Comments are due March 27, replies April 7 in FCC docket 13-75 on a petition for reconsideration of the 911 reliability order’s requirements regarding “diversity audits of critical 911 circuits,” said a Public Safety Bureau public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/1fxpqtb). Intrado seeks guidance that providers “may take reasonable alternative measures to meet the Commission’s standards in lieu of implementing any of the best practices adopted by the Order,” the notice said, quoting the company’s filing: “This would include confirming that Providers may take reasonable alternative measures instead of conducting Diversity Audits, Tagging Critical 911 Circuits, or auditing Monitoring Links."
The FCC has been working on the issue of rural call completion, a spokesman said, as Minnesota and other states are considering legislation on the issue (CD March 12 p15). The FCC has taken “major steps to remedy the serious and unacceptable problem of long-distance calls failing to reach rural homes and businesses,” said the spokesman. “Last October, it unanimously adopted new rules [http://fcc.us/1dVCJXR] that provide immediate solutions -- including barring false ring tones for calls that don’t connect -- while ensuring that the agency has the information it needs” (CD Oct 29 p2). The spokesman also noted two recent FCC enforcement actions. On Feb. 20, Windstream agreed to pay $2.5 million and implement a three-year plan to improve its performance to resolve (http://fcc.us/1gnKAye) an FCC investigation into the company’s rural call completion practices (CD Feb 21 p15). A year ago, Level 3 agreed (http://bit.ly/1iFJuNg) to pay nearly $1 million to the U.S. Treasury and meet call completion benchmarks in response to a separate FCC investigation (CD March 13/13 p7). “These actions build on a series of steps taken by the FCC to address this problem in previous years, including clarifying our rules, working closely with state commissions, carriers, industry standards-setting bodies and more,” said the spokesman by email. “Long-term, the FCC’s comprehensive reform of intercarrier compensation is gradually reducing the intercarrier fees that are at the root of the problem, largely eliminating incentives for practices that appear to be undermining the reliability of rural service. We are working hard on every front to eliminate this serious problem.” Thursday, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., introduced a bill (CD March 14 p7) addressing rural call completion problems (see separate report above in this issue).
The FCC should create an “Upgrade Fund” to facilitate widespread fiber investment in schools and libraries, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute told a Wireline Bureau official March 7, according to an ex parte letter posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/1gfooCc). Robust fiber investments will ultimately lead to a “better and more efficient E-rate program,” as fiber connectivity will “soon be a necessity in the world of digitally-driven learning.” A fiber infrastructure will allow the technology “to scale along with school and library needs,” New America said. Data collection processes within the E-rate program can be enhanced to support integration with other data sets such as those maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics, the filing said. The group also urged the FCC to make the data available to researchers and the public more broadly.
A proposed service-based IP transition experiment would focus on helping the elderly embrace modern technology. The proposal by Santel Communications Cooperative in Mitchell, S.D., would bring new technologies to the elderly “in a way that is educational, comfortable, and valuable for the individuals we serve,” said the proposal, filed Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1fusLt3). The program would have “young, tech-savvy instructors reach out to elderly populations within the environments in which the elderly are comfortable,” Santel said. “We will approach the communications chasm on two fronts: first, addressing discomfort with devices; and second, teaching individuals how to use these new communications Internet Protocol technology tools to enrich their connection with their friends and loved ones.”
The IP transition will bring several challenges to the next number portability administrator, said a white paper submitted by Neustar to the FCC Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1glvrxs). Neustar also sent the paper to all the North American Numbering Council members. The Number Portability Administration Center was formed around the mandate of encouraging competition and improving customers’ experience, said the paper by Yankee Group Vice President Jennifer Pigg: “The transition to IP opens up a new world of opportunity and a new set of challenges.” During the next decade, the number portability administrator “will be grappling with the issue of separating location from individual and providing sensible routing that does not backhaul traffic to arbitrary locations” based on the location routing number of a switch, the paper said. Neustar has asked repeatedly for another round of bids for the number portability administrator position, arguing in part that the bidding process had not emphasized the importance of IP transition issues (CD Feb 13 p13).
The FCC should consider “immediately” referring several issues to the appropriate federal-state Joint Board, NARUC told an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1cuZqUi). USF contribution reform and a replacement model for implementation of Connect America Phase II should be sent to the joint board, NARUC said. The FCC’s “reluctance, through multiple administrations,” to classify VoIP service as either a telecom service or “something else,” has caused “significant costs to industry and rate payers,” NARUC said.
The “dynamic of serially escalating rates for local telephone services that reach far fewer consumers than in urban areas will, if anything, almost certainly prompt more consumers in rural areas to seek in the near term to ‘cut the cord’ and obtain only fixed broadband service,” NTCA told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1cuWHdp). This development “underscores the need to solve once and for all” the increased broadband costs for consumers who choose to end voice service in high-cost areas served by smaller rate-of-return regulated LECs, NTCA said.
By the time the dust settled Friday, at least 500 “expressions of interest” were submitted by rural telecom providers eager to expand broadband service. That was the date when rural ISPs, telcos and others could respond to the FCC’s open-ended call for expressions of interest to get funding money to be used for experiments. The filings were still trickling into FCC docket 10-90 Tuesday, as companies and associations asked for anywhere from a few tens of thousands of dollars, to several tens of millions of dollars. “Comlink LLC. requests $240 M in funding from the Connect America Fund in payments over four years at 25% of the total amount per year,” said a typical filing (http://bit.ly/1giAcrN). The FCC has contemplated a total funding amount of $50 million-$100 million for rural broadband experiments (CD March 7 p2).
The National Exchange Carrier Association filed its revised cost allocation manual reflecting changes that occurred during 2013, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Monday (http://bit.ly/1isq4vn). NECA said it made these changes to improve reporting accountability and more accurately reflect cost pools, the notice said. Comments in docket 14-01 are due April 9, replies April 24.
Neustar initiated a “formal dispute” Friday before the North American Numbering Council (NANC) regarding the Local Number Portability Administrator request for proposal and selection process (http://bit.ly/PkXEen). Neustar challenged the acceptance of “at least one untimely initial proposal” and the “failure to call for an additional round of proposals,” said the letter sent to NANC Chairman Betty Ann Kane. The parties that failed to submit proposals in compliance with applicable deadlines “should be disqualified” and another round of proposals should be solicited, Neustar said. “Failure to seek additional proposals in response to Neustar’s request is contrary to the interests of consumers and the industry at large. Such a decision deprives the Commission of a complete record and full evaluation of all qualified proposals.”