The FCC Wireline Bureau sought to refresh the record on a USTelecom petition from 2012 asking that incumbent telcos (ILECs) be declared "no longer presumptively dominant when providing interstate mass market and enterprise switched access services," said a public notice Thursday in docket 13-3. Comments are due Feb. 22, replies March 7. "We particularly welcome comment on marketplace or regulatory developments, since the filing of the Petition, that may bear on the Commission’s evaluation of the Petition," the bureau said. "We also encourage commenters to address further the practical impact and scope of the finding sought by the Petition. For instance, if the Commission were to grant the Petition, what services should it appropriately find to be included in the category 'interstate mass market and enterprise switched access services'? More generally, we invite commenters to submit any other data, information, or analysis that would be relevant to the Commission’s evaluation of the Petition."

NCTA is repeating its request for Congress to permanently extend the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA). "Congress has a chance to stop the cycle of temporary reprieves and act to make ITFA permanent," NCTA said in a blog post Thursday. "We hope they do so." The group cited a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., signed by such organizations as the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Digital Liberty, Media Freedom and TechFreedom calling a permanent ITFA extension "critical to all Americans and the future of our overall economy." NCTA, CTIA and USTelecom wrote a similar letter to senators in December (see 1512140054).

Comcast's lobbying cost dropped in Q4 by more than $1 million. It spent $3.94 million, compared with the $5.03 million it spent a year ago, when Comcast was fighting to get an ultimately unsuccessful acquisition of Time Warner Cable approved by federal regulators and in the midst of satellite TV reauthorization on Capitol Hill. Charter Communications, meanwhile, is trying to get acquisitions of Bright House Networks and TWC approved now and is spending more. It clocked $1.16 million in Q4, well up from the $730,000 it spent in that time a year ago. USTelecom spent $1.73 million, roughly on par with the $1.75 million from last year. CTIA was another big spender, with $3.24 million on lobbying in Q4. Incompas spent $296,000 this Q4 versus $409,577 last. Lobbying disclosure forms were due Wednesday (see 1601200061).

Representatives of wireless companies and industry groups called for the FCC to take a light-touch regulatory approach in the wireless and infrastructure space, and addressed the industry's need for additional spectrum, during a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council event Thursday. Panelists also discussed the FCC's upcoming broadcast TV incentive auction and its potential impact on wireless providers. And an aide to the agency's chairman said the auction likely will be a success.

A new coalition of companies, public interest groups and trade associations is promising Capitol Hill lobbying, consumer outreach and a host of other steps to block Charter Communications' proposed buy of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. A similar Stop Mega Comcast coalition launched in 2014 in opposition to Comcast's now-dead attempt at buying TWC, and many of the same members are part of the Stop Mega Cable Coalition announced Thursday.

Proponents of special access regulation voiced optimism that industry data will show the broadband business market remains dominated by the large incumbent telcos and needs FCC remedies. On a call with reporters Wednesday, members of the Competify coalition largely repeated arguments ahead of Friday’s deadline for filing comments on the industry data collected by the FCC in its broad rulemaking on special access and related services in docket 05-25. Incumbents said the special access market is competitive.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) got support from the American Hospital Association on its December petition seeking fundamental changes to the FCC’s rural healthcare (RHC) USF program. USTelecom said the FCC should reject the petition out of hand, a position supported by other groups representing wireline companies. Comments were filed in docket 02-60.

AT&T compared FCC partial relief for telcos to a kid shoveling only half a sidewalk after a snowstorm. In a blog post Wednesday, Vice President-Federal Regulatory Hank Hultquist noted the FCC in December partially denied a USTelecom petition that the agency forbear from applying various regulations, including a request that price-cap ILECs be relieved of universal service obligations where they no longer receive USF support (see 1512170052). “In explaining this denial, the FCC sounds an awful lot like a kid explaining why he shoveled only part of the sidewalk,” he said. “Of course, the FCC knows that it has not provided sufficient universal service support for these high-cost and extremely high-cost areas. But it hopes to escape its responsibility by invoking the farcical claim that price cap ILECs continue to be 'eligible' for other universal service support (e.g., Lifeline) in these areas.” Hultquist termed “ridiculous” FCC arguments that USTelecom didn't make the case for USF relief and that AT&T data was lacking because the agency didn’t adopt a related cost model. "If the FCC doesn’t want to fund universal service obligations in these areas, it should just get rid of them, as USTelecom asked it to do,” he said. “Unfortunately, the FCC appears determined to try to maintain the obligations without taking responsibility for them. I think it’s time for someone -- like an appellate court or Congress -- to tell them to pick up the shovel and do the job right.” AT&T has challenged the order and a related previous order in court (see 1601110036). The FCC had no comment Wednesday. Chairman Tom Wheeler had proposed some extra USF voice support for carriers, but Commissioner Ajit Pai said it was inadequate and an agency majority didn't vote for it.

