Ian Cohen

Almost 70 groups asked the FCC to reconsider Lifeline USF proposals that would "weaken" the low-income telecom subsidy program and cause "irreparable harm" to consumers, especially seniors. "Lifeline helps older, low-income Americans find and keep a job, get help in the case of an emergency, to access news and information, and to keep in touch with families, educators and health providers," said a filing Wednesday in docket 17-287 by AARP, United Church of Christ Office of Communication and others. "According to one major provider, nearly a third of Lifeline customers are over the age of 55, and 36 percent are disabled." The groups objected to a proposal to exclude pure resellers and voiced concerns "about the implications of mandatory co-pays and an automatic self-executing budget cap," particularly during the next economic downturn: "Rationing Lifeline benefits and limiting service providers will harm older adults in the U.S., who are already struggling. The FCC must keep the Lifeline program’s focus on people and maintain affordable voice and broadband service for all." Consumer Action, one of the groups, further criticized the Lifeline proposals and noted FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was in South Carolina Thursday. Pai "talks a good game about closing the digital divide, but it is impossible to ignore the fact that nothing he has put on the table would offset the estimated 92,000 people in South Carolina who would lose cell phone or broadband service if the FCC proceeds with the Chairman’s attempts to radically reshape the Lifeline program," said Executive Director Ken McEldowney. An FCC spokeswoman emailed in response to Consumer Action: "This false and ridiculous claim is based on a series of inaccurate assumptions, most notably that no Lifeline participants would switch to a facilities-based provider. Chairman Pai has made it clear that Lifeline is an important program for helping to close the digital divide. It’s therefore important that the FCC take steps to reduce the well-documented waste, fraud, and abuse within the program. Every Lifeline dollar that is wasted is by definition a dollar that can’t be spent connecting low-income Americans with digital opportunity.” The FCC "is working to promote the benefits of broadband service among older Americans," blogged Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Patrick Webre, who said the bureau "is increasing its outreach efforts to seniors, engaging with partners such as the American Library Association in a campaign to help older Americans 'Get Connected.'" The bureau is also launching a "Getting Connected to Broadband" webpage "with seniors in mind while including information relevant to all generations."

Mescalero Apache Telecom Inc. criticized an FCC broadband deployment cap on tribal carrier USF relief from operations expense (opex) limitations. MATI said it should be eligible for the additional support because its actual deployment level is below the cap. Citing high tribal costs, the commission in April provided opex USF relief to tribal-oriented carriers, conditioned on them not having deployed 10/1 Mbps broadband to 90 percent or more of their tribal housing units, which sparked concerns from Chairman Ajit Pai and others that Mescalero would be ineligible (see 1804050028 and 1804060042). Mescalero believes the cap "was adopted without sufficient explanation" or "record support," and "with no notice," said the carrier's filing on a discussion with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. O'Rielly said he sought conditions to target the relief where it was most needed. But Mescalero said its broadband deployment and service "in a very remote and mountainous reservation with severe weather conditions" increases its opex costs, making its need for support even greater than those with lesser deployment. Regardless, the carrier said it should receive the relief because it "does not actually serve 90 percent of customers with 10/1 Mbps broadband service," despite Form 477 data indicating it provides service to 95 percent. Based on further analysis, Mescalero determined it's "not currently able to deliver 10/1 Mbps connectivity to 90 percent of locations." The provider cited commission precedent for allowing carriers to make showings to correct inaccurate Form 477 estimates if necessary to avoid USF revenue loss. O’Rielly "is supportive of challenge processes in order to ensure that our decisions are based on accurate data," emailed an aide. Pai's original proposal "would have provided relief" and "that would have been his preferred outcome," emailed an FCC spokesperson. "Unfortunately, there weren’t the votes to get that done so Chairman Pai worked with those Commissioners who were willing to engage in good faith to produce the best order possible under the circumstances.” Pai and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn traded barbs in February after she changed her vote to a partial dissent (see 1802020058).

Incompas defended its motion to dismiss a USTelecom forbearance petition for incumbent telco relief from wholesale network-sharing "unbundling" discounts and related duties. The CLEC/competitor group welcomed the ILEC group's decision not to oppose motions for extending comment deadlines (see 1805220056), and said such an extension is needed because USTelecom plans to file additional confidential data after a protective order is issued. But USTelecom "is wrong that it complied with the Forbearance Procedures Order, which clearly states that parties must 'include in the petition the facts, information, data, and arguments on which the petition intends to rely to make the prima facie case for forbearance. It simply did not provide the data," said an Incompas reply posted Wednesday in docket 18-141. "Insisting that parties actually comply with the complete-as-filed rule does not -- as USTelecom erroneously suggests -- create a conflict between confidentiality and forbearance. That is a false choice." U.S. TelePacific, which uses unbundled copper loops to provide Ethernet broadband service, backed Incompas' motions.

NTCA asked the FCC to be "surgical" in targeting intercarrier compensation "arbitrage," by "defining precisely what it considers to constitute such a practice and crafting remedies specifically to solve for any such concern." While supportive of efforts to address inefficiencies and waste, the rural telco group said some potential "remedies" in two draft NPRMs (here, here) "appear to go far beyond carefully crafted consideration and resolution of potential 'arbitrage' and wander instead into much broader policy questions that could have far-reaching implications on cost recovery, universal service, and network interconnection." NTCA said the FCC should "decline to venture in this forum into broader sweeping debates regarding network edges and 'end states' for compensation," said a filing Tuesday in dockets 18-155 and 18-156 on meetings with aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Brendan Carr. It said "such matters should instead be addressed through separate further notices more properly designed and developed to initiate substantive debate and to analyze the implications of any such wide-ranging proposals." The group backed a draft order to give rural telcos broadband USF contribution relief, which along with the two notices and other items is on the tentative agenda for the June 7 commissioners' meeting (see 1805170060). NTCA also urged the FCC "to act in coming months" on a 2017 NPRM to address a USF "rate floor," which RLECs seek to eliminate or change (see 1705180061 and 1707110055).

