With Windstream's Chapter 11 bankruptcy (see 1902250025), a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals proceeding by inter-exchange carriers on a lower court's ruling about access charges imposed on them by LECs (see 1902200043) was automatically stayed, according to a notice (in Pacer) Thursday in docket 18-10768. Windstream subsidiaries are among the appellees.
Ian Cohen
Ian Cohen, Deputy Managing Editor, is a reporter with Export Compliance Daily and its sister publications International Trade Today and Trade Law Daily, where he covers export controls, sanctions and international trade issues. He previously worked as a local government reporter in South Florida. Ian graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2017 and lives in Washington, D.C. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2019.
Comments are due May 3, replies May 20, on Tata Communications' petition seeking waiver to continue contributing to the USF based solely on its interstate end-user telecom, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a docket 06-122 public notice Wednesday. The petition said its limited international revenue exemption is in jeopardy because of changes in the jurisdictional mix of its telecom revenue, leaving it facing a "draconian penalty" in the form of its USF contribution burden going up.
The State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance backs Funds for Learning’s request for relief for applicants that filed a Form 470 application indicating the incorrect internet option. Applicants chose the wrong drop-down option, “despite their best efforts to comply with the administrator’s guidance,” the alliance said, posted Wednesday in FCC docket 02-6. It said similar mix-ups happened in the past. The group urged "meaningful changes to the Form 470 drop-down options, using plain, non-technical language to describe the available choices.”
The deadline for objecting to incorporation of a party's highly confidential and confidential business data services data collected in BDS proceedings into the USTelecom forbearance petition proceeding is April 15, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday. It said it will adopt the protective conditions from the BDS proceedings to ensure confidentiality of the information when it's incorporated.
Having argued the Connect America Fund's Connect America Cost Model (CAM) for distributing funding in the mainland U.S. doesn't work well for Puerto Rico (see 1811230018), Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico suggested a different model. In an FCC docket 18-143 posting Wednesday, it said applicants should bear responsibility for determining the number of locations in a given geographic area, and funding should be awarded based on total funding per census block group rather than per location. "An overly granular approach" would mean Puerto Rico would face added delays from having to drill down into precise per location costs, it said. Liberty said bidders should be required to show their methodologies for identifying inhabited or habitable locations unserved by 10/1 Mbps broadband service.
Clarifying junk fax rules would help courts, resulting in earlier resolutions and more consistent treatment of defendants, reducing "unnecessary and unjustified settlements," Akin Gump representatives told FCC Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau staffers, recounted a docket 05-338 posting Tuesday. The law firm petitioned the agency to make clear liability issues between senders and advertisers when that sender commits Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations and deceives the advertiser (see 1903070051). During the meeting, it cited a dozen types of cases that could use such clarification and said without that guidance, similarly situated defendants are receiving different treatment from different U.S. district or U.S. circuit courts.
Granting ViaSat's petition seeking reconsideration of the Connect America Fund performance metrics order requirements about voice testing methodology (see 1809200035) would "undermine the integrity" of the CAF program and its auction process, USTelecom said in a docket 10-90 posting Tuesday. It said ViaSat took part in the CAF Phase II auction despite compliance concerns and the FCC can't change bidding rules now to suit one winner unless it wants to rerun the whole auction. ViaSat outside counsel didn't comment
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau denied petitions for reconsideration of findings of slamming by U.S. Telecom Long Distance, Consumer Telecom and Central Telecom Long Distance. Three orders on recon Monday (see here, here and here) affirmed Consumer Policy Division findings that the carriers' verifiers in each of the 42 cases obscured the actual purpose of the calls in question when they didn't make clear that the change in long-distance service would result in service from a different carrier, a practice known as slamming. The recon petitions were filed in 2010, 2013 and 2014. The companies didn't comment.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals set an April 12 case management conference for recently consolidated challenges to FCC infrastructure orders (see 1903200045), appellate Commissioner Peter Shaw ruled (in Pacer) Thursday. The conference “addressing scheduling, briefing, related agency proceedings, and other matters” starts 1 p.m. PDT in San Francisco.
Comments are due April 12, replies April 19 on Norvado's proposed buy of another Wisconsin LEC, Price County Telephone, and its Price County Telecom subsidiary, said a docket 19-72 FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Friday.