Ian Cohen

Comments are due Aug. 20, replies Sept. 5, on a Verizon petition for declaratory ruling, said a FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 18-221 in Monday's Daily Digest. The petition asked "to confirm that if a local exchange carrier (LEC) delivers a call to a two-stage dialing platform, including an Internet Protocol (IP)-enabled platform, the LEC does not perform terminating switched access functions and cannot charge tariffed end office terminating switched access charges for that call," said the PN. It noted the request stems from litigation, including a "primary jurisdiction referral" to the FCC from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in March.

FCC information collection under a 2017 business data service order was approved by the Office of Management and Budget for three years, said a rule from docket 16-143 for Monday's Federal Register that takes effect the same day. OMB also approved for three years an FCC information collection associated with a 2017 calling number identification service order regarding threatening calls, said a rule from docket 91-281 for Monday's FR that takes effect Aug. 22.

Cable officials praised certain FCC pole-attachment proposals, but criticized the one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) approach in a draft order eyed for an Aug. 2 vote. Many of the draft's proposed decisions "would be helpful in promoting continued broadband deployment by cable operators, including codification of the Commission’s overlashing policy, accelerating the processing of pole attachment applications, and the declaratory ruling regarding local construction moratoria," said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-84 on meetings representatives of NCTA, Cox Enterprises and Charter Communications had with aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Brendan Carr. But the draft OTMR policy "does not strike the appropriate balance and would jeopardize the safety and reliability of existing cable networks," it said. "The fundamental problem is [it] would require that existing attachers surrender complete control over work on, and relocation of, their networks to a new attacher, but not require the new attacher to take complete responsibility for its work. We strongly disagree with the suggestion in the Draft ... Order that [Communications Act] Section 224 provides new attachers a greater right to move existing facilities than the company that owns those facilities. The better and non-discriminatory approach is for existing attachers to be given the opportunity to move and protect their own networks in an expedited time frame."

The FCC cleared several RLEC deals with conditions to address cost-shifting concerns due to their combination of both model-based and cost-based high-cost USF support. The Wireline Bureau granted applications to transfer control of: Westphalia phone and broadband companies to Chapin Communications in docket 17-101; of Scott-Rice Telephone from Allstream Business US to New Ulm Telecom in docket 18-68; of Peoples Mutual phone companies to RiverStreet Management Services in docket 17-365; of Ellerbe Telephone to RiverStreet in docket 18-94; of Tri-County Telephone Membership to Wilkes Telephone Membership in docket 18-95; and of certain assets of Coon Creek phone and telecom companies to Shellsburg Cablevision in 18-177. To mitigate the potential for harmful cost shifting in mixing different types of USF support, the bureau attached conditions established in a Hargray/ComSouth order (see 1805110048), said a public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest: "The combined operating expense ... for each post-consummation company’s rate-of-return affiliates shall be capped at the averaged combined operating expense of the three calendar years preceding the transaction closing date for which operating expense data are available."

Challenges are due Sept. 4 to new locations Alaska Communications Systems identified as eligible for its Connect America Fund Phase II frozen support, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 10-90. "ACS has filed a second list of 4,691 additional locations in partially-served census blocks to which it proposes to deploy using Phase II support," the PN said.

The FCC launched its urban rate survey to set "reasonable comparability" benchmarks for fixed voice and broadband services in 2019 in the USF Connect America Fund. Completed surveys are due Aug. 24, after being sent out Wednesday to a sample of fixed service providers identified through December 2017 Form 477 data, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 10-90 in Wednesday's Daily Digest.

FCC staff approved Windstream's planned buy of American Telephone, a privately held CLEC authorized to operate in California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont, and registered to provide VoIP service in Connecticut. The Wireline Bureau granted an application to transfer control, said a public notice in docket 18-186 in Wednesday's Daily Digest.

NTCA urged the FCC to deny USTelecom's request to reconsider rural call completion rules requiring (1) that covered originating providers directly monitor intermediate providers beyond those they're directly interconnected with, and (2) contractual restrictions to ensure quality call completion flow though the call path. "Allow Covered Providers to disavow actual efforts to manage downstream Intermediate Providers, even as Covered Providers otherwise somehow 'monitor' call completion performance and remain responsible for call failures," said NTCA's opposition Tuesday to the petition in docket 13-39. It didn't address a companion USTelecom stay petition (see 1806130086).

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded part of carriers’ case against Des Moines over right-of-way charges to a district court for “fact finding,” said an opinion Tuesday. “The record in this case is replete with dense reports and conflicting expert opinions,” wrote Judge Jane Kelly, also for David Stras and William Benton. Only a district court decision that Des Moines exceeded authority to impose fees was remanded for additional fact finding. “Much turns on which experts to believe,” Kelly wrote. Qwest, Windstream and McLeodUSA challenged a fee schedule that charges carriers based on the total feet of wire or cable along city ROW and increases the fee by .02 cent a foot per year until the total reaches a 12 cents per foot target price. The companies argued federal law pre-empted the fee schedule, but the 8th Circuit upheld a district court’s ruling that the city’s rule wasn’t pre-empted. The district court’s ruling Des Moines didn’t exceed authority to impose fees was remanded because it’s not clear if the fees were based on the city’s actual costs, the opinion said. “Turning now to whether construction costs are 'management costs' that the City can properly charge the Carriers, our answer is maybe,” said the 8th Circuit. “We remand the case to the district court to make additional findings of fact.”

Comments on FCC proposals to cut waste and bring "under control the exponential growth of" IP captioned telephone service are due Sept. 17, replies Oct. 16, says Wednesday's Federal Register (calendar) It "seeks comment on measures to ensure fair and efficient provider compensation, including compensation for the provision of IP CTS using fully automated speech recognition," and moving "the compensation rate closer to reasonable cost." Dockets include 13-24. Commissioners voted 4-0 at June's meeting on an order, declaratory ruling, Further NPRM and notice of inquiry (see Notebook at end of 1806070021).