settlement disbursements in connection with the provision of interstate access services for the period beginning July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017," the bureau said. "According to NECA’s filing, the proposed formula changes will increase settlement rates by 2.6 percent at constant demand."
As cybersecurity becomes a growing threat in IoT circles, efforts to combat cyberattacks are rising. Cybersecurity company WISeKey announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos Wednesday it signed a collaboration agreement with CenturyLink to explore a relationship offering a managed identity system for IoT providers in the U.S. It would secure firms’ IoT infrastructure and ensure privacy of their data, said the companies. WISeKey is looking to leverage CenturyLink’s data center presence in the U.S. to establish a Root of Trust, which it said provides the foundation behind trusted computing and allows IoT device verification at the hardware level. As the number of connected devices expands, “collecting and exchanging huge amounts of data along the way, the need for strong Internet of Things security services is becoming increasingly important for businesses and consumers,” said Gary Gauba, CenturyLink Cognilytics president. Cybersecurity will be a featured topic at the International Wireless Communication Expo in Las Vegas March 21-25, said show sponsor Penton Wednesday.
Oral argument is set for April 1 on Great Lakes Comnet's challenge to an FCC decision siding with AT&T in an access charge dispute, said an order Wednesday of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Great Lakes Comnet v. FCC, No. 15-1064). GLC and subsidiary Westphalia Telephone say the FCC erroneously concluded GLC was a “competitive local exchange carrier” (CLEC), and even if GLC were a CLEC, the agency should have found it exempt from related regulations as a “rural CLEC,” among other arguments (see 1508190065).
Advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing said they are concerned about the potential impact of ongoing compensation rate cuts on larger video relay service (VRS) providers, despite the agency's proposed temporary freeze on rates for smaller providers (see 1511030064). "We have seen and been alarmed by the deterioration of the quality of interpreting in VRS calls across the board, which appear to be exacerbated each time the Commission reduces the rates," said the National Association of the Deaf and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, in a filing Tuesday in docket 10-51 on a meeting with commission officials. "Any decision by the Commission to cut rates has the unintended consequence of cutting the quality of services. Instead, rates should be tied to the level of quality of services through the establishment of quality measurements." VRS provides video-connected interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with hearing phone callers. The groups noted commission officials said they hadn't seen a significant number of complaints about VRS service quality. "As consumers unfortunately do not have confidence in the complaint process, we responded that the FCC’s continued reliance on complaints to decide what to do here is vexing, especially given the lack of private rights of action," they said. "Although we are not in a position to objectively determine specific VRS compensation rates and measure whether the rates are reasonable or not, our stance remains that VRS providers must be compensated sufficiently to improve the quality of VRS through innovation, and to adequately train and pay their interpreters."
Cable is capable of providing broadband service to 77.1 percent of business customers, and probably more, in five Verizon markets, said a consultant hired by the telco. “Cable companies are now a ‘disruptive wild card’ in the marketplace," said Verizon in a filing posted Friday in FCC docket 05-25 on special access, which included a sworn declaration from Arthur Menko, president of Business Planning Inc. Menko said he studied cable business broadband offerings and capabilities in “core-based statistical areas” of the greater Albany (New York), Boston, Philadelphia, Virginia Beach and Washington, D.C., markets. “If a cable company is both DOCSIS 3.0-enabled and is providing voice service to a business customer in a Census Block, I used that as a proxy to demonstrate that business customers have access to business broadband services from that cable provider throughout the Census Block,” Menko said. He called his approach "conservative" because it didn't necessarily pick up areas where cable companies provide data-only services to business customers. Initial comments informed by industry data collected in the FCC’s special access rulemaking are due by Friday.
The FCC Wireline Bureau approved the takeover of Great Lakes Comnet and four subsidiaries by Ace Telephone Association and Ace Telephone Co. of Michigan. The GLC subsidiaries are Clinton County Telephone, Comlink, Westphalia Broadband and Westphalia Telephone, said a bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 15-224.
Comcast of Indianapolis and Duke Energy of Indiana settled a pole attachment dispute, the companies told the FCC Friday. In a joint motion filed in docket 15-290 Thursday, the companies asked the commission to dismiss a related Comcast complaint that said the dispute hurt broadband deployment (see 1511190006 and 1511200026).