USTelecom with CEOs urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to consider transitions for rural areas where incumbent price-cap carriers lose USF support because they either don't participate in upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auctions or another bidder wins, said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-126: "Rules applicable only to ILECs due to their historical regulatory classification must be relieved in any areas subject to competition." If a winning bidder can't offer telecom service immediately, USTelecom said, new rules should address how an ILEC will receive transitional support from USF if it's required to continue providing service: "Where a new provider receives RDOF support, the ILEC should be relieved of any obligations to continue serving the area." USTelecom still wants a national broadband serviceable location fabric as part of digital opportunity data collections proceeding "as quickly as possible" so it can inform phase one of RDOF. If the agency uses only current Form 477 data "without reference to additional and more granular data provided by the fabric, the commission must address up front the fact that the auction will be based on inherently flawed location counts and bidders should be held harmless," the group said. Association CEO Jonathan Spalter and counterparts from Consolidated Communications, Bob Udell; Tony Thomas of Windstream; Frontier Communications' Dan McCarthy and others also met with each commissioner. Also in Washington last week, Udell spoke with us about RDOF (see 1909230030).

Groups differ over how much broadband deployment data the FCC should collect from providers, in what form, and how others should be able to challenge its accuracy. Comments posted through Tuesday on docket 19-195 weighed in on the agency's plans to update its Form 477 broadband mapping reporting requirements (see 1908210008). Parties mostly agree more granular information is needed to ensure USF dollars are allocated properly in upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auctions (see 1906280059), but some say holding out for detailed location fabrics that attempt to pinpoint every serviceable structure in the nation could slow the program.

TAMPA -- Local telecom officials and their legal representatives are wary of future federal moves to encroach on their authority. They identified a wide gulf between their need for oversight of and compensation from providers and FCC actions this year and last, plus expected future agency deregulation. In interviews this week on the sidelines of their annual conference, NATOA board members and others had much criticism for the agency.

Before the FCC starts issuing funds from its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), it needs to have its improved broadband mapping up and running, said Consolidated Communications CEO Bob Udell Monday in a taping for C-SPAN's The Communicators. Udell, who's also USTelecom chairman, said the shapefiles approach the agency adopted in August (see 1908010007) "is critical" to the next allocation of federal funding. He said Consolidated is intent on expanding its fiber network, and cell towers for 5G will drive some of that. The U.S. is at an "inflection point," akin to when the Rural Electrification Act was adopted, that could advance deployment through public and private investment, he said. Consolidated is among the telecom signatories to an agreement with state attorneys general on commitments to fight illegal robocalls (see 1908220060), and Udell said principles in that agreement are being used to guide its suppliers on criteria to implement secure handling of asserted information using tokens and secure telephone identity revisited caller authentication technology. He said trials of that tech are underway and rollout should be done in 2020. With Consolidated largely serving rural markets, he said 5G is less a competitive threat than an opportunity to provide services to wireless operators. Mobile service isn't a strategy for Consolidated in the foreseeable future like it is for Comcast, Charter and Altice, he said, but the company's considering bidding in the citizens broadband radio service spectrum auction, with that spectrum potentially being useful for private LTE networks to serve, for example, an office park lacking good cell coverage. He said Consolidated doesn't use Huawei equipment. He said it "thwart[s] attacks daily. It's a common factor when you operate communications infrastructure." Udell advocated a national privacy rules framework instead of a piecemeal approach state by state.

Rural broadband providers want the FCC to update or clarify eligibility requirements for applicants in its upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auctions to award up to $20 billion in USF dollars to companies that can deliver high-speed broadband to unserved and underserved parts of rural America (see 1908010060). In comments posted through Monday on docket 19-126, industry groups differed on whether and how to expand the pool of applicants that could receive the federal funding to deliver high-speed internet service to remote communities.

Make sure small phone carriers with legitimate spikes in incoming calls don't get swept up in a coming FCC order redefining how phone companies are deemed access stimulators, said representatives of rural LECs and other small LECs in interviews last week and in docket 18-155. Chairman Ajit Pai's draft gets a vote Thursday (see 1909050043). The rules would shift financial responsibility for tariffed tandem switching and transport services away from interexchange carriers to the access-stimulating LEC for terminating traffic.

