NTCA said the FCC should approve small carrier relief from broadband testing duties, after no one opposed its application for review of a Wireline Bureau order and the Wireless ISP Association supported it (see 1810090037). The regulations should be limited to require rural providers to test only "network segments that are reasonably within [their] control," the RLEC group replied, posted Monday in docket 10-90. NTCA "ultimately welcomes measures intended to ensure accountability in performance of networks that leverage universal service support" but any testing requirements should "be deferred until such time as equipment that enables rural providers to complete testing in an economically reasonable and administratively efficient manner is available."
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.
ITTA said FCC actions to curtail abuse of 8YY originating access fees should be targeted, not derived from a Further NPRM's "overreaching proposals." Some midsize telco members' 8YY originating access minutes dropped 20-50 percent 2011-2016, despite continued heavy toll-free traffic, "suggesting that there should be standards the Commission can establish to help pinpoint sources of 8YY abuse and arbitrage," the group told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, posted Monday in docket 18-156. It backed the FNPRM's proposal "to allow only one database query charge per 8YY call," but opposed a proposed transition to a bill-and-keep 8YY originating access regime, which would force LECs to "absorb the revenue loss or recoup the lost revenues from customers." ITTA met last week with aides to Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Brendan Carr (here, here).
Puerto Rico Telephone Co. asked the FCC to further hike fixed service USF support in stage 2 of a Uniting Puerto Rico Fund, calling the current proposed increase insufficient to meet its goals. PRTC said the Connect America Cost Model estimates it would take $553 million in annual operating expenses to run a fiber-to-the-premises network to 1.67 million locations, but expected revenue from subscribers would be just $456 million. A proposed $8.4 million increase in annual support to $44.5 million would cover only half the deficit, said the incumbent telco's filing posted Monday in docket 18-143. The carrier proposed an additional "annual budget for fixed providers of $62 million above the existing legacy frozen support for a total of $98 million" annually. "If offered this funding on a right of first refusal basis, PRTC will be prepared to modernize and expand voice and high‐speed broadband service to a specified percentage of locations within a very aggressive timeframe," it said. "With no guarantee of federal funding, PRTC is currently implementing a build‐out plan that effectively replaces the legacy copper distribution network that was destroyed by the hurricanes with fiber and fixed wireless service that is capable of up to 1 gigabit." PRTC met with Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr and aides to all four commissioners, and with Wireline Bureau staffers, said filings posted Friday and Monday (here, here). Competitors opposed giving the ILEC right of first refusal (see 1808090021).
General Communication Inc. blasted an FCC cut in its rural healthcare funding by 26 percent to $78 million for funding year 2017 (see 1810110062). The Wireline Bureau action exceeds its authority "and is based upon unreasonable and unexplained interpretations," and "means GCI will not be compensated for services that have already been delivered to rural health care providers," said the Alaska carrier Friday, noting it intends to pursue all available remedies. President Greg Chapados said the decision "ignores the fact that our services are competitively bid in a competitive market. It also fails to provide any compelling explanation of the methodology behind the reduction in support payments. It does not even set forth the specifics of the methodology.” The Senate moved Thursday to recess until after November elections without confirming Commissioner Brendan Carr to a full five-year term ending in 2023 because of a hold over concerns raised by Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, both R-Alaska, about FCC handling of RHC funding. The senators told us they believe further action to address their concerns is needed beyond granting GCI's funds. An FCC spokesperson emailed: "Carriers that participate in the rural health care program must comply with the Commission's rules, and GCI's requests for funding did not comply with the Commission's rules. But rather than denying GCI's funding requests outright, as could have been done, Commission staff spent an enormous amount of time working with GCI to obtain the information necessary so that CGI could be provided with all justifiable funding, which was $77.8 million of the $105 million originally sought. This process was delayed in some cases by GCI's failure to provide information to Commission staff in a prompt manner and in other cases by GCI providing the Commission staff with inaccurate information."
The FCC said the Lifeline national verifier will launch in five more states and one territory Monday: Hawaii, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Guam. During the soft launch, Lifeline-eligible telecom carriers are allowed but not required to use the national verifier of consumer eligibility for the low-income USF subsidy program, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 11-42. It said a hard launch requiring NV use will come later. An initial six states in a soft launch period are scheduled to go to a hard launch Nov. 2 -- Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming -- drawing some concerns (see 1810040045).
