FCC’s letter of credit requirement for recipients of rural broadband experiment funding would be “onerous” if applied to Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II recipients, USTelecom said in comments posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. Rural broadband experiment recipients are required to obtain a letter of credit (LOC) equal to the amount they’ve previously received through the 10-year program, plus the amount scheduled to be dispersed to them over the following year. The LOC must also remain open for 120 days after the program's completion, USTelecom said. For CAF Phase II, the requirement should be “tailored to the amount of money ‘at risk’ annually or at most within a one to two year range,” the filing said. An LOC could be required for the first two years, with no more than one to two years of disbursements protected by an LOC, the group said. USTelecom also agreed with CoBank’s proposal (see 1503230031) to reduce the credit amount only to cover funds to be disbursed over the following year, the filing said.
The FCC should reform inmate calling service rates to ensure they're “just and reasonable,” said the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates in a letter to the agency, posted Friday in docket 12-375. The agency has jurisdiction to regulate interstate and intrastate ISC rates, NASUCA said. Commission payments ICS providers make to correctional facilities shouldn't be considered “just” and shouldn't be included in approved rate caps, the group said.
Battery backup power regulations being considered by the FCC (see 1503100063) should reflect “market realities” that customers are migrating to wireless for voice service, American Cable Association officials said in several meetings with agency officials, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 14-174. Consumers switching to VoIP service realize their devices won't work during power outages without a backup power source, and as far as the ACA officials know, cable VoIP customers “have not expressed concern about not having line power during a power outage or with having to use some type of backup power supply,” the filing said. While VoIP subscriptions increased over the past decade, the growth has leveled off and many cable operators are losing voice subscribers to wireless, ACA Chairman Robert Gessner and other representatives of the group told David Simpson, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau chief, and other agency officials March 25, according to the filing. ”This trend would only accelerate if the Commission adopts its battery backup proposal since the new regulations would impose additional costs on VoIP providers that would be passed along to retail consumers,” ACA said. Ross Lieberman, ACA senior vice president-government affairs, and Thomas Cohen, of Kelley Drye, made the same arguments to Chairman Tom Wheeler's aide Daniel Alvarez and to an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in separate meetings the same day, according to the filing. Cohen also met with an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on the same day.
The FCC should cap the overall size of USF programs to protect consumers after the agency announced March 13 an increase in the program’s contribution factor to 17.4 percent for the second quarter of 2015, Free State Foundation's Seth Cooper said in a blog post Monday. The contribution factor is up from 16.8 percent. “Reducing USF surcharges should go hand-in-hand with comprehensive reforms that reduce the overall size of the USF subsidy system and improve its efficiency,” he wrote. Wireless customers are hit hardest by USF increases, he said, saying the agency considers 37.1 percent of a wireless consumer's calling plan as interstate long distance and subject to the USF surcharge. Given the commission’s authorization of an E-rate increase of $1.5 billion annually, “it's hard to expect voice consumers will avoid even heavier USF surcharge burdens in the future,” Cooper wrote.
It's “critically” important for the FCC to require ILECs offer competitive carriers wholesale local transmission facilities on rates, terms and conditions that let competitors compete for retail services, TDS Telecommunications said in a letter posted Friday in docket 05-25. Competitive carriers “remain crucially dependent on incumbent LEC wholesale transmission facilities in order to serve business customers,” the letter said. It's “clear to any industry observer that the incumbent LECs retain substantial and persisting market power over last-mile physical connections needed to serve business customers,” TDS wrote. The failure to adopt regulations “will significantly undermine, perhaps destroy entirely, many competitive carriers’ ability to compete. That outcome would lead to higher prices, less innovation, and degraded service quality for business broadband services across the country,” TDS wrote. Contrary to ILECs' arguments, competitive carriers aren't on equal footing with incumbent LECs when deploying fiber loops and are not able to obtain equivalent services from wholesale providers on reasonable rates, terms and conditions, the TDS said. It said ILECs as incumbents have “significantly lower costs” in deploying new loops to commercial buildings than CLECs. After “the relentless lobbying machine of the large ILECs eventually resulted in FCC and state commission decisions to increase the price and reduce the availability of regulated wholesale loops needed to serve business customers,” it has been “virtually impossible for CLECs to compete for small- and medium-sized business customers in second- and third-tier markets,” TDS said.
Google officials suggested FCC rule changes that would remove barriers to broadband deployment. The officials met with commission Chairman Tom Wheeler’s senior counselor Philip Verveer and other agency officials March 24, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 07-245 Friday. Existing rules still permit owners of infrastructure including poles, ducts and conduits to delay network build-outs through protracted make-ready timelines and processes, Google officials said in the meeting. The commission should “expeditiously update and clarify its infrastructure access and make-ready rules to streamline deployment processes,” Google said. Representing the company were Kevin Lo, Google Fiber general manager, Johanna Shelton, Google director-public policy and government relations, and Staci Pies, senior policy counsel. Google met with Wheeler aide Gigi Sohn and Matthew DelNero, deputy Wireline Bureau chief. Earlier last week, NCTA said it's “particularly puzzled” by Wheeler’s comments that cable companies are blocking access to utility poles by competitors (see 1503260052).
NCTA said on its policy blog it's “particularly puzzled” by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s comments to congressional committees that cable companies are blocking access to utility poles by competitors. “For starters, cable operators are not denying access to poles" and often "do not even own poles,” the post said Thursday. “Rather, like other competitors, they attach their facilities to poles owned by electric utilities and telephone companies. We are unaware of any case where a cable operator has denied pole access to another company and it is unfortunate that the Chairman continues to suggest otherwise.” NCTA said also the net neutrality order would allow pole owners to “demand higher pole rental fees from cable broadband providers.” The agency didn't comment.
Comments are due April 24, replies May 11 on The Compliance Group’s Jan. 27 petition for a declaratory ruling to clarify the exemption for systems integrators from USF contribution obligations, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday. It said Compliance wants a clarification on whether the exemption applies to the resale or provision of interconnected VoIP when resold or provisioned by a systems integrator.
It’s “vital” that the FCC clearly state its decision on commissions paid by inmate calling service providers to correctional facilities in the ongoing ICS rulemaking (see 1410230026), Securus Technologies CEO Richard Smith and Vice President Dennis Reinhold told Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and her aide Rebekah Goodheart; Daniel Alvarez, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler; and Lynne Engledow, deputy chief of the Wireline Bureau Pricing Division, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-375. ICS providers are required to pay the commission in most of its contracts, and to be able to renegotiate the contracts, “the law must be clear,” the Securus officials said at the March 19 meeting. They made the same argument to Travis Litman, an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a separate meeting the same day, said another filing.
Investors “under-appreciate” the FCC’s “broad and vague authority” created by the net neutrality order, Capital Alpha Partners said in a note to investors Sunday. In the short term, the order is a “status quo outcome” because carriers don't engage in blocking, throttling or paid prioritization, the note said. That the order contains broad forbearance and doesn't regulate retail rates are positives, CAP said. But the no unreasonable interference or disadvantage standards in the Internet conduct rule is a “catch-all vehicle that invites an unlimited number of complaints to be filed by political critics of the cable and telecom companies,” the note said. The rule is also “a vehicle for the potential arbitrary exercise of the FCC's regulatory discretion in [its] own proactive industry monitoring and investigations,” the note said. The added commission authority “complicates the business of broadband, which itself is becoming increasingly amorphous with new non-traditional entrants and products,” said the note.