Ian Cohen

The FCC partially granted an Alaska Telephone Association petition to reconsider a bureau "Map Instructions" public notice while clarifying "Alaska Plan" carriers' map data-filing duties. The Wireline and Wireless bureaus granted the petition about "the required data accuracy standard for the map collection due to be filed in 2018" and extended a March 1 submission deadline until July 1. "We also provide clarification regarding the data to be filed regarding 'community anchor institutions,'" said an order in Thursday's Daily Digest, with map instructions revised "to reflect this relief." It denied the petition otherwise. The 2016 order approving a modified Alaska Plan provided $1.5 billion in USF subsidies over 10 years to maintain, extend and upgrade broadband across remote areas of the state (see 1608310067). Fifteen rate-of-return carriers and eight wireless affiliates opted in, with the goal of providing 10/1 Mbps, but lower speeds were allowed if there were middle-mile network constraints on connecting to the internet backbone. ATA's petition said reporting requirements went beyond collecting data on middle-mile links and also covered last-mile facilities (see 1710120023). The reconsideration order "adjusts mapping requirements to allow" plan participants "to provide important information about broadband infrastructure in Alaska more efficiently," emailed ATA Executive Director Christine O'Connor.

Frontier Communications' stock fell on a dividend halt and Moody's downgraded Windstream and Uniti Group "corporate family" ratings from B2 to B3, six notches below investment grade and "subject to high credit risk." Frontier's share price closed down 24 percent at $7.03 Wednesday after its board suspended its quarterly cash dividend. "The suspension will make available an additional $250 million annually to accelerate debt reduction," said a release Tuesday. Windstream's downgrade was "based on the company's sustained weak operating trends and challenging debt maturity profile," said a Moody's release Wednesday. Moody's also downgraded the telco's "probability of default," "secured" and "unsecured" ratings, though it left unchanged a "speculative grade liquidity" rating, "reflecting good liquidity." The "outlook remains negative due to Moody's expectation of continued pressure on EBITDA, negative free cash flow including persistent restructuring costs, and low asset coverage relative to debt," it said. "Windstream faces large debt maturities of over $1 billion each in 2020 and 2021 and strong negative market sentiment that poses very high refinancing risk." The Windstream downgrade hit Uniti, another Moody's release said: "As Uniti's largest tenant and main source of revenue, Windstream's credit profile significantly influences the ratings and outlook of Uniti. ... . With only marginal revenue diversity, the business and credit risk at Windstream will weigh heavily on Uniti." Windstream and Uniti closed down 2.5 percent and 3.3 percent. Neither commented. Wireline telcos have been stressed from competition (see 1710220002).

FCC staff gave some E-rate USF participants more time to file invoices beyond a previous extension ending Tuesday, due to Universal Service Administrative Co. processing delays. A "limited waiver" provides relief "to applicants and service providers that: (a) timely requested and received the one-time 120-day extension to invoice for funding year 2016 recurring charges from [USAC]; and (b) are currently awaiting, or recently received, a revised funding commitment decision letter (RFCDL) issued for a post-commitment change request submitted to USAC," said the Wireline Bureau order in docket 02-6 listed in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Affected E-rate participants now have "120 days from the date of their post-commitment RFCDL" to file invoices, said the bureau, citing "extraordinary circumstances created by technological system issues that delayed USAC’s issuance of post-commitment RFCDLs" for FY 2016. The parties "may not receive their RFCDLs in time to submit accurate invoices" by Tuesday, it said.

