NTCA said more time is needed for a comprehensive rural carrier USF overhaul than is currently anticipated under the FCC's timetable for action this year. Citing the "complexity of proposals and the currently fluctuating and unclear state of the record on them," the FCC processes "necessarily require more time than permitted before a year-end Commission vote," NTCA said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. NTCA said the FCC could by year-end adopt a fix to solve some targeted issues, including the "standalone broadband problem" under which rate-of-return rural carriers currently lose high-cost USF support when customers switch voice service to other providers.
A federal appellate court upheld a lower court ruling dismissing Spectra Communications' claims that a Missouri city violated federal and state law by forcing the company to comply with a local ordinance on public rights of way, including pole attachments. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision by a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri that sided with the city of Cameron, Missouri, against Spectra, which is owned by CenturyLink. "The district court dismissed one of Spectra's federal claims for failure to state a claim and, in light of parallel state court proceedings, later dismissed Spectra's remaining claims on the basis of res judicata or, alternatively, abstention. The district court also denied the City's motion for attorney fees. Spectra and the City filed cross appeals. We affirm," said the panel in its ruling Tuesday in Spectra Communications Group v. City of Cameron, No. 14-2808. Section 253 of the federal Communications Act "does not create an individual private right of action and the district court therefore did not err in dismissing Spectra's § 1983 claim. In addition, the district court did not abuse its discretion in abstaining under the Colorado River case or in denying the City's motion for attorney fees," the panel said.
The FCC dismissed three Frontier Communications pole-attachment complaints against Duke Energy after the companies settled their disputes, the Enforcement Bureau said in orders released Tuesday in dockets 14-213, 14-214 and 14-215 (here, here and here).
Global Tel*Link urged the FCC to reject a motion against its letter that cited threats against company executives arising out of the FCC's inmate calling service actions and statements. In a response posted Friday in docket 12-375, GTL said the motion of the Martha Wright Petitioners to strike its Oct. 27 letter from the record and sanction the company for allegedly violating Sunshine Act rules should be rejected because the letter "is not part of the record for the inmate calling service ('ICS') proceeding" and thus "is not ripe." GTL offered various arguments for why the letter was not an official "presentation" covered by the rules or an attempt to influence the ICS rulemaking. GTL said it simply considered the threats a "safety of life" issue. Referring to both the GTL letter and similar Securus filings, the Martha Wright Petitioners said Friday, “It is our understanding that the FCC has determined that the ex parte notices apparently violated the FCC’s rules. We are confident that the FCC will take the appropriate action to address the matter.”
Great Lakes Comnet criticized the FCC defense of an order that sided with AT&T in finding certain GLC access-charge tariffs exceeded a CLEC benchmark rule. The FCC justification (see 1510060033) of its interpretation of Rule 61.26 “is inconsistent with the Rule’s plain language, contravenes the FCC’s past pronouncements as to its meaning, and involves mutually inconsistent interpretations of different subparts of Rule 61.26,” said GLC and subsidiary Westphalia Telephone in their reply brief Wednesday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Great Lakes Comnet v. FCC, No. 15-1064). GLC said the FCC order “retroactively changed the plain meaning of Rule 61.26 in an adjudicatory proceeding. The agency found the intermediate carrier was a CLEC -- and thus couldn’t have access tariffs above an ILEC competitor’s rates -- even though its tandem-switch and transport services didn’t directly serve retail end users. GLC said that finding “nullifies the carve-out" from unpaid bill-and-keep traffic exchanges the FCC created for intermediate carriers in a 2011 intercarrier-compensation overhaul. GLC said the FCC also erred in (1) not giving it a rural exemption, (2) finding AT&T Michigan was the competing ILEC, (3) engaging in an unconstitutional taking by forcing it to offer services for free through bill-and-keep, (4) applying the decision retroactively, and (5) making certain statute-of-limitations findings, which GLC said the commission had conceded. The company said the FCC brief made various misstatements of facts, including suggesting long-distance carriers such as AT&T have “no choice” of intermediate carriage to reach local networks, which GLC said it did. GLC also disputed FCC claims that the company (1) “inserted itself in the traffic stream," when instead it had responded to an AT&T service request, (2) “stipulated that it serves urban areas,” when it noted only that it had transport facilities in both urban and rural areas, not that it "served" (originated/terminated traffic from/to) end users in urban areas, and (3) engaged in improper billing to “disguise” traffic, when it made a “simple billing mistake” that was quickly fixed.
