Ian Cohen

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) asked for FCC help to free up $32.4 million in E-rate discounts that she said is being withheld from her state by Universal Service Administrative Co. "Payments have been held for fifteen months, no new funding commitments are being issued, and nearly six months have passed since USAC requested information from Alabama," she told Chairman Ajit Pai in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 13-184. "USAC has not provided any rationale or justification for withholding the E-rate payments." Alabama is concerned about the delays affecting 1,376 school and library sites and 692,515 students that rely on E-rate discounts, she said. The FCC is reviewing the letter, said a spokesman Wednesday. USAC and Ivey's office didn't comment.

The FCC gave USF eligible telecom carriers an extra two weeks to file Form 481 annual reports that were due July 2, though carriers that day must still report rates and fees relevant to their high-cost support. Citing various commission orders on ETC high-cost support reporting duties, the Wireline Bureau said Wednesday it's seeking Office of Management Budget approval of recent modifications to information collection, including changes to Form 481, under the Paperwork Reduction Act. On its own motion, the bureau granted "waiver to all ETCs of the July 2 deadline" until July 16. "This limited waiver does not extend to section 54.313(h), which requires all [ILEC] recipients of high-cost support to report 'all of their rates for residential local service for all portions of their service area, as well as state fees as defined pursuant to section 54.318(e), to the extent the sum of those rates and fees are below the rate floor as defined in section 54.318, and the number of lines for each rate specified,” said the order in docket 10-90.

AT&T said the FCC should establish "realistic performance measurement guidelines for all Connect America Fund recipients" of rural broadband funding support as soon as possible, given a CAF Phase II subsidy auction scheduled to start July 24. "The methodology for determining compliance with speed and latency requirements should have been established before price cap carriers were offered CAF funding in 2015," said the telco's filing on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, posted Monday in docket 10-90. "However, for the CAF II Auction to succeed it is imperative that participants have a common understanding of the obligations they are bidding to accept." In March, Verizon made a similar call (see 1803140045) and an auction expert said the absence of final broadband performance details complicates CAF II bidder plans (see 1803120037).

Inteliquent backed certain FCC efforts to root out intercarrier compensation arbitrage proposed in a draft NPRM that was adopted and withdrawn from Thursday's commissioners' meeting agenda (see 1806050057), while it objected to other aspects. The networking provider "and its customers suffer substantial harm from the myriad arbitrage schemes of 'free' conferencing and other high-volume calling platforms," said a filing on a May 31 meeting with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and Wireline Bureau staffers, posted Monday in docket 18-155. It welcomed efforts to curb the abuses, including draft proposals "to eliminate financial incentives for parties to engage in access stimulation." But Inteliquent urged the FCC "not to undermine the market for legitimate intermediate services" and disputed allegations made by Peerless Network and cited by the NPRM. "These allegations wrongly characterize arrangements in which a wireless carrier relies upon an intermediate provider for indirect interconnection" through a "standard operating procedure" known as a local exchange routing guide, Inteliquent said. It said "carriers interconnecting via Inteliquent’s tandem are assessed a tariffed rate, which is benchmarked to the rate of the competing ILEC," contrary to suggestions it sets rates unilaterally. In discussions with the Pai and O'Rielly aides, Peerless also backed FCC efforts to curb arbitrage, and targeted schemes by national wireless providers, particularly "T-Mobile’s unlawful refusal to offer direct connects for wholesale traffic," requiring "terminating traffic to be routed through" its partner, Inteliquent. Peerless endorsed CenturyLink’s proposed direct connect rule (see 1805220042). T-Mobile didn't comment Tuesday.

National and Kansas hospital groups urged the FCC to adjust rural healthcare funding annually for inflation, including through a "catch up" provision. The agency "has stated that if it had adjusted the $400 million cap annually for inflation since 1997, the RHC program cap would have been approximately $571 million" for funding year 2017 (ending June 30), said a filing on meetings American Hospital Association and Kansas Hospital Association representatives had with Chairman Ajit Pai, an aide and Wireline Bureau staffers, posted Monday in docket 17-310. It urged the FCC to "undertake a detailed assessment of the future demand for broadband-enabled health care services to more accurately set a program cap," as it "has done for similar programs, such as the E-rate program." The Kansas representatives "described the importance of the program" to the state's healthcare providers. Pai is from Kansas.