AT&T asked a federal court to consolidate and set briefing on its legal challenges to two FCC orders affecting price-cap telco USF obligations. The request came in a petition Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that AT&T said wasn't opposed by the Department of Justice or the FCC. AT&T noted the FCC in December adopted and released an order that partially granted and partially denied a USTelecom forbearance petition seeking price-cap ILEC relief from various obligations (see 1512170052 and 1512280037). The recent order "discussed, but did not resolve in AT&T's favor, the same issues addressed" in a 2014 FCC USF order challenged by the telco earlier in 2015 (AT&T v. FCC, No. 15-1038). In the previous case, AT&T had argued the FCC should have given price-cap ILECs greater relief, including from eligible telecom carrier (ETC) voice USF obligations where they don't elect to receive new broadband-oriented Connect America Fund subsidies. The D.C. Circuit had put the previous case on hold pending commission resolution of the U.S. Telecom forbearance review and related issues in other proceedings (see 1507160032 and 1509030042). AT&T Wednesday filed a petition for review challenging the FCC's December 2015 USTelecom forbearance decision, which again denied price-cap telcos USF ETC voice relief (AT&T v. FCC, No. 16-1002). Given the "overlap of issues" in its two challenges, AT&T asked the D.C. Circuit to consolidate the cases and issue a restarted briefing schedule that would allow DOJ and the FCC at least 45 days to respond to the company's renewed opening brief.

Industry groups and wireless carriers blasted the FCC's draft broadband deployment report (see 1601070059) Friday, with some saying it's meant to pad the commission's accomplishments, and others saying it lacks credibility. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft of the report -- which was critical of the current speed of broadband deployment and found it isn't happening fast enough to meet a statutory mandate of the 1996 Telecommunications Act -- to the other commissioners, and added it to the tentative agenda of the commission's Jan. 28 meeting. USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a statement Friday that because more than $75 billion per year is invested by broadband providers, network capacity is "burgeoning" and a recent FCC report shows broadband speeds are increasing (see 1512300037), "no one actually believes that [broadband] deployment in the U.S. is unreasonable." McCormick said the annual process of the broadband deployment report "has become a cynical exercise" that "eschews dispassionate analysis, and is patently intended to reach a predetermined conclusion that will justify a continuing expansion of the agency's own regulatory reach." NCTA said the report's findings "continue an alarming trend of ignoring objectivity and facts in order to serve political ends and maximize agency power," and U.S. broadband deployment has been "reasonable and timely." That the FCC released its Measuring Broadband America report during the "quietest week of the year while trumpeting" its deployment draft report "confirms that this report is more theater than substance," NCTA said in a news release. Wireless carriers also criticized the report. "It's bad enough the FCC keeps moving the goal posts on their definition of broadband, apparently so they can continue to justify intervening in obviously competitive markets," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior vice president-external and legislative affairs, in a statement Friday: "But now they are even ignoring their own definition in order to pad their list of accomplishments." It's beginning to look like the FCC "will define broadband whichever way maximizes its power under whichever section of the law they want to apply," Cicconi said. "This cannot be what Congress intended." Public Knowledge lauded the FCC's draft report in a news release Friday. "It appears that the 2016 Broadband Report undertakes a comprehensive examination of the state of broadband deployment in the U.S.," said Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Meredith Rose. "This finding ... will allow policymakers to take an honest look at the broadband landscape and what needs to be done to ensure" all Americans have access to quality broadband.