NTCA raised questions about a possible FCC “bifurcated approach” to rural telco USF reform under which prior expenses would be recoverable through existing mechanisms while new investments and some stand-alone broadband expenses would be recoverable through new mechanisms. “While it is important to get reform done quickly, it is more important to get reform done right,” NTCA said in a filing posted Monday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with a senior FCC staffer. The rural telco group asked what the bifurcated approach's objective is, given that it believes FCC-articulated reform principles are more likely to be achieved by “already-proposed measures,” such as “budget controls and reasonable limits on operating expenses and prospective capital investments." Plus, NTCA said existing high-cost loop support (HCLS) and interstate common line support (ICLS) mechanisms have "shortcomings," but they have worked "better than any other system" to encourage and enable sustainable rural broadband investment. It's “essential that any reforms strike a careful balance toward both a reasonable opportunity to recover costs in accordance with the rules in place at the time the relevant investments and associated expenses were incurred and the need to provide sufficient and predictable support for future broadband deployment and operations; neither can or should be sacrificed for the other,” NTCA said. The group also voiced concerns about any “artificial cut-off” of HCLS/ICLS support that would move all associated costs “to the new mechanism as of a future date certain.” NTCA said HCLS and ICLS support should “continue for the useful life of networks used to deliver supported services; even after those networks are fully depreciated, rural rate-of-return-regulated local exchange carriers ('RLECs') will continue to incur expenses to deliver voice and broadband services over them.” NTCA also noted the “time sensitivity” of a request for commission review of a Wireline Bureau denial of a petition for reconsideration of an HCLS rate floor, which rural telcos believe was flawed. Rural telcos aren’t substantively challenging the application of the rate floor to HCLS support, but its methodology, and the FCC should act “well in advance of June 2016" to set "a more reasonable methodology,” the group said.
The FCC proposed to freeze video relay service rates for smaller VRS providers, which along with larger providers have been subject to regular compensation rate cuts. The commission proposed to partially modify ongoing rate cuts in a four-year VRS compensation plan adopted in 2013 "by adopting a limited-duration compensation rate freeze applicable to VRS providers with 500,000 or fewer monthly minutes," said a Further NPRM released Tuesday in docket 10-51. "Under this proposed modification, such providers will receive compensation at a rate of $5.29 per minute for a maximum of 16 months beginning July 1, 2015. We also seek comment on whether to adopt a number of measures that could enhance the functional equivalence of VRS." As expected (see 1510220067), the notice didn't include an order, as a draft VRS item originally contemplated (see 1510160026). Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, who said he supports seeking comment on freezing the rates for the three smallest VRS providers, partially dissented from the FNPRM. He cited concerns about potentially unjustified expenses.
The current FCC appears to be waging a “war” against private infrastructure investment, Bob Quinn, AT&T senior vice president-federal regulatory, said Tuesday in a blog post. Quinn cited reports that the agency is sending out “SWAT” teams of FCC staffers “to preach the use” of USF dollars “to build government-owned and operated broadband infrastructure in rural and non-rural areas,” and pointed to the agency’s enhanced look at special access rates. “To be clear, we at AT&T have no problem with government-owned networks in areas where there has been a market failure because the economics for the private sector just don’t work,” Quinn wrote. “Unfortunately, the FCC’s advocacy here … doesn’t appear to be limited to circumstances of market failure.” In the past, “incenting all companies to build broadband was THE goal of all policymakers. It doesn’t feel that way anymore,” he said. The FCC started down this “circa-1980’s regulatory journey” three years ago, he said. “I fretted that these moves signaled its intent to abandon policies that were designed to, and did, result in significant broadband infrastructure investment in the U.S. I called the FCC’s moves the Bridge to Nowhere. My point then, and still is, that the FCC should be focused on establishing policies that lead to more fiber and broadband infrastructure investment in this country. ... It’s high time the FCC got serious about policies that incent that kind of investment.”
USTelecom pressed FCC officials for approval of a petition for forbearance relief from special access discount restrictions and other rules. "We discussed the relief sought in that petition, particularly in the areas of discounting special access services, equal access requirements and structural separation mandates placed on rate-of-return carriers," said a USTelecom filing posted Monday in docket 14-192. "FCC rules that explicitly ban offering lower prices to customers that want them seem unlikely to serve the public interest. USTelecom’s Petition seeks targeted relief that would provide consumers immediate benefits from increased discounting while preserving the Commission’s broad powers to act."
The FCC Wireline Bureau announced the timeline for an urban rate survey of fixed voice and broadband service providers. Email notifications will be sent on or about Tuesday to Form 477 contact persons of fixed service providers that are required to participate in the survey, with completed surveys due Dec. 8, the bureau said in a public notice posted in docket 10-90 Friday.