CTIA urged caution as the FCC moves forward on an order and Further NPRM on 911 outage reporting, slated for a vote at Wednesday’s meeting (see 1605050053). In potentially the biggest development, in an FNPRM the FCC also is seeking comment on imposing Part 4 outage reporting requirements on broadband providers for the first time. CTIA and representatives of member companies met with Daudeline Meme, an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a filing in docket 15-80 said. “CTIA reiterated its support for targeted revisions to the Part 4 requirements that can provide meaningful and reasonable improvements to outage reporting, including standardized and simplified methods for calculating the number of users potentially affected by a wireless network outage and for reporting a wireless network outage to a Public Safety Answering Points [sic],” CTIA said in a filing at the commission. “CTIA also encouraged the Commission to refrain from subjecting wireless providers to unworkable rules, including those pertaining to required reporting of congestion in the radio access network, partial loss of communications to a PSAP, and sharing of [Network Outage Reporting System] data lacking effective, meaningful safeguards designed to protect such data from unauthorized disclosure.” USTelecom reported on meetings with aides to all five commissioners. “In each of these meetings, USTelecom emphasized that the Report and Order contained provisions that would increase the costs for companies to comply with new obligations without clear corresponding benefits for consumers or improvements in infrastructure reliability or resiliency,” the group said. “We noted that resources that would now have to be redirected towards implementation and subsequent reporting efforts would detract from other initiatives with clear consumer benefits such as upgrading or expanding facilities that would increase broadband availability.”

The FCC plans to consider a Connect America Fund auction order and Further NPRM Wednesday "regarding a competitive bidding process" for CAF Phase II high-cost USF support, said the agenda for the commission's monthly meeting. The FNPRM wasn't mentioned in a May 4 tentative agenda for the meeting that listed an order "adopting rules implementing a competitive bidding process" for CAF Phase II; nor was it mentioned by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a blog post discussing the agenda, nor by an agency official who said the order would set a general framework for the auction, followed by a public notice seeking further comment and another PN setting auction procedures (see 1605050036).

A proposed local number portability administrator contract is fundamentally flawed, the LNP Alliance and New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) told the FCC, which is considering the master services agreement (MSA) between Ericsson's Telcordia (iconectiv) and North American Portability Management (NAPM). "The most critical omission from the MSA and from the LNPA Transition in general is that ... there has been no effort to incorporate the IP Transition into the LNPA Transition," the groups said in a letter accompanying other filings in docket 09-109. "Any plan to treat each Transition as a separate and disassociated initiative is nonsensical, since the two are inextricably intertwined in terms of timing, participants, technology, and application."

A federal court set a briefing schedule on AT&T challenges to two FCC orders from December 2014 and December 2015 on price-cap telco USF duties. In an order (in Pacer) Tuesday in docket 15-1038 and consolidated cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said an initial joint brief from petitioners and supporting intervenors is due June 17; the brief from respondents FCC and DOJ is due Aug. 1; a joint reply brief from petitioners and supporting intervenors is due Aug. 31; and final briefs incorporating an appendix are due Sept. 7, with oral argument typically at least 45 days later. AT&T, petitioner/intervenor CenturyLink, intervenor USTelecom and respondents FCC/DOJ had submitted an unopposed joint briefing proposal (in Pacer) Friday. Earlier this year, AT&T asked the court to consolidate its two challenges seeking more relief from USF duties (see 1601110036), which CenturyLink called "an unfunded mandate" (see 1602050029).

USTelecom asked the FCC for access to certain computer programs and data so its ILEC members can replicate market analysis attached to a Further NPRM on revamping the special access framework for business data services (BDS). USTelecom said ILECs need the computer access and information by May 20 to fully participate in the agency's pleading cycle in which initial comments are due June 28 and replies July 26. The agency didn't comment Thursday. The FCC commissioned a BDS white paper by Boston University econometrician Marc Rysman, who studied industry data and found evidence the ILECs have market power and dominate facilities-based service in their regions (see 1605030001).

Frontier Communications urged the FCC to include interim voice support in a pending draft order on a Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of broadband-oriented subsidies for areas served by price-cap incumbent telcos. Frontier and other ILECs say the support is needed to maintain voice service in extremely costly but currently unsubsidized remote areas that won't receive broadband/voice support through CAF II auction winners for some time. The FCC is tentatively scheduled to vote on a CAF II auction framework order at its May 25 meeting, which is expected to be followed by further proceedings to finalize the auction (see 1605050036). The cable industry's main trade group opposed the Frontier proposal.

Leaders of the American Cable Association, CTIA, the Internet Commerce Coalition, NCTA and USTelecom wrote to the Senate Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee leadership Tuesday questioning the FCC's broadband privacy rules ahead of a Wednesday subcommittee hearing on the rules. "The privacy regime proposed by the FCC in the NPRM departs from the FTC framework in significant and material respects," they said in the letter. "The FCC framework, however, would make opt-in the default consent mechanism for virtually all uses of customer data. This would lead to absurd results, such as restricting an ISP’s ability to market accessories that work with a consumer’s device. It also would make it difficult for consumers to have access to discounted offers from their providers. This broad opt-in requirement, irrespective of the sensitivity of data, would be inconsistent with common Internet practice and would harm consumer welfare." They hope congressional interest "will help to re-align the FCC’s proposal more closely with the proven and effective approach administered by the FTC," they said.

Alaska telcos are battling over a plan to give broadband-oriented USF support to rural telcos and wireless competitors in the state. The Alaska Telephone Association (ATA) and General Communications (GCI) say their Alaska Plan is a consensus proposal to provide wireline and mobile broadband to consumers in remote areas of the state without increasing high-cost support. ATA disagrees with Alaska Communications that the "competitive eligible telecom carrier (CETC) portion of the Alaska Plan should be disapproved, delayed, or subject to ACS's proposed conditions," it said in a filing Monday in docket 10-90. GCI last week responded to Alaska Communications' "repetitive and unprincipled attempts" to "scuttle the Alaska Plan, as it uniquely continues to collect the same amount of high-cost support as it did in 2011, despite the absence of any performance commitments."

North American Portability Management, Telcordia and USTelecom urged the FCC to approve soon the proposed contract for Telcordia as the next local number portability administrator (LNPA). NAPM said it's "critical" to approve its master services agreement (MSA) with Telcordia (iconectiv) "in days, rather than weeks," and it wrote to "dispel some misconceptions" about the process. Telcordia said "time is of the essence" because it needs to sign key contracts if the transition is to stay on schedule. USTelecom, which represents telcos of all sizes, also urged expeditious approval and disputed arguments that small carriers were threatened with disruption and added costs in the transition. “We’re confident the commission is going to continue to push forward on implementing the transition," USTelecom Senior Vice President Jon Banks told us Monday.

Arguments that only money, not in-kind requirements, can be counted as franchise fees by local franchise authorities (LFAs) were settled by 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its 2008 Alliance for Community Media v. FCC decision (see 0806300119) and shouldn't be rehashed, said the FCC and intervenor allies in briefs in a newer 6th Circuit case. They (see here and here in Pacer) were filed Friday with the 6th Circuit in a consolidated challenge to 2007 and 2015 FCC orders on video franchising rules. A lawyer for one of the parties said there likely will be oral argument this fall, after a reply brief by the petitioners.