Ian Cohen

Comments are due Dec. 3, replies Dec. 10 on Southern Light's planned takeover of JKM Consulting's (M2 Connections) fiber network business. Applicants said there's little or no overlap between M2 operations in parts of Alabama and Uniti Group-owned Southern Light's fiber network services in Alabama and other states, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 18-323 and Tuesday's Daily Digest.

Comments on the FCC proposing to eliminate "outdated tariff-related requirements that provide little benefit while imposing burdens on carriers" are due in docket 17-308 on Dec. 20, replies Jan. 4, says Tuesday's Federal Register.

An FCC response "ignores Petitioners most fundamental arguments," replied Mozilla and others challenging the net neutrality rollback order under Communications Act Title I in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC No. 18-1051 (see 1810120022). "The FCC does not explain why thirteen years of jurisprudence, including Brand X and USTA, would be wasted on articulating the proper standard for classifying BIAS [broadband internet access service] if the answer was always there, simple and unalterable: in the FCC’s latest telling, BIAS must be classified as an information service, as it has always led to third-party information services and will always do so. The FCC has no answer for this Court’s rejection of the FCC’s rationale when it was offered in USTA." The Internet Association and other intervenors replied, "The Commission' decision to eliminate all ISP conduct rules did not comply with the substantive and procedural protections of the [Administrative Procedure Act] and cannot stand."

Verizon urged flexible FCC service quality standards for intermediate providers and elimination of data recording and retention requirements in implementing a 2017 rural call quality act. Several "intercarrier compensation proceedings are ripe for decision," with an access stimulation NPRM "the most relevant to rural call completion," said a filing on a meeting with Wireline Bureau staffers, posted Wednesday in docket 13-39. "Completing intercarrier compensation reform -- and in particular moving terminating transit and tandem charges to bill-and-keep -- should reduce or eliminate the financial incentives the Commission has identified." While the current access stimulation definition "may leave some room for improvement, the Commission does not have to revise" it to address tandem and transit access stimulation, Verizon said. It said it received eight rural call completion complaints in 2018 vs. 25 in 2015, and determined none of this year's was a "true rural call completion issue."

NTCA wants the FCC to ensure Connect America Fund Phase II auction winners comply with eligible telecom carrier duties to offer a telecom service. Communications Act Section 214(e)(1) "indicates that only a telecommunications carrier ('TC') -- defined ... as a provider of a telecommunications service ('TS') (also defined in the statute) -- can be designated as an ETC," wrote Senior Vice President Mike Romano on a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, posted Wednesday in docket 10-90: "(1) to receive USF, an entity must be an ETC; (2) to be an ETC, an entity must be a TC; and (3) to be a TC, an entity must offer a TS." The FCC (or state commission) reviewing ETC applications "cannot simply take at face value a claim that any given voice telephony service" is a telecom service, he said, seeking "a fact-specific analysis" to confirm telecom service offerings, "with detailed findings" on "tariffing or other indicators of public offering."

Lifeline national verifier application programming interfaces would ease consumer enrollments, said Judson Hill, adviser to TrueConnect and Telrite and ex-state senator in Georgia. Absent APIs, potential Lifeline users "must learn and self-navigate the eligibility verification process without assistance before then repeating the same process with a Carrier, often through an independent sales agent, who must collect the same information and again verify eligibility," he wrote on a meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Brendan Carr and aides, posted Tuesday in docket 17-287. "This process creates more opportunities for fraud and abuse" and may be so challenging that it discourages "many otherwise eligible people" from enrolling. Hill suggested "conduct-based requirements" for Lifeline resellers, rather than the FCC's proposed ban, "plus more accountability for independent sales agents." The National Lifeline Association pressed Wireline Bureau staffers on ordering Universal Service Administrative Co. to implement a verifier API and to secure access to eligibility databases before hard launches in states. It urged FCC reconsideration of USAC's current verification process coinciding with state launches, which otherwise "will result in the de-enrollment of millions of eligible subscribers from an already shrinking Lifeline program." It opposed the proposed reseller ban and said the FCC should reverse a scheduled phaseout of support for "essential voice service" beginning Dec. 1, 2019. Also meeting with staffers, CTIA discussed possible API deployment that can "enable efficient verification for eligible low-income consumers and safeguard program integrity."

Terms governing access to sensitive information in the FCC investigation into South Dakota Network access tariff revisions are in a Wireline Bureau protective order Wednesday in docket 18-100.

NTCA backs using "any or all of the three generally accepted" geolocation methods cited by Universal Service Administrative Co. for identifying actual locations to be served Connect America Fund Phase II auction winners. "To the extent there are other verifiable, proven methods, such as 911 data created by local or state authorities, NCTA supports allowing" their use, though they "must be derived from a well-established third-party resource, evidentiary based, and auditable," said its reply, posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. Calling initial comments "divided" on how to resolve location discrepancies, NTCA said that regardless of method, all locations "should ultimately be entered" into USAC's high-cost universal broadband portal. Replies were posted through Wednesday. The Wireless ISP Association said "the views of numerous commenters -- on topics including the need for flexibility in participant selection of location data methodologies; correctly defining 'relevant stakeholders;' and extending the timeframe for participants to reply to stakeholder challenges -- echoed" its comments. GeoLinks urged a flexible approach and backed commenters asking the FCC "not to require CAF II recipients to include prospective developments into the definition of 'actual location.'" It agreed with WISPA that recipients should be allowed to do so if they "provide information to show that specific prospective locations are more likely than not to be constructed and inhabited within the six-year buildout."

The National Multifamily Housing Council lobbied FCC leadership, calling the apartment industry "very competitive," with "owners keenly aware" of the need to provide modern communications services for residents. "This debate is really about whether the commission should help a handful of potential competitors carve up the high end of the market," said NMHC on meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai, Brendan Carr, Jessica Rosenworcel and aides, posted Tuesday in docket 17-91 (here, here and here). "Providers control the market. There is a lack of competition in the market today, but it is in the smaller, less lucrative buildings that competitive providers choose not to serve." NMHC backed a petition to pre-empt a San Francisco code that requires multi-tenant buildings let occupants request access to competing providers (see 1612150006). It opposed further FCC steps toward regulation from a multiple tenant environment inquiry (see 1706220036) and Article 8 of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee's proposed Model State Act (see 1807270020), which it said "would force the rental apartment industry to subsidize" broadband deployment. In a USTelecom forbearance proceeding, Incompas pressed the FCC to keep discounted wholesale unbundled network elements, which it said facilitate fiber networks that assist 5G. An enhanced satellite image of San Francisco showing fiber deployments by Zayo in business districts and Sonic Telecom in residential areas -- with Sonic crediting UNEs "as a stepping stone" -- illustrates the potential for competitive "fiber rich networks for fronthauling of small cells in residential areas," wrote Incompas on meeting a Pai aide, in docket 18-141.

Viasat said its broadband satellite service must meet "stringent" FCC criteria, defending the $122 million of Connect America Fund Phase II support it won at auction. Satellite CAF II recipients must "offer a service tier and pricing that they otherwise do not offer in the marketplace, including a usage allowance that is expected to increase," responded Chris Murphy, associate general counsel-regulatory affairs, to Windstream criticism (see 1811080031). "A core reason satellite providers have been given the opportunity to participate in CAF-II -- and have committed to offer high-quality broadband to the hardest-to-reach places in the U.S. -- is because incumbent [telcos] declined to take even more support from the FCC."