“We cannot afford to fixate on infrastructure builds alone,” ex-FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Wednesday in livestreamed remarks at the Great Lakes Connect event in Fairlawn, Ohio. USF should continue to support affordability through the Lifeline program in addition to infrastructure, “for ‘if you build it, they will come’ only happens when a person can afford the service,” she said. Connecting fiber alone won’t bridge the digital divide; adoption issues like affordability and relevance must also be addressed, Clyburn said. “But strangling the Lifeline program, the nation’s only means-tested universal service program that addresses the cost of voice and broadband service, and allowing only facilities-based providers to offer Lifeline service … will leave an estimated 70 percent of subscribers who cannot afford communications service today without a viable option tomorrow.” As Clyburn spoke, Lifeline advocates held a small rally outside FCC headquarters opposing the agency's proposal to ban resellers from the program (see 1809260029).
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.
An FCC draft NPRM seeking to improve 911 calling from multiline buildings and complexes, and to provide "dispatchable location" information to first responders looks likely to "sail through" at commissioners' Wednesday meeting, an agency official said Tuesday. Commissioners and staffers are still ironing out the wrinkles in a draft order to begin auctioning toll-free numbers, said the official.
Minnesota asked the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals to review a panel's 2-1 ruling affirming a district court decision that state regulation of interconnected VoIP was pre-empted as an information service, in Charter v. Nancy Lange, No. 17-2290 (see 1809070030). The majority ruling is "inconsistent" with the Telecom Act, and "in conflict" with prior 8th Circuit opinions on USF contributions and Vonage's VoIP service and the Supreme Court's cable modem Brand X ruling, petitioned (in Pacer) the Minnesota Office of Attorney General Friday, on behalf of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, seeking en banc or panel rehearing: "Consideration by the full Court is necessary to ensure uniformity of this Court's decisions." Charter Phone "is a fixed, interconnected VoIP service with the ability to determine whether calls are interstate or intrastate," Minnesota said. "Under the plain terms of this Court's Vonage III ruling and Paragraph 56 of the FCC's USF Order quoted therein, the MPUC has jurisdiction over Charter Phone." It also cited a 2017 8th Circuit ruling upholding a district court decision relying on that USF language as applied in Vonage III "observing that the FCC explicitly said that the Vonage preemption order does not apply to providers with the ability to track the jurisdiction of customer calls and such providers are subject to state regulation." Pillsbury Winthrop's Glenn Richards, representing the Voice on the Net Coalition, which backed Charter, emailed he's "disappointed, but not surprised" by the petition: "I don’t see any issues raised in the petition that are likely to result in a different decision by the full court.” Charter Communications didn't comment Monday.
TPx Communications pressed the FCC to deny USTelecom's forbearance petition for ILEC relief from wholesale network sharing duties under the Communications Act. "TPx explained the continued importance of unbundled network elements ('UNEs') and resale to competitive markets and the adverse impact forbearance from Section 251(c) obligations would have on its customers," said a filing by U.S. TelePacific, Mpower Communications and Arrival Communications (all "TPx") posted Friday in docket 18-141 on meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel. They also met an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly (here) and Wireline Bureau staff (here). "TPx has made substantial investments in collocations and equipment to provide broadband, voice, plain old telephone service ('POTS') and bundled services to its customers using UNEs," it said. The Computer & Communications Industry Association voiced concern "that, pursuant to [a Further] NPRM on modernizing the Commission’s Form 477 data collection ... the Commission would eliminate its ability to assess the level of competition in the marketplace for Business Data Services," said a filing in docket 11-10 on meetings with aides to Rosenworcel and Carr. "If the Commission were to 'eliminate the separate reporting of available contractual or guaranteed data throughput rates for business/enterprise/government services', it could no longer assess whether competition has developed under its new scheme, and, at worst, it would have to conduct another data collection like the massive undertaking that precipitated the Tariff Investigation Order and FNPRM."
The FCC Wireline Bureau approved Midwest Fiber Acquisition's proposed takeover of Everstream Holdings' Everstream Solutions and Everstream GLC, said a public notice Friday in docket docket 18-93. Thursday, DOJ, DOD and the Department of Homeland Security (Team Telecom) didn't object and withdrew their request that the FCC defer action, after they completed a national security and law enforcement review. Everstream Holdings, through licensees, "is a super-regional network service provider bringing fiber-based Ethernet, internet and data center solutions to businesses throughout the Midwest," and "has more than 10,000 route miles and comprehensive data center connectivity at 100 Gbps," said a March 23 application to transfer licenses. Everstream GLC directly, and indirectly through Lynx Network Group, provides competitive telecom services in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, while Evergreen Solutions holds domestic Communications Act Section 214 authority but doesn't provide telecom service, said a Wireline Bureau public notice April 10.
