A group of U.S. lawmakers and other net neutrality advocates defended the FCC’s open Internet and broadband reclassification order, in briefs filed Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063). “The FCC has done precisely what Congress intended the Commission to do -- classify broadband Internet access service according to its best understanding of the technology of the day, and how consumers use that technology,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and 27 other members of Congress in their brief. “In light of the FCC’s findings -- findings which are amply supported by evidence -- this Court should uphold the FCC’s reasonable reclassification order.” The eight other senators and 19 other House members included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif., and 24 other Democrats, plus two independents: Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King Jr. of Maine.

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and others plan to back the agency's net neutrality order in court. Hundt will be joined by other former commissioners and current communications scholars in defending the commission's order on First Amendment grounds, said a notice submitted Wednesday of their intent to file an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is reviewing the case (USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063). The notice said the brief would respond to arguments raised by certain petitioners and other amici that the FCC violated free-speech rights in its order, which also reclassified broadband as a telecom service under Title II of the Communications Act. It also said their brief wouldn't likely be duplicated by other amicus briefs.

Advocates of special access regulation praised FCC plans to release industry data and commission a study of the business market for telecom services, the competitiveness of which is highly disputed. Some suggested the data analysis would support their calls for regulators to constrain the rates and practices of Bell/ILEC special access offerings to wholesale and retail business customers over dedicated circuits. Sprint said it was encouraged the FCC is moving forward with its “long-awaited, data-driven analysis” of the business market. “We are confident the data will incent the Commission to update 1990’s policies, which have undercut competition, innovation and productivity,” said a spokesman in an emailed statement.

USTelecom representatives plugged the potential competitive benefits of their forbearance petition and other requests for incumbent telco regulatory relief in a recent meeting with FCC officials. "We discussed how legacy regulatory requirements divert resources from broadband to legacy services, handicapping the ability of USTelecom members to invest in fiber and modern IP services to deliver better and more competitive services to consumers and businesses," said a USTelecom ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-92. The USTelecom officials noted "the large percentage of households" that have switched from traditional voice services to mobile and IP-based services, and "the breadth of cable competition" in both residential and business markets. They also discussed the seven categories of relief sought in their forbearance petition. "Our discussion focused on Category 1 (remaining aspects of sections 271 and 272 obligations, equal access rules and the nondiscrimination and imputation requirements set out in the Section 272 Sunset Order), Category 3 (requirement to provide a 64 kbps voice channel where copper loop has been retired) and Category 7 (rules prohibiting price cap incumbent LECs’ use of contract tariffs for business data services)," the filing said. The USTelecom officials also discussed their petition for a declaratory ruling that ILECs are no longer dominant in the voice market and possible relief from accounting regulations in the commission's proceeding on Part 32 rules.

The FCC appears to be seeking new ways to find broadband isn't being deployed fast enough, major telco/cable interests and allies said in comments to the agency. AT&T, Verizon and others said broadband is being deployed rapidly but voiced concern the commission could add mobile service standards and other hurdles to make it harder to find that broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecom Act. The FCC’s Section 706 inquiry “has become a results-oriented exercise in which the Commission frequently moves the goal posts to ensure a negative finding,” NCTA said in docket 15-191. But smaller wireless carriers suggested the FCC should make a negative finding and take remedial steps.

Whether everyone can have the same level of access to broadband isn't a policy question -- that was decided a long time ago, said officials during the Utilities Telecom Council Rural Broadband Summit in Arlington, Virginia, Tuesday. While the FCC is still working on what the upcoming spectrum auction will look like, many telecom service providers and rural communities are waiting to see how they can get broadband to everyone and close the digital divide. Programs such as the Connect America Fund from the FCC and grants such as the Community Connect Grant Program from the Agriculture Department are there because if a community doesn’t have those services, it will be disadvantaged, officials said. Even though access is still the main problem, current policies and court cases -- Title II and FCC pre-emption of municipal broadband rules, for example -- are affecting the progress of utility rural broadband, some lawyers at the summit said.

The FCC net neutrality order is reasonable, "light-touch" broadband regulation to maintain Internet openness that fosters innovation, economic growth and societal benefits, responded that agency and the Department of Justice to petitioners challenging the order. Net neutrality rules constrain broadband “gatekeepers” from thwarting consumers and edge providers using the Internet, and its broadband reclassification under Title II of the Communications Act provides a solid statutory foundation, DOJ/FCC told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It hears oral argument Dec. 4 in USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063.

The FCC should give price-cap telcos broad relief from USF obligations to provide high-cost voice and Lifeline service in many areas, said AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom in filings in docket 09-197 in response to a public notice asking parties to refresh the record. AT&T denied the record needed refreshing and urged the commission to focus on giving relief to price-cap carriers, which are generally larger than rate-of-return carriers. USTelecom urged the FCC to grant its petition and other ILEC requests to eliminate USF eligible telecom carrier (ETC) service obligations where price-cap carriers receive no high-cost support and to de-link Lifeline from ETC designations. CenturyLink said the commission should address ETC obligations to offer voice in extremely high-cost areas and clarify that price cap carriers don’t have such duties in areas outside their actual incumbent wireline service areas.

USTelecom President-CEO Walter McCormick to resign, effective end of 2016 ... Microsoft promotes Brad Smith to president-chief legal officer ... GeoDigital International hires Chris Thibodeau, ex-Harman International, as senior vice president-general manager, autonomous driving business unit ... Sinclair hires Jerry Lilly, ex-Jdesics, as vice president-operations ... STX Entertainment hires Yahoo Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Savitt as president-digital, responsible for the studio's global digital content strategy, effective October ... Tegna promotes Tom Cury to president-general manager, KENS San Antonio ... Comcast promotes Caley Gray to vice president-communications, NBCUniversal Content Distribution Group, new position.

Taking aim at curbing unwanted robocalls and caller ID spoofing, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau suggested a two-year timetable for implementation (mostly by industry) of highly technical authentication and call-filtering actions. That news came with CGB's release of the agenda for a related workshop scheduled for Wednesday. The first planned steps would be this winter, with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) completing a “Secure Telephone Identity Revisited SIP (session initiation protocol) header document" and industry organizations and advisory panels recommending how to store "per-number cryptographic credentials,” the bureau said in a public notice Thursday. Several actions would be targeted for next year, including carriers offering "egregious caller" filters in the spring and initial user-controlled call filtering in the fall. The timetable’s stretch run anticipates terminating carriers validating “SIP calls based on carrier or per-number certificates or credentials” in winter 2016-17 and all VoIP-originated calls being “signed” by summer 2017. The workshop will examine call-blocking and call-filtering solutions to robocalls and caller ID spoofing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Commission Meeting Room. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is to make opening remarks, followed by panels on call-blocking services, third-party solutions, carrier/provider capabilities, and the role of “gateway providers” in stopping unwanted robocalls. Panelists and moderators will include officials from the FCC, FTC and the Indiana attorney general’s office; representatives of telecom providers (AT&T, Bandwidth.com, Level 3, USTelecom, Verizon and Vonage), other industry parties (e.g., the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, Call Control, IETF and Oracle); Consumers Union; and professors from Georgia Tech and Columbia University.