FCC staff approved National Exchange Carrier Association proposed formulas for rural telco "average carrier interstate settlement disbursements" for interstate access services. To reflect the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, NECA in February proposed modifications to its December common line and special access formula proposals, to be effective Jan. 1 to June 30, 2018, and for the year starting July 1, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 16-400 and Tuesday's Daily Digest. "NECA's December proposals would result in a 5.6 percent overall increase of settlements at constant demand," but it "expects actual settlements to be lower because of projected losses of access lines and lower Non-DSL demand," the PN said: The overall effect of NECA's February proposed tax law adjustments "is a decrease of about 0.5 percent on current and proposed settlements." The bureau found the proposals reasonable after no comments were filed in response to previous PNs (see 1801170032 and 1803270050).

USTelecom won't oppose motions to extend FCC comment dates on its petition for incumbent telco forbearance relief from discounted wholesale network-sharing obligations and related requirements, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-141 on a discussion officials of the ILEC group, AT&T, CenturyLink and others had with Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and other staffers. Competitors, state regulators and consumer advocates asked the FCC to extend June 7 and June 22 deadlines for comments and replies by two to four months (see 1805210049). The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy backed the previous requests for more time, and the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable asked for extensions to Sept. 5 and Oct. 5. USTelecom said its petition met FCC standards for being "complete as filed," contrary to arguments of Incompas and others seeking dismissal (see 1805110059). "We also assured staff of our readiness and willingness to submit additional confidential and proprietary data (subject to Protective Order), explanations of our data analyses, and other supporting evidence into the record, as the Commission deems necessary and appropriate," said the ILEC group. But Incompas and Windstream said USTelecom failed to include all necessary information. "Even with respect to any public data sources incorporated into USTelecom’s charts, commenters should not have to guess at the values of the actual data in the charts, nor should they have to guess," said a joint filing on a meeting with bureau staffers. "At minimum, the Commission should (1) direct USTelecom to file all the underlying data, including confidential data, (2) adopt a protective order, and (3) reset the comment dates to permit an adequate, 90-day comment period once the Petition is actually complete as filed and the ordinary process for clearing counsel and experts to access confidential materials has been completed."

Comments are due June 5, replies June 12 on CenturyLink's planned sale of Level 3 metropolitan fiber business assets in Tucson, Arizona, to FirstDigital Telecom, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 18-154. It would be the third of three such divestitures required by DOJ as a condition for approving CenturyLink's 2017 buy of Level 3. DOJ already cleared the deal (see 1805140031). The FCC recently approved CenturyLink's sales of Level 3 fiber assets in Boise and Albuquerque to Syringa Networks and Unite Private Networks, respectively (see 1805010017).

CenturyLink gave the FCC an intercarrier compensation proposal for direct interconnection, following up on its recent suggestions for paying carriers to have more say in traffic routing (see 1805010031). A proposed rule would require carriers "(i) to permit requesting carriers to directly interconnect their networks for the termination of access traffic; or (ii) if the carrier receiving a request for direct interconnection for the termination of access traffic nevertheless prefers to receive such traffic through indirect interconnection, to bear financial responsibility for the costs of receiving traffic from the point of direct interconnection they prefer." This "will improve efficiency, eliminate incentives for wasteful arbitrage, and enhance competition by aligning Commission policy with sound economic principles," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 01-92. CenturyLink noted an intercarrier compensation NPRM draft (see 1805160051) seeks comment on the company's "proposal regarding the use of indirect interconnection as an alternative to direct interconnection for terminating access traffic."

Comcast told the FCC it plans to adopt Shaken/Stir call authentication standards aimed at combating spoofed robocalling, starting with trials this year and scaling to "fuller implementation during 2019." It discussed its plans, along with "call display, traceback and network-based options for robocall mitigation" with Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger and other staffers, said a filing Friday in docket 17-59. The company "exchanges a significant majority of its traffic over IP-based interconnections" and said "broader adoption of IP interconnection will enhance the use and effectiveness" of Secure Handling of Asserted Information using toKENs/Secure Telephony Identity Revisited. AT&T last week offered a similar timeline, while Sprint backed the standards but noted hurdles (see 1805170018). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai May 14 accepted the VoIP-oriented call authentication recommendations of the North American Numbering Council for creating a Shaken/Stir framework within a year and encouraging carrier implementation (see 1805140028).

The FCC circulated a draft enforcement item on an AT&T dispute with Aureon (Iowa Network Services), said the list of items updated Friday. Aureon counsel James Troup of Fletcher Heald believes the draft is a decision on the company's petition for reconsideration of a Nov. 8 order on AT&T's complaint in proceeding 17-56. He said June 12 is the statutory deadline to decide Aureon’s petition, which requested the FCC apply its Nov. 8 order prospectively only. "Retroactive application of that order would violate due process, as it would have been impossible for Aureon to know several years ago that it was the only carrier in the nation that the FCC was regulating as both a dominant carrier that must file cost support in calculating its rates and a non-dominant CLEC that is subject to a rate benchmark (which for all other CLECs was adopted to avoid the need for cost studies)," Troup emailed. The agency and AT&T didn't comment Monday. Aureon (here) and South Dakota Network (here) filed rebuttals Thursday to AT&T's (here) and Sprint's (here) oppositions to Aureon's revised access charge tariffs in a Wireline Bureau investigation in docket 18-60 (see 1804200054).