The FCC asked a court to stay the mandate of its partial reversal of an order largely deregulating business data services of price-cap incumbent telcos. "A stay will avoid extensive and unnecessary disruption in the [BDS] market while the agency addresses on remand the notice issue that this Court identified with respect to one portion of a complex and interconnected order," said an FCC motion (in Pacer) Wednesday to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. The court's Aug. 28 ruling denied petitions challenging the April 2017 order's price-cap relief for telco last-mile BDS offerings under a competitive market test, but ruled the FCC didn't provide adequate notice of national ex-ante price deregulation of legacy, TDM interoffice transport services (see 1808280050). The FCC noted a draft Further NPRM "proposing to institute a new TDM transport rule, identical to the rule at issue in this case" is tentatively scheduled for an Oct. 23 vote (see 1810020050). "Courts have stayed the mandate in situations like this one, where issuing the mandate and vacating the rule while the agency addresses a remand would cause undue disruption and expense," the motion said.
The FCC made available a Connect America Fund map showing where program recipients report CAF-funded broadband deployment to fixed locations. The interactive map "illustrates both areas eligible for funding and the specific fixed locations where funding recipients have reported deployment by address and geographic latitude and longitude, including the maximum speed offered and the date of deployment," said a Wireline Broadband public notice Tuesday in docket 10-90. It said the current map displays broadband deployment as of Dec. 31 certified by program recipients by March 1, and will be updated as certified by carriers and as programs are added, including the recently concluded CAF II auction of subsidies for fixed broadband and voice services. Related information is at a Universal Service Administrative Co. webpage.
A coming FCC draft order would extend operations expense relief to more tribal carriers, including Mescalero Apache Telecom and Sacred Wind Communications, said Chairman Ajit Pai. He responded to Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who wrote to support the two carriers' petitions to reconsider (see 1805310032) an April order that allowed tribal-oriented carriers to recover higher opex costs from USF but excluded carriers that had deployed 10/1 Mbps broadband to 90 percent or more of locations (see 1804050028). Pai agrees the relief "did not go far enough" and believes "it was inappropriate to exclude carriers" such as Mescalero and Sacred Wind, which argue their actual deployment levels are below the threshold. "I have directed staff to circulate an order in the near future to fix this mistake," he wrote, hoping colleagues will be supportive. "The letter is very encouraging" because the two carriers "need this relief" and "the sooner the better," emailed consultant Randy Tyree Friday. Tyree, who represents Mescalero and the National Tribal Telecommunications Association, said the entire New Mexico congressional delegation is supportive.
Telcos opposed a request to redo an FCC order further easing telecom discontinuance duties and related regulatory processes (see 1806070021). Comments were posted Friday in docket 17-84 on Public Knowledge's Aug. 8 petition for reconsideration and motion to hold the June order in abeyance due to 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals litigation on a December order. PK's claims that the FCC "ignored the record" and "the Order eliminated consumer protections are unfounded, and its suggestion that the rules adopted in this Order could compromise critical federal agency missions is reckless and is equally unsupported," said USTelecom: "The Order reflects a careful balancing of the needs of consumers with the important goal of removing regulatory barriers that cause unnecessary costs or delay when carriers seek to transition from legacy services to next-generation broadband services." Verizon said PK "inaccurately describes" FCC "decisions and reasoning, and mischaracterizes the views" of NTIA, which "supports the Commission’s streamlining efforts." NTIA did note continuing concern about the impact on federal entities of some copper retirements and telecom service discontinuances (see 1807200057). PK "also seeks what it calls abeyance, but is actually a stay of the ... Order, by asking the Commission to keep its decision from becoming effective," Verizon said: "The Commission’s rules prohibit combining a motion for stay with any other requested relief," and it's "also substantively deficient." CenturyLink opposed PK's request to eliminate an "alternative options test." The test "permits a carrier to discontinue legacy voice service on a streamlined basis as part of a technology transition, after notifying affected customers, if the carrier shows that those customers will have access to at least two substitute voice services: stand-alone interconnected VoIP service from the discontinuing carrier itself and stand-alone facilities-based voice service from another provider," CenturyLink said. It knocked PK's claim that NTIA's concern "requires the Commission to reconsider" its test: "NTIA simply noted its continuing concern about the potential impact on government customers of legacy services being discontinued in remote or less populated areas and outside the scope of U.S. General Services Administration-negotiated contracts."
ITTA generally supported the FCC draft rural telco business data service order tentatively scheduled for a vote at commissioners' Oct. 23 meeting (see 1810020050). It did reiterate that "rate-of-return carriers eligible to voluntarily elect to transition their business data services offerings out of rate-of-return regulation should be provided an annual transition opportunity, consistent with their ability to convert to price cap regulation at any time," filed the midsize telco group on meeting an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, posted Friday in docket 16-143.