Reductions in intercarrier compensation rates for originating intrastate toll VoIP traffic should be paused, effective June 30, 2014, until full implementation of the Phase II Connect America Fund, in the case of price-cap telcos, said NTCA and several other groups in an emergency petition for a waiver of FCC rules (http://bit.ly/1mvpDo8) posted Monday in docket 10-90. For rural, rate of return-regulated carriers, the waiver was sought until the implementation of a tailored CAF mechanism for the rural LECs. The reductions would cost Frontier Communications and Windstream $14.5 million total annually, the petition said. The Eastern Rural Telecom Association, Frontier, IITA, National Exchange Carrier Association, WTA and Windstream joined in the waiver request.
Equipment capable of using alternative technologies like TV white spaces that can provide reliable broadband service to schools and libraries should qualify for E-rate funding, even if provisioned by schools and libraries and not by a broadband service provider, Microsoft said in a letter (http://bit.ly/1md8LD9) posted as an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 13-184. School districts in urban areas or near major universities frequently have 1 Gbps connectivity, but more than half of U.S. students are in rural school districts, said the company. Employing alternative technologies “should increase the likelihood and reduce the expense of reaching that broadband threshold in rural areas,” it said. Exempting schools and libraries from competitive bidding procedures when purchasing commercially available Internet connections “creates a poor precedent within the E-rate program and could adversely impact the applicants, the Fund and the competitive providers that are currently active in the program,” a Comptel official told a Wireline Bureau official, said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/TQXOeX). Splits are emerging at the commission on E-rate, with a Friday vote on an order nearing. (See separate report above in this issue.)
Transcom Enhanced Services Monday petitioned for a rehearing en banc on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to uphold the FCC 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://1.usa.gov/1r18uaa) (CD May 27 p1). While acknowledging such rehearings involving an entire court are rarely granted, Transcom attorney Scott McCollough said he was “hopeful.” The petition asks for rehearing on three points, including a panel ruling that “calls do not terminate with Transcom for purposes of the ‘intraMTA rule,'” the petition said. “The panel did not address this issue in the context of ‘wireline,'” the petition said.
FairPoint was given a 60-day extension to file its 2013 Automated Reporting Management Information System reports for its two study areas associated with Northern New England Telephone Operations and with Telephone Operating Co. of Vermont, said an FCC Wireline Bureau order(http://bit.ly/1q0gy6l) posted in docket 86-182 Wednesday.
Global Tel*Link asked for a 60-day extension on data collection on inmate calling rates, which are due July 17, said a motion posted in docket 12-375 Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1kjjrvp). CenturyLink also requested a 60-day extension, in a motion posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/1lCKEcb). Global Tel*Link “does not routinely maintain the data requested by the Commission, and does not keep its books and records in the format of the Commission’s template spreadsheet or detailed instructions for categorizing and classifying the data,” the company’s motion said. The data collection “calls for extensive, highly detailed information organized in a very specific way, and compiling it will require an enormous amount of work,” said CenturyLink.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau denied Patrick Keane’s request that the commission reconsider the $979,000 penalty it issued against him in 2013 for sending at least 100 unsolicited fax ads to consumers as The Street Map Company. The FCC had issued three Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NALs) to Keane between 2010 and 2012 for sending the faxes, which advertised laminated maps. Keane didn’t pay the penalties prescribed in the NALs, prompting the FCC to issue its forfeiture order in 2013, the commission said. Keane responded with a handwritten petition for reconsideration based on his “inability to pay.” Keane’s arguments “do not justify reconsideration of the forfeiture,” the FCC said Wednesday. Petitions for reconsideration must usually be considered by the full commission, but a bureau can act if the facts presented in the petition “plainly do not warrant reconsideration,” the FCC said (http://bit.ly/1xnbEog).
NTCA is pleased with the FCC’s focus on funding connections within schools and libraries, because “adequate funding for this critical input remains insufficient,” association officials told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel June 30, said an ex parte notice posted (http://bit.ly/TPABdt) Tuesday in docket 13-184. Any reforms to the E-rate program should not inadvertently limit the support available to small, rural schools and libraries, NTCA said. Many schools in areas served by NTCA members already have access to high-speed broadband, the group said. “Member companies have made a determined effort to provide these schools and libraries with the robust internal connections, including Wi-Fi technology, necessary to deliver broadband service to each individual classroom and student,” the group said.
A key presentation at a May 30 closed-door FCC workshop examined whether and how ISPs “can satisfy consumers’ interest in their operation as open and nondiscriminatory conduits, while also ensuring the timely and high quality transmission of video content,” said an ex parte filing Monday by Jonathan Levy, deputy chief economist at the FCC. The filing in docket 14-57 (http://bit.ly/1o9uGsH) offers a few details from the workshop, also hosted by the Institute for Information Policy at Pennsylvania State University. Robert Frieden, a professor at the school, made the presentation and offered “a legal analysis confirming that ISPs can provide higher quality of service to promote the likelihood for speedy delivery of video content bitstreams without degradation caused by congestion and other factors,” Levy said. The opening part of the workshop was open to the public (CD May 30 p9).
Frontier Communications’ landline business phone customers can get text messages, the company said in a Tuesday news release (http://bit.ly/TAmvMB). It said messages are sent simultaneously “to the business’ Internet-connected devices” and users can reply from any device using the telco’s texting app run by Zipwhip, a cloud technology company.
The FCC should clarify the process for discontinuing telecom services before the next hurricane season, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld told an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly June 25, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1lOtxc5) posted to docket 12-353 Monday. Feld expressed concern the commission has not ruled on a Communications Act Section 214(a) process for Verizon’s request to discontinue telecom services in Mantoloking, New Jersey, after Superstorm Sandy. “This has become increasingly important due to reports about copper in certain areas that is no longer being repaired, and that carriers are (a) shifting customers to wireless service, or (b) moving customers to copper while it’s continuing Title II TDM service and requiring customers to take “digital voice” service which is not yet classified, wrote Feld. He said “these reports combined with commission inaction have the potential to leave an increasing number of residents without access to basic phone service."