The Telecommunications Industry Association joined all other recent commenters (CD June 25 p16) in backing a Voice Communication Exchange Committee request that the FCC issue a notice of inquiry on migrating to HD voice as part of the IP transition. As that committee noted, migrating to HD voice “would accomplish many of the same benefits -- and poses many of the same challenges” -- “as the migration to HDTV overseen effectively by the Commission,” said a TIA comment posted Tuesday in docket 13-5 (http://bit.ly/1jOg3Is). “Using the HDTV transition as a model the Commission could include the migration to HD voice as a part of the IP transition, which would allow the Commission to address the collective technical challenges confronting the industry, while leveraging the extensive public awareness of the transition to HDTV."
The rate-of-return regulated rural ILEC group with an FCC plan for broadband USF (CD June 25 p17, June 25 p14) includes about a dozen such companies with fewer than 10,000 access lines each, said industry officials involved with the Small Company Coalition in emails to us Tuesday and Wednesday. Some previous filings by the group hadn’t identified members of the coalition, which seeks among other things broadband access for rural and urban areas on similar conditions, rates and terms within USF budget parameters. ILEC members include Citizens Telephone of Kecksburg in Pennsylvania and Sacred Wind Communications in New Mexico. Associate coalition members include Alexicon Telecommunications Consulting, where Principal Doug Kitsch is involved with the effort, the Blooston Mordkofsky law firm and Calix Networks, which makes broadband systems, said the materials provided by Kitsch, a consultant to the group, and Jim Kail, on the coalition’s executive committee and the CEO of Pennsylvania ILECs including the Laurel Highland telco.
National hotel chains have made real progress enabling guests to dial 911 directly, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1v24oLt). Pai said in January he would contact major hotel chains to ensure 911 works wherever it’s dialed (CD Jan 14 p14). He raised a December incident in which a child tried to dial 911 when her mother was being strangled by her estranged husband. The child “tried to call 911 four times but never reached emergency personnel” because the hotel required her to first dial 9 to get an outside line, Pai said then. The Wyndham Hotel Group reported earlier this year that only 80 percent of its owned and managed properties allowed direct dialing to 911, but now all its properties do so, Pai said. Hyatt initially reported that 75 percent of its managed properties allowed direct 911 access, but it now provides this functionality at 99 percent of its properties, he said. The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) is “continuing to play an important role in solving this problem,” Pai said. “AH&LA has now issued an industry-wide recommendation that encourages all of its members to move to direct 911 dialing.” AH&LA is hosting a members-only webinar on the issue Thursday (http://bit.ly/1v28wLs).
Correction: The FCC docket where an American Library Association ex parte filing was made, on ALA’s discussion of E-rate with a Wireline Bureau official, was 13-184 (http://bit.ly/1iQzJLM) (CD June 23 p12).
A group of rate-of-return regulated rural local exchange carriers wants broadband access for rural and urban areas on similar conditions, rates and terms within USF budget parameters, it told the FCC. The Small Company Coalition, which has described itself as a national group of rural telecom and broadband providers (http://bit.ly/1nC5EkH), asked the agency to avoid unfunded mandates or retroactive rulemaking. It said “voice traffic will never go away completely,” as it declines at a 5-15 percent rate annually and “networks are not being used less, but instead are being used more than ever,” in an attachment (http://bit.ly/1jLisUo) to a coalition letter to the commission posted Monday in docket 10-90 (http://bit.ly/1o08FxY). “IP and bandwidth is replacing TDM and voice traffic at an alarming rate.” The coalition said its proposal would work with one from ITTA, a group of mid-sized telcos, and rate-of-return companies could choose which model works best. The coalition said it has “refined and improved” its plan after getting feedback from industry stakeholders and to reflect issues raised in the FCC Connect America Fund order (CD June 12 p7). The materials didn’t identify the members of the coalition.
A decision by the Universal Service Administrative Co. against the Peerless Network was reversed by an FCC Wireline Bureau order (http://bit.ly/1pKgF7M) released in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. USAC had rejected Peerless’ revised May 2013 FCC Form 499-Q because it was filed outside the 45-day deadline for filing revisions, the order said. A request meanwhile by American Cyber Corp., Coleman Enterprises, Inmark, Lotel and Protel Advantage for reconsideration of a 2007 bureau order was granted by the bureau in an order (http://bit.ly/1q5mmPA). The bureau had found the companies were resellers of telecom services, and were obligated to contribute to the USF, but the bureau overlooked facts that showed the companies were telemarketers, not resellers, the order said.
All initial comments appeared to support a Voice Communication Exchange Committee request that the FCC issue a notice of inquiry on migrating to HD voice as part of technology transitions the agency is considering, based on filings in docket 13-5 as of Tuesday afternoon. Among NOI backers were Zula co-founder Jeff Pulver (http://bit.ly/1l7mczq), the VoIP pioneer and founder of Vonage; Vonage filing separately (http://bit.ly/1mbbDLX); the Voice on the Net Coalition, which was also founded by Pulver (http://bit.ly/1sC1kdk); and Dialogic, a maker of codecs, including for HD voice (http://bit.ly/Tclfit). The Voice on the Net Coalition said HD voice implementation can give consumers enhanced voice quality, “rejuvenate user interest in voice calls, and improve competitiveness of global communications infrastructure,” all within the IP transition. Vonage called an NOI an “incremental step” and said the FCC should promote the IP transition: An “NOI exploring the standards development -- and related IP transition issues” -- would “smooth the transition to HD voice.” Monday was the deadline for comments on a Wireline Bureau public notice seeking feedback on the committee’s request (http://bit.ly/1nCdE4Z). It noted the request was for the agency to “investigate the benefits of a common HD voice implementation to replace standard definition voice services historically associated with the Public Switched Telephone Network.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau made some changes on local number portability (LNP), as recommended by the North American Numbering Council, while declining to approve a NANC preference involving states and changes to area codes. The bureau didn’t make any changes related to LNP administrator, which is the subject of a separate public notice after the NANC recommended a unit of Ericsson be the next LNP administrator, a job now held by Neustar. (See separate report in this issue.) LNP “provisioning flows” to improve the phone number porting process will be improved via changes to canceling a number port request, stopping new service providers from prematurely activating ports and other clarifications, said a bureau order released in Monday’s FCC Daily Digest (http://bit.ly/V6bFQ4). “Notwithstanding” the NANC’s “preference for area code overlays over area code splits,” the order said it clarified that “states still have the option to choose the best means of implementing area code relief for their citizens.”
Data from a “preliminary” study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) shows interconnection is only one of “numerous reasons a broadband user could have a frustrating experience with their broadband,” said Doug Brake, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation telecom policy analyst, in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1ijT3X7). The MIT/UCSD study, released last week, showed congestion on the Internet doesn’t appear to be widespread and is mostly confined to issues like Netflix’s streaming latency (CD June 19 p9). Blaming network congestion on ISPs, as Netflix has, “is not at all supported by recent data collected by the FCC that shows ISPs deliver, on average, 101 percent of advertised speeds,” Brake said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau Connect America Cost Model order provides too much support to price-cap LEC territories, said the American Cable Association in an application for review (http://bit.ly/1jJQCI3) posted Monday in docket 10-90. The order is “erroneous” because it presumes too high a cost and too low of a “take-rate” -- revenue from users -- in calculating the funding, ACA said. The commission should have instead used figures suggested by ACA, the group said. It said that would let support be provided “more efficiently, enabling many more unserved locations to be supported in the Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II."