USTelecom objected to the FCC’s draft decision to freeze further grants of pricing flexibility as it seeks more data on special access. But competitive carriers as a group and individually welcomed the move. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated an order Monday suspending the grant of any new “price flexibility” petitions while the special access probe moves forward (CD June 5 p3). The order also denied three pending pricing flexibility petitions. In January, CompTel and allies withdrew a petition at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asking the court to grant a writ of mandamus that would have forced the FCC to act on special access reform. Officials said then they did so following promises that a special access order was being readied by the Wireline Bureau (CD Jan 27 p1).

The FCC Wireline Bureau Thursday granted four petitions seeking temporary waivers of a June 1 deadline to implement new Lifeline eligibility rules (http://xrl.us/bm9yxb). The bureau gave USTelecom a six-month extension for 13 of the states indicated in its petition, as well as the eligible telecom carriers in those states that rely on the state to sign someone up for Lifeline. It also granted extensions for California to transition to a new third-party vendor and enable collection of partial Social Security information and dates of birth; and to Oregon and Colorado, which need to change their state laws to reflect new federal rules.

A process of cybersecurity industry collaboration that started last fall bore fruit Wednesday at a White House event, with the Industry Botnet Group (IBG) as expected (CD May 29 p9) releasing a set of principles for mitigating the effects of botnet infections. FCC, Department of Homeland Security and Commerce Department leaders also spoke at the event. “Combating botnets is not a new phenomenon” but a “broader base” of organizations is now working together, Liesyl Franz, TechAmerica vice president-cybersecurity policy, told reporters on a conference call after the event.

Despite the protestations of the NCTA and USTelecom, the FCC plans to publicly release flawed ISP speed data collected by a commission contractor in March. The report will be accompanied by a disclaimer that server issues in New York and Los Angeles “distorted test results for a significant number of panelists across various ISPs participating in the study” and was “unreliable and flawed,” said an ex parte filing the FCC itself made. The commission will say it won’t use the data to compare the performance of different ISPs in the 2012 report. “Anomalies” in the network affected some of the measurement locations toward the end of March, so the monthlong data collection phase was restarted in April (CD May 7 p8).

USTelecom withdrew Ohio and Texas from its petition for a waiver of some of the FCC’s rules regarding eligible telecom carrier (ETC) compliance obligations Thursday (http://xrl.us/bm9d78). USTelecom had thought that Ohio and Texas would not be able to meet the June 1 deadline for providing subscriber certifications to ETCs, but based on an order of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission, and a workshop conducted with staff of the Texas PUC, “USTelecom believes that those states will be in compliance” by the deadline, it said.

USTelecom withdrew Arizona from its petition for waiver of various sections of the FCC’s rules regarding eligible telecom carrier compliance obligations for new Lifeline subscribers, an ex parte notice said (http://xrl.us/bm8r92). After a conversation with FCC Wireline Bureau officials, USTelecom determined that because the Arizona Department of Economic Security handles determinations of Lifeline eligibility under contract with one ETC, “the ETC has constructive receipt of such certifications” sufficient to satisfy the rules, USTelecom said. Last week the association withdrew New York, Kansas, Tennessee and New Jersey (CD May 18 p11).

USTelecom withdrew New York from its petition for waiver of various sections of the FCC’s rules regarding eligible telecom carrier compliance obligations for new Lifeline subscribers (http://xrl.us/bm8exq). The association had asked for a waiver where ETCs are dependent on the state for subscriber certifications. USTelecom withdrew New York from its request “based on new information about the status of changes to the customer eligibility determination process” there, it said. Earlier this week it withdrew Kansas, Tennessee and New Jersey for similar reasons (CD May 16 p12).

USTelecom withdrew Kansas, Tennessee and New Jersey from its petition for waiver of certain FCC rules regarding eligible telecom carrier compliance obligations Monday, according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bm7y5y). USTelecom had requested waiver of a rule requiring ETCs to obtain a subscriber’s certification form before the carrier can seek reimbursement for providing Lifeline to that subscriber. USTelecom withdrew the states based on assurances that they would be able to meet the June 1 deadline. The association hopes to file another letter removing additional states, including Nebraska, Ohio and Texas, once state authorities provide written confirmation of their impending compliance, it said.

Payphones got no love in comments filed in response to petitions for reconsideration of the Lifeline Order: A proposal to extend Lifeline funding to payphones was characterized as nonsensical, confused, and misplaced by those who commented on the idea, although NASUCA did say it “sympathizes.” This is not the first time the industry has blasted payphone operators’ request for Lifeline money (CD Jan 20/11 p9). Commenters also generally supported petitions to eliminate various “burdensome” reporting and auditing requirements. Tribal interests did not appreciate USTelecom’s claim that it was too difficult to comply with a requirement that carriers provide Tribe-specific information upon reasonable request. Reply comments in docket 11-42 are due Tuesday.

Netflix made a rare visit to the FCC to lobby against three top ISPs’ exclusion of some video transmitted by Internet Protocol from broadband data caps. The company said the exclusion is a net neutrality issue and doesn’t necessarily fall under statutory exemptions on preferential treatment of cable programming. The online video streamer took aim at AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, during executives’ first visit to lobby the FCC in two years.