Rural telcos objected to the possible retroactive impact of some expense limitations apparently being considered by the FCC, or any sweeping disruption of settled cost-recovery principles. "[W]hile an October 2015 Public Notice purported to 'remind' carriers that certain expense items were ineligible for recovery via USF in 2015, then-existing rules that are still in effect today only prohibited recovery of some of the listed items," said an NTCA/WTA filing posted in docket 10-90 Thursday on a meeting with Wireline Bureau officials. "In fact, the rules in effect then and still today expressly permit recovery of several other expense categories listed in the Public Notice (or are ambiguous or internally inconsistent at best)." New limitations should be applied only prospectively, the groups said, noting they back "delineating explicit limitations with respect to the recoverability of specific expense categories" consistent with their prior filings and commissioner statements (see 1801310057). The groups also "objected to any far-ranging, open-ended language in either a new rule or order text that would attempt to recast, restate, or recharacterize decades of settled cost recovery standards and jurisprudence," they said. "[T]he focus should be on promoting clear accountability by providing very direct and plain indication of what expenses are not recoverable through USF and/or rates, rather than rewriting cost recovery policies more broadly in a way that could create, rather than dispel, confusion for small businesses and increase, rather than decrease, complicated compliance risks and burdens."

The FCC further suspended review of an AT&T-Iowa Network Services (Aureon) dispute in light of continued settlement talks being mediated by agency staff. "[W]e find that the appropriate exercise of our discretion warrants suspending the Petition proceedings until the conclusion of the mediation," said an Enforcement Bureau letter in proceeding No. 17-56 Thursday, the day a previous suspension was scheduled to end (see 1801100061). The FCC in November partially granted an AT&T complaint that Aureon violated Communications Act provisions by charging AT&T for "centralized equal access" service on traffic heading to CLECs engaged in "access stimulation" (see 1711080059).

CenturyLink said it has "met or exceeded" all broadband deployment milestones so far included in FCC approval of its 2011 takeover of Qwest (see 1103210112). "The final set of milestones is April 1," said a company filing posted Friday in docket 10-110 on a meeting with commission staffers. "CenturyLink explained that it has already exceeded the targets for 12 Mbps and 40 Mbps. We also explained that it appears that CenturyLink will exceed the 5 Mbps commitment, and is on track to meet the 1.5 Mbps commitment." CenturyLink also "discussed the proper treatment of living units" for which it received Connect America Fund Phase I or II support, "both of which we explained should be excluded from the calculations consistent with the relevant Commission orders."

FCC staff partially granted an Allband Communications Cooperative petition to waive a rule establishing a presumptive per-loop cap of $250 per month on total high-cost USF support. It will let the rate-of-return incumbent LEC "continue to provide voice and broadband services in parts of rural Michigan, which otherwise would go unserved," said a Wireline Bureau order Thursday in docket 10-90.

FairPoint changed its name to Consolidated Communications in the FairPoint service territory acquired last year for $1.3 billion (see 1707030036), Consolidated announced Tuesday.

Initial challengers to the FCC net neutrality repeal order withdrew protective petitions for review after the agency filed dismissal motions saying it won't forward the petitions to a multi-district judicial panel for a lottery to determine the court venue (see 1802130004). The parties had filed the petitions to preserve their legal rights in case the commission triggered the circuit lottery. Mozilla, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, state attorneys general and the FCC notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit they were jointly stipulating to the dismissal of the petitions in that court, said a PK release Friday that noted parties can file again after the order is published in the Federal Register. California's Santa Clara County made a similar filing (in Pacer) in the Ninth Circuit and Free Press said it's withdrawing its petition in the 1st Circuit.

The FCC granted the request of AT&T and five consumers to dismiss two complaints alleging the telco engaged in "digital redlining" by discriminating against poorer neighborhoods in provision of broadband service. The parties "resolved their differences" through FCC staff-supervised mediation, said brief joint motions (here and here) to dismiss the complaints with prejudice Tuesday in dockets 17-223 and 17-270. They were stamped "granted" by an Enforcement Bureau official. The parties asked the FCC in October to pause its review as they tried to settle the dispute (see 1710040032), which surfaced in August (see 1708240046). Neither AT&T nor Daryl Parks, the attorney representing the residents of Cleveland and Detroit, commented Tuesday.