Both broadband and wireless should be in the mix for high-cost Universal Service Fund reform, the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service said Thursday in a brief statement. The board adopted the statement in July, but it took the FCC two months to release it, sources said Friday.

Congress should extend the Internet tax moratorium law before it expires Nov. 1, USTelecom, NCTA, American Cable Association and CTIA said Thursday in letters to Democratic leaders. Citing “strong support” for bills (S-156, HR-743) to extend the moratorium, the groups warned that lifting the ban could expose consumers to burdensome new taxes. The letter was sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. In contrast to earlier appeals from trade groups, the cable and phone groups buried their request for a permanent extension of the moratorium. State tax officials have lobbied heavily for a four-year extension at most (CD June 22 p5). The trade groups said near the top of the letters to Reid and Pelosi that a moratorium should be extended “for as long as possible.” They didn’t mention that they wanted a permanent extension until the end of the letters, where they referred to “unnecessary, burdensome taxes” that would be barred permanently by S-156 and HR-743.

USTelecom didn’t violate FCC ex parte rules when it filed a letter on “traffic pumping,” the FCC ruled. Washington attorney Mark O'Connor charged USTelecom with making a barred ex parte presentation because the June 6 letter was sent after Quest had filed a formal complaint against Farmers & Merchants Telephone on the matter (CD June 18 p9). A formal complaint categorizes a proceeding as “restricted,” with filing barred. The commission ruled that USTelecom was raising the general issue of traffic pumping, not the Qwest complaint. “The ex parte rules do not prohibit discussions of topics of general concern merely because they may also be relevant in some respects to a restricted proceeding,” the FCC said in an Aug. 27 letter to O'Connor and USTelecom. The issue goes beyond the Qwest complaint, said the FCC. The agency has issued two orders involving traffic pumping that have had nothing to do with the complaint proceeding; one bars big carriers from blocking calls to alleged traffic pumpers, the other ordered an investigation of companies accused of traffic pumping, the FCC said. If parties were banned from talking about topics “of general concern” also the topic of investigations, it would “stifle public discussion,” the FCC said.

An order letting the FCC void exclusive video contracts between apartment building owners and pay-TV providers (CD July 6 p2) began circulating late Thursday on the eighth floor, according to FCC and industry officials. The draft from Chairman Kevin Martin’s office seems to stick closely to preliminary FCC findings that the agency can intervene in some such cases, said several industry officials. In seeking public comment March 27, the commission said it “tentatively” found that it can regulate exclusives when it finds they “impede competition and impair deployment of services.”

A federal district judge upheld an FCC refusal to release the contents of a database on broadband deployment and local competition compiled from carrier reports. The FCC has the right to protect Form 477 data deemed confidential by submitting companies, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in the District of Columbia said Monday. The Center for Public Integrity sued last year seeking access to the material after the FCC denied a request under the Freedom of Information Act. Huvelle said most data that the FCC sought to shield are exempt from FOIA search. Carriers must file Form 477 twice yearly, tallying broadband users among other things. The agency stance was endorsed by telecom companies and groups, including USTelecom, AT&T, Verizon, the Wireless Communications Association, National Cable Telecommunications Association and CTIA, which intervened or submitted amicus briefs supporting the FCC’s refusal to produce the records. The judge required release only of a small portion of the data, entered where carriers make additional comments to explain part of their reports. At issue isn’t the comments themselves but the carriers’ references to the “part” and “line” of the report to which the comments relate. The judge said the parties generally had agreed that this material could be revealed. But the Wireless Communications Association objected to release of the “part” and “line” information as revealing “the existence of a non-zero response to that particular line and item, thereby indicating that a filer is providing a particular service,” the judge said, quoting from a WCA court filing. The judge called WCA’s argument unpersuasive.

The FCC should raise the income ceiling for LifeLine and Link-Up program eligibility so the programs are in line with a similar one subsidizing heating costs, the Iowa Utilities Board said in comments filed late Friday. The FCC voted in 2004 to raise the Lifeline and Link-Up eligibility ceiling to 135 percent of federal poverty guidelines, seeking comments on whether to raise it to 150 percent. The agency recently asked for comments to “refresh” that issue, which had lain dormant.

Several cable, satellite and phone companies said the FCC should reject an exemption letting cable operators withhold their programming from competitors when channels aren’t distributed by satellite. The FCC should “endorse closing the terrestrial loophole,” said an ex parte filing about meetings Wednesday and Thursday between officials from AT&T, DirecTV, Embarq, RCN, and USTelecom and aides to Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners Michael Copps and Deborah Tate. The companies belong to the Coalition for Competitive Access to Content. Commissioners are weighing a rulemaking notice from Martin asking whether the FCC can eliminate that exemption, and about unbundling of some broadcast and cable programming, FCC officials said. The notice could be issued with an order on circulation to extend a ban on exclusive carriage deals between cable operators and satellite-distributed channels they control (CD Aug 24 p2). At last week’s meetings, the pay-TV companies again urged extending the exclusivity ban, the ex parte said.

The communications industry spent about $122 million on federal lobbying the first half of 2007, about 30 percent less than its $174.5 million outlay a year earlier, according to reports filed with the Secretary of the Senate and CQ’s Political Moneyline. The 2007 numbers aren’t final. The secretary’s office still is compiling reports, which were due Aug. 14, a Senate staffer said Wed. The interim tally shows telecom companies falling to third place, behind finance and health care, in spending.

State regulators need data in four FCC reports that AT&T no longer wants to fill out, two agencies told the FCC in comments filed Monday. States use the data to monitor service quality and competition, and the FCC reports are the only source for some information, they said.

USTelecom urged the FCC to approve Verizon’s wireline spinoff to FairPoint in a July letter, FairPoint said Tuesday. The transaction is “pro-consumer” since rural telco FairPoint is more focused than Verizon on rural customers’ needs, said USTelecom. FairPoint wants to acquire Verizon wireline operations in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. FairPoint shareholders will vote on the transaction Wednesday. Meanwhile, unions sent FairPoint shareholders paper bags urging they vote “no” on the deal they said would “pose unacceptably high risks” that could “leave shareholders holding a costly bag” of customer complaints, old equipment and expensive PUC findings, the Communications Workers of America said Tuesday. “The cash flow from these access lines will have to be plowed back into network upgrades in order to satisfy regulators and customers who are demanding improved service quality,” said Chris Shelton, vice president of CWA District 1. “Management’s projected profit windfall from this deal is an illusion.” The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers agreed: “We are concerned that FairPoint’s business model is to acquire small companies and then use the cash flow from those companies to pay inflated dividends at the expense of the long-term health of the company,” said Jim Voye, IBEW research director. “But that model won’t work in New England. The telephone lines and equipment are old and there are potentially costly regulatory decisions pending.”