All of Globalstar’s second-generation satellites are in full commercial service, and the new network supports its current lineup of voice, duplex and simplex data products and services, it said in a press release (http://bit.ly/184yC65). The satellites have a 15-year life span, which is double the life of the company’s earlier satellites, it said.

Bel Air Internet expanded its 10-gigabyte data backbone to Orange County, Calif., said the company in a news release Wednesday (http://prn.to/16QcWIp). It’s now offering its triple play of services to many residential and commercial developments, where customers can select residential speeds of up to 25 Mbps and business speeds up to 1 Gbps, said Bel Air Internet. It said the expansion has increased the company’s footprint to over 2,000 square miles.

Equinox Global Telecommunications will continue to expand its long-haul route projects in Charlotte, N.C., and Georgia, said the company in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/12KNQgD). The provider of carrier-grade, low-latency telecom network services is engineering its network to meet the “rising demand of dark fiber and broadband services across the southeast,” said Equinox. Construction on its network operating center is expected to be completed by the end of the year and original equipment manufactures vendors will also soon be selected, said Equinox.

The National Exchange Carrier Association proposed modifications to the formula used to calculate interstate USF high-cost loop (HCL) expense adjustments for average schedule companies (http://bit.ly/153xRIo). The formula and associated cost per loop values would govern HCL payments in 2014. Annual payments under the proposed formula would total about $13.7 million, payable to 224 average schedule study areas in 2014, NECA said. That’s a decrease of about $300,000, or 2.1 percent, compared to current payments. This portion of USF payouts is small, because average schedule companies generally have costs between 115-150 percent of the capped National Average Cost per Loop, “and thus receive support compensating for only a minor portion of their loop costs,” NECA said.

If the FCC Wireline Bureau chooses to use a 5-kilofoot design to estimate the number of supported locations that should receive 6/1.5 Mbps service under state-level commitments, “it will require carriers to expend significant extra cost without sufficient corresponding gains,” USTelecom told the bureau in a letter Tuesday (http://bit.ly/153slFN). It recommended the bureau use a 12-kilofoot design, which would be “most closely aligned with the types of networks carriers will actually deploy” to fulfill the requirements of Connect America Fund Phase II.

The American Bar Association released an expanded antitrust handbook focusing on the telecom industry, it said Wednesday. It explores the “fundamental economic underpinnings of communications networks that make substantive analysis of antitrust issues in this sector unique and challenging,” the association said. It also examines mergers, joint ventures and restraint of trade as applied to the telecom industry. Consumer protection and net neutrality are also covered. The book sells for $199 (http://bit.ly/153rfd6). “Monopolization and immunity issues have become particularly challenging for the telecom antitrust plaintiff following the Supreme Court’s decision in Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko,” said an ABA summary of the book. “These issues, and their evolution since the 2004 Trinko decision are dealt with extensively” in the chapters on monopolization and immunity, the summary said. In Trinko, the U.S. Supreme Court found that an ILEC’s failure to share its network with competitors does not constitute a Sherman Act antitrust violation. A chapter on international issues focuses on regulatory and antitrust developments in Canada and the EU. An appendix contains a “comprehensive and understandable discussion” of the net neutrality debate, the summary said.

FairPoint Communications and Windstream separately withdrew their requests for waivers of some high-cost universal service rules, in letters sent to the FCC Tuesday. FairPoint had sought a waiver of the requirement that recipients of Connect America Fund Phase I money deploy broadband to one unserved location for each $775 subsidy it received (CD Sept 12 p14). “The relief sought by FairPoint in the Petition largely has been addressed by the Commission’s release of additional incremental support in the second round of Connect America Fund Phase I,” said the telco (http://bit.ly/153p6xV). Windstream had sought a waiver that would have let it elect nearly $60 million more in 2012 Phase I support. In addition to a waiver of the $775-per-location rule, it also asked permission to use the funds to deploy second-mile fiber (CD July 25 p3). In light of “revisions to the CAF Phase I incremental support program” in an order adopted in May, “Windstream no longer requires the waiver,” it said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/153txZF).

The FCC Wireless Bureau stopped its unofficial 180-day clock for review of a January deal for AT&T to buy former Alltel spectrum licenses from Atlantic Tele-Network for $780 million. Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman said Tuesday the companies haven’t fully answered questions the bureau posed June 5 (http://bit.ly/18Xg0bZ). The bureau “requested AT&T’s plans for migrating all of ATN’s customers following the proposed transaction,” Milkman wrote (http://bit.ly/13X9tgA). “In response, we have received information on AT&T’s plans for ATN’s post-paid customers. As of the date of this letter, however, despite several Commission staff follow-up conversations about the importance of transitioning pre-paid customers, we have received no detailed responses from AT&T on its plans for transitioning ATN’s significant pre-paid customer base.” The commission’s review was at day 175 on Tuesday. AT&T is “extremely” disappointed the FCC froze the clock, on what amounts to a “small” transaction, said Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi. “AT&T is ready, willing and able to make significant network investments in these rural territories to bring HSPA+ and LTE services to Allied’s customers, an investment that will not occur but for this transaction,” he said. “AT&T has actively worked to address FCC concerns and will continue to work with the Commission until all issues are resolved."

Sprint still expects to have the first phase of its Network Vision network upgrade plan “largely complete” by the middle of 2014, Wells Fargo analyst Davis Hebert said Tuesday in a note to investors. Hebert was among the Wells Fargo staff and investors that met with Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, Chief Financial Officer Joe Eutenauer and other Sprint executives Tuesday. Network Vision’s first phase involves an enhanced 3G and LTE overlay at Sprint’s 38,000 cell sites, as well as the now-completed shutdown of the old Nextel iDEN network. The carrier expects its LTE network to cover an area containing a potential 200 million customers by the end of the year, Hebert said. Network Vision’s second phase -- the incorporation of the 2.5 GHz spectrum Sprint acquired in its buyout of Clearwire -- “has yet to begin,” Hebert said. Sprint expects to reveal more details about incorporation of this spectrum “at some point in the not-too-distant future,” he said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment on a request by Purple Communications regarding use of the Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service through Web or wireless technologies (http://bit.ly/19L50Ng). Purple requested the commission clarify that footnote 122 of the Video Relay Service reform order, stating that “calls that are completed using a technology that does not provide both inbound and outbound functionality are not compensable from the TRS Fund,” doesn’t apply when users access IP CTS through Web and wireless services. Purple said the footnote, if left intact, “would force Purple and other IP CTS providers to cease the provision of IP CTS using web and wireless applications,” as no technology currently allows inbound IP CTS over Web or wireless technologies to be captioned without some intermediary step. Comments on the petition are due 15 days after publication in the Federal Register, replies 25 days later, in docket 10-51. Separately Monday, the commission released an order on IP CTS rules. (See separate report above in this issue.)