Sprint suggested an FCC draft order to cut the IP captioned telephone service rate by 10 percent each of the next two years would be unlawful. "In cutting the rate and abandoning MARS [multistate average rate structure], the Commission would be unmooring the rate from any rate-setting methodology," which would be "arbitrary," said a filing by the IP CTS provider posted Monday in docket 13-24. "Sprint would be willing to support a rate freeze at the current $1.95 per minute in lieu of a reduction while the Commission examines a host of issues including, importantly, an alternative rate making methodology and quality of service issues (which inherently affect the underlying costs of the service). Aside from legal and procedural concerns, an interim, reduced rate could be highly disruptive to both providers and users of IP CTS. Sprint noted that the IP Relay market collapsed through similar regulatory interdiction and encouraged the Commission to heed the lessons of history." Filings also were posted from Raz Mobility (here), Hamilton Relay (here) and ClearCaptions (here in docket 03-123). The draft item containing an order, ruling and notices is on the agenda for Thursday's commissioners' meeting.

The FCC laid out the process for carriers seeking "confidential information provided with the 2018 annual access charge tariff filing in support of a carrier's tariff review plan." The Wireline Bureau provided guidance to carriers on the procedures to follow in requesting access to confidential information filed with a streamlined tariff, said a public notice Monday in docket 18-100. It said carriers "must comply with the protective order contained in [a 1997] Tariff Streamlining Order, as updated and modified herein." It suggested carriers "complete the necessary declaration ahead of time to expedite obtaining and reviewing confidential information."

Another E-rate group urged the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. to ensure an advanced training workshop this fall is open to stakeholders (see 1805310035). "Limiting the Washington, DC training to only state associated library and school E-rate coordinators excludes two large populations of E-rate power users, consultants and service providers," said an E-Rate Management Professionals Association (E-MPA) filing posted Monday in docket 13-184. It noted a recent American Library Association filing, which asked that the session be focused on the needs of state and regional E-rate coordinators. A "self-certifying body of E-rate management professionals and consultants," E-MPA "does not advocate restricting admittance to the USAC-provided Washington, DC Fall E-rate Training to any single group of users. E-MPA supports more advanced content at the Washington, DC training so that all groups who tackle complex issues may benefit."

InnoCaption (MezmoCorp) said an IP captioned telephone service compensation rate should be kept at $1.95 per minute, not cut by 10 percent each of the next two years, as an FCC draft order would do. Alternatively, the IP CTS startup "requests the Commission revise the draft item to establish interim tiers to allow small and emerging providers an opportunity to compete and provide innovative technology," said its filing posted Friday in docket 13-24. InnoCaption requested a $1.95 rate freeze for providers that have 5 million monthly minutes or less. IP CTS providers ClearCaptions (here) and CaptionCall (here) pressed their arguments with FCC officials in meetings before lobbying restrictions took effect for this Thursday's commissioner meeting with the draft on the agenda.

Bandwidth agreed with NTCA that FCC intercarrier compensation efforts should be "surgical" in focusing on "inefficient arbitrage, defining precisely what it considers to constitute such a practice and crafting remedies specifically to solve for any such concern" (see 1805230033). To ensure any new rules don't increase uncertainty and litigation, Bandwidth suggested seeking comment "on how to preclude carrier self-help" against LECs that don't self-identify as access stimulators, said its filing posted Friday in docket 18-155. The company said interexchange carriers "should not be permitted to label LECs as 'access stimulators' and take unilateral action that would force tandem providers and the wrongly-labeled LECs to divert resources from providing communications networks and services to litigation." Two intercarrier compensation draft NPRMs are slated for commissioner votes at a Thursday meeting.