An FCC plan to auction toll-free numbers "promises several potential benefits," including the awarding of numbers to entities that value them the most, American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Daniel Lyons blogged Thursday. A draft order for Wednesday's commissioners' meeting seeks to establish a framework for auctioning toll-free numbers, starting with 17,000 "mutually exclusive" numbers in the "833" code that were the subject of "Responsible Organization" requests. An auction "deters strategic behavior by RespOrgs such as warehousing and hoarding of numbers, which can artificially exhaust the supply of available numbers and which the commission has expended resources in the past to combat," Lyons wrote. "The FCC also intends to lift its ban on resale of toll-free numbers for those numbers purchased in the 833 auction to allow development of a secondary market." The 833 auction experiment could be a "first step toward breathing new life into the toll-free marketplace," he said. Responding to a Lyons tweet, NTCA Senior Vice President Mike Romano was less sanguine in light of a June Further NPRM to phase out toll-free originating access charges, tweeting: "Toll-free is indeed a 'value to society.' But proposals now would eliminate payments by those that provide this service to the networks that help provide it. In other words, those that sell it get paid AND get to use other networks for free doing so. Must be nice. #economicsfail."
Aureon Network Services filed a legal challenge to FCC rulings against the carrier in its centralized equal access (CEA) service rate dispute with AT&T. Aureon asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review a Nov. 8 liability order that found the company (also known as Iowa Network Services) violated rate-cap and rate-parity rules by raising its CEA tariff in 2013, after AT&T complained it was being charged for traffic heading to CLECs engaged in "access stimulation" (see 1711080059). Aureon also challenged an Aug. 1 order that largely denied its petition to reconsider the 2017 order and apply AT&T relief prospectively only (see 1808020030), and it challenged interlocutory orders in the proceeding. Aureon asked the court to uphold its "deemed lawful 2013 tariff rate and hold unlawful" and grant relief from FCC decisions "that (1) hold that Aureon is a CLEC and apply rules for non-dominant CLECs to Aureon’s dominant carrier service, (2) invalidate Aureon’s 2013 tariff rate, and (3) hold that Aureon’s 2013 tariff rate is void ab initio," said its petition (in Pacer) Tuesday in Iowa Network Services v. FCC, No. 18-1257. Aureon filed a separate petition Wednesday asking the D.C. Circuit to review a July 31 FCC order requiring the company to further revise its rate for interstate switched transport after finding its latest tariff didn't comply with the rules (see 1807310061). AT&T and the FCC didn't comment. AT&T's reply in FCC proceeding No. 17-56 in support of its petition for further reconsideration of the Aug. 1 order said none of Aureon's opposing arguments had merit.
The FCC invited pleadings on Sapphire Intermediate Holdings' planned takeover of Smart City Holdings indirect subsidiaries: Smart City Telecommunications, Smart City Solutions, Smart City Networks, Smart City of Washington D.C. and Convention Communications Provisioners. Comments are due Oct. 2, replies Oct. 9, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest and docket 18-268. The smart city subsidiaries are an ILEC in Florida and competitive telecom providers in Florida; North Carolina; Nevada; Washington, D.C.; and Washington state.
The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition cited "numerous concerns" with the current versions of FCC Forms 470 and 471, used in the application process for E-rate USF discounts (see 1808170022). For example, the Form 470 "drop down menu of service descriptions for Category 1 services combines Internet service delivered over a fiber circuit with leased lit fiber service," said an SHLB filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-184 on a meeting with Managing Director Mark Stephens, Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and aides. "Applicants must explain which service they are requesting bids for in a narrative text box that does not allow prospective bidders to easily identify the bidding opportunities for purely fiber-based service and for Internet service delivered over a fiber circuit."
An August FCC rural call completion order will partially take effect Oct. 19, said a rule in published Wednesday's Federal Register. The order contains rules to establish a registry of intermediate providers used by "covered" telecom companies to complete many calls (see 1808150045). Section 64.2115 on intermediate provider registration requirements won't take effect until the FCC announces approval by the Office of Management and Budget.