Lack of financial wherewithal continues to be a barrier to broadband access and adoption, speakers said at an FCBA digital divide event Monday night. "Unfortunately, the quality of your broadband ... depends too often on your economic status," said Diane Holland, USTelecom vice president-law and policy, citing affordability and "relevance" as key limiting factors. Lack of money is an impediment for many, said Aaron Smith, Pew Research Center associate director-internet research. He said almost half of survey respondents who lack broadband cited cost as a main factor. "The bottom line is money," said Nicol Turner-Lee, Brookings Institution fellow, saying people in poorer areas generally have less broadband access and choice. She said many low-income minority families rely heavily on smartphones for their broadband service, but students need better access and shouldn't have to rely on Wi-Fi at libraries and other public places. Microsoft's "Airband" initiative using unlicensed TV white spaces aims to help connect 2 million of about 23 million rural residents without adequate broadband (see 1707110015), noted Paul Garnett, director-affordable access initiatives. The FCC is intent on understanding and sharing perspectives of people on the wrong side of the digital divide in its regulatory efforts to close broadband gaps in both rural and urban areas, said Nathan Leamer, policy adviser to Chairman Ajit Pai.

The FCC delayed an intercarrier compensation reply deadline the day that USTelecom made an extension request. Replies that were due Monday, Nov. 13, are now due Monday, Nov. 20, said a Wireline Bureau order Thursday in docket 01-92 partially granting the motion that sought until Nov. 30. Major telcos and a VoIP group recently asked the FCC to phase out intercarrier compensation for originating calls and terminating certain other calls by transitioning to bill-and-keep arrangements under which carriers don't charge each other for exchanging traffic, in initial comments on a public notice to refresh the record (see 1710310017). AT&T and Verizon held discussions with bureau officials (see here and here) to press for actions to reduce market "arbitrage" schemes in originating access fees for toll-free 8YY calling, and to carry out a broader overhaul. Verizon also cited tandem-switched transport "arbitrage."

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told us Wednesday he lifted his hold the previous day on now-confirmed NTIA Administrator nominee David Redl after a meeting between the two. That conversation reassured Schatz that Redl wasn't going to reverse his position on the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority oversight transition. But Redl may not take office for another week or even longer, said industry officials informed about the situation. President Donald Trump must sign the paperwork approved by the Senate before it can be transmitted to the Commerce Department and Redl can be sworn in. Trump is on a 13-day trip to Asia and won’t be back in the U.S. until late next week. NTIA and the White House didn’t comment.

During the first weeks of Ajit Pai’s tenure as FCC chairman he was particularly active in meeting with the media and with lawmakers, according to a Special Report analysis of his appointment calendar obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Pai, like predecessor Tom Wheeler, also had many meetings in those early weeks with telco and media interests, with Pai early on more active gathering with public interest groups.

FCC leadership said release of draft items for monthly meetings is a big success, improving transparency and public understanding of planned actions. “The Open Meeting plays a critical role in the work we do and generally serves as the platform for our consideration of the most high-profile proposals,” said Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement to us. "It is simply good government to make public the text of the items we will be considering there.” GOP colleagues Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr back the new practice. O'Rielly said it leads to better feedback and outcomes. Pai recently floated the possibility of also releasing text of items on circulation among commissioners; O’Rielly endorsed the idea. Others haven't weighed in.

The FCC sought to refresh the record on performance measures for certain recipients of Connect America Fund high-cost support, including incumbent telcos, rural broadband experiment providers, and CAF Phase II auction winners. Comments are due Dec. 6 on the measures, which aim to ensure consumers get certain service levels, said a Wireline Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology public notice Monday in docket 10-90. The PN cited technology changes and USTelecom and price-cap carrier observations that new broadband customer premises equipment may include software allowing carrier tests for speed, latency and other measures across networks to a core peering interconnection point without involving customers. "In particular, we seek comment on whether the Commission should require the same testing method options and parameters for all high-cost recipients of support to serve fixed locations," it said. "If not, what different options or parameters should we consider, and why?"

Treating VoIP as an information service is good public policy, said phone, cable and VoIP industry associations in amicus briefs at the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in docket 17-2290. In a joint brief (in Pacer), USTelecom, the Voice on the Net Coalition, AT&T and Verizon supported FCC comments that allowing the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to regulate VoIP as it seeks to do for Charter Communications would be bad for the market (see 1710300036). “Preemption of state common-carrier, public utility regulation does not give VoIP providers an unfair advantage in the marketplace, but instead puts VoIP providers on an equal footing with wireless providers and over-the-top or nomadic VoIP providers, both of which are exempt from such regulation,” the phone and VoIP providers said. Pre-empting states wouldn’t harm VoIP customers because the FCC "repeatedly held that VoIP providers remain obligated to comply with a robust array of statutory consumer protections, including 911 access, universal service contributions, and accommodations for subscribers with disabilities,” they said. NCTA also urged (in Pacer) the 8th Circuit to uphold the lower court’s ruling that VoIP is an information service. “While the FCC’s light-touch framework has been instrumental to the successful roll-out of VoIP," said the cable association, "the application of state regulations designed for traditional local exchange services … would stymie the competition and innovation Congress and the FCC set out to foster."

The buildout of 5G will require lots of fiber, and work by wireline providers is essential, said Patrick Brogan, USTelecom vice president-industry analysis, in a Friday blog post, noting he addressed the topic at a 5G conference earlier in the week (see 1710250041). “Deployment of 5G networks will be an extraordinarily complex and costly endeavor,” Brogan wrote. “It involves many moving parts requiring significant coordination among network, equipment, and application providers." Fifth generation "will be more heterogeneous than previous generations. The constraints of spectrum availability and different geographies, 5G will offer network providers a diverse set of tools, from both fixed and mobile networks, to meet growing demand efficiently where it arises.” Policymakers face a complex task, he said. “They must monitor many moving parts while ensuring network, equipment, and application providers can roll out 5G as effectively and expeditiously as possible.” The U.S. led the world in 4G and “must remain a leader to reap the social and economic benefits of 5G,” he said.

An FCC draft item would begin an overhaul of the Lifeline USF program subsidizing providers of broadband and voice service to low-income consumers. Three orders would aim to crack down on "waste, fraud and abuse" and two notices would propose to adopt an annual funding cap and seek ways to better target support to those most in need. They would also target funding to facilities-based providers, not resellers. The actions and proposals were contained in a combined draft that Chairman Ajit Pai put on the tentative agenda Thursday for the Nov. 16 commissioners' meeting (see 1710260049).

The FCC would seek to spur advanced wireline broadband investment and deployment through further regulation of pole attachments and deregulation of telco retirement of legacy networks and services, under a draft item that Chairman Ajit Pai Thursday placed on the tentative agenda for a Nov. 16 commissioners' vote. The 109-page draft "seeks to accelerate the deployment of next-generation networks and services by removing regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment; to speed the transition from legacy copper networks and services to next-generation fiber-based networks and services; and to eliminate Commission regulations that raise costs and slow broadband deployment," said a summary.