Google’s plan to “implement encrypted Domain Name System lookups into its Chrome browser and Android operating system” could massively interfere with “critical internet functions,” telecom groups wrote Congress Thursday. NCTA, CTIA and USTelecom signed the letters to the Commerce, Judiciary and Homeland Security committees in both chambers. Google plans to implement the change through “a new protocol for wireline and wireless service, known as DNS over HTTPS (DoH),” they wrote. “If not coordinated with others in the internet ecosystem, this could interfere on a mass scale with critical internet functions, as well as raise data competition issues.” Google didn’t comment.

Industry and others should take many steps to ensure phone customers are aware of call blocking options, an FCC advisory panel recommended. At Monday's Consumer Advisory Committee meeting, CAC members unanimously approved the recommendations to the commission (see 1909160019). Text was released Wednesday in docket 17-59. People should get "blocked call information where consumers customarily view information about the call-blocking and labeling service," such as in wireless and wireline customers' online account information, the proposal said. "Consumers should have options to manage robocall blocking preferences, such as through a customer portal, in-store, by phone, or other choices." Customer service personnel should be trained to help, the committee said. "Providers should maintain a webpage that includes information about opt-out blocking and labeling tools, clearly explaining to consumers the robocall-related services provided, which calls are blocked, and how to opt in and out. The service should be provided at no additional line-item charge." Don't forget traditional wireline service, CAC suggested. "Explore potential means to protect legacy copper line customers from illegal robocalls," it asked of telcos. "The FCC should continue to directly collaborate with consumer advocacy groups and industry to educate consumers on the options for and risks of various methods of combatting robocalls." Stakeholders should together consider "public service ad campaigns, possibly including a celebrity spokesperson, to educate and alert consumers to the efforts of government and industry to tackle the robocall epidemic, and to educate and alert consumers to the robocall-blocking options," the group said. The agency seeks default call blocking services to be free, an agency spokesperson confirmed. FCC representatives wouldn't say whether CAC wants the same. “NCTA voted in favor of the recommendation" by CAC, emailed a spokesperson for the association. "We appreciate all the hard work of the ... committee in developing it.” The Competitive Carriers Association, amid its conference in Providence, Rhode Island (see 1909180061), declined to comment. America's Communications Association backed the declaratory ruling allowing "robocall blocking, including popular third-party robocall blocking tools, on an opt-out basis," an ACA spokesperson emailed. It hopes "CAC’s recommendations will provide helpful guidance to voice providers in deploying opt-out call blocking that protects their customers from the torrent of unwanted and illegal robocalls.” Incompas declined to comment, while USTelecom said it didn't have a comment right away.

Rural telehealth program participants told the FCC about "significant problems" with how the median rural payment rate will work under new rules released last month (see 1908200062), said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-310. USTelecom recommended exemptions from the median rural rate, rather than require providers to always follow a waiver process. The group asked to clarify a rule indirectly prohibiting service providers from using commission- or incentive-based consultants or third parties to help sell to healthcare providers who may decide to participate in the programs. Vice President-Policy and Advocacy Lynn Follansbee and executives from AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier, Alaska Communications and Consolidated met Wednesday with Wireline Bureau staff.

USTelecom urged 2020 presidential hopefuls Thursday to “commit to timely action” including on prioritizing broadband in “any national infrastructure plan” and “support federal legislation that puts an end to the constant regulatory back and forth about net neutrality.” The industry group released its proposal hours before the Democrats' presidential primary debate in Houston. Five of the remaining candidates propose broadband funding, though experts doubt such plans will have an appreciable effect in the general election (see 1909040061). Seventeen of the 21 Democratic hopefuls back restoring in some form the FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules. They should eschew support for restoring the 2015 rules and instead “champion and enact modern, enforceable national legislation to once and for all put consumers in control of their online experience,” USTelecom said. “Broadband companies have committed to honoring net neutrality. It’s time the most powerful social media, advertising, retail and search companies are required by law to do the same.” The group urged candidates to support policies aimed at ensuring U.S. leadership on 5G, anti-robocall and pro-FTC privacy bills and public-private partnerships to stay "one step ahead of cyberattacks.”