The Conference Group lacked standing to challenge an FCC decision that audio bridging software by InterCall must pay into the USF, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/14oHjbd). The Conference Group, a provider of audio conferencing services, had argued it was harmed by the commission’s ruling, which it said imposed new duties on all audio bridging service providers (CD April 16 p8).

The question of VoIP provoked sharp disagreement. The RLECs of the Iowa Telecom Association (ITA) do “not believe any of the commenters offered any compelling reasons to alter the Board’s precedent that interconnected VoIP is and should remain subject to certain regulatory requirements,” they said (http://bit.ly/15dzMgh). The Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) pushed for certain VoIP regulation, running counter to Verizon, AT&T and the Voice on the Net Coalition. “Since virtually all retail rates have been deregulated in Iowa since 2008, the push for preemption or deregulation of VoIP services must be to free VoIP carriers from regulatory oversight of crucial consumer protections,” the consumer advocate said (http://bit.ly/1b5lZez). It pointed to “enforcement of service quality standards, consumer privacy protections, and access to connection to the entire network” and “carriers’ public safety obligations, including providing reliable access to 911 services” as well as the board’s complaint process. Providers are “at times unresponsive to consumer complaints,” it added.

FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn circulated an NPRM Friday, teed up for a vote at the commission’s July 19 meeting, examining a further overhaul of the USF E-rate program. The NPRM also comes in the wake of a June 6 speech by President Barack Obama urging the commission to make high-speed Internet available to enough schools and libraries to connect 99 percent of American students (CD June 7 p7).

Former FCC members disagree about how fast the commission should be pushing for action on the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. Former agency heads and ex-commissioners from both parties agreed Wednesday that Wireless Bureau staff have been impeded by the lack of a full commission, and lack of clear direction from the top. The ex-members also disagreed on whether the auction is the most complex task the agency has ever taken on, in a Q-and-A hosted by Communications Daily.

The Texas Public Utility Commission granted a motion for dismissal that several telcos requested in May. These various companies requested to be dismissed from a PUC rate proceeding due to what was then a pending potential law that would remove the PUC’s rate oversight relevant to their categorization. They argued it would be a waste to force them to continue with the proceeding if Texas Senate Bill 583 became law (CD June 7 p11). These companies alerted the PUC that Gov. Rick Perry (R) signed that bill into law June 14, and a PUC administrative law judge “agrees that the issue raised by the USF Coalition need not be addressed at this time and is not part of this Order,” according to the Friday PUC order (http://bit.ly/12en3bZ). “Therefore, the motion to dismiss is granted and Big Bend Telephone Company, Eastex Telephone Cooperative, Inc., Valley Telephone Cooperative, Inc., and the Parties in the Alenco Group, the Hill Country Group, and the Ganado Group are dismissed from this proceeding.”

Companies from across the telecom industry urged the FCC last week to reform its rules for assessing regulatory fees. Commenters said change is necessary to ensure no provider is at a competitive disadvantage. An NPRM last month sought comment on several reforms, including changes to the Interstate Telecommunications Service Providers fee category, reallocation of full-time equivalent (FTE) employee fees, and limitations on regulatory fee increases (http://bit.ly/13YxqAR).

Wireless carriers are asking that customer proprietary network information requirements only apply to mobile devices “if a carrier directed or caused CPNI to be on a mobile device and ... the carrier has access to that CPNI,” said an FCC filing. Commissioner Ajit Pai, meanwhile, has indicated he will dissent unless major changes are made to the CPNI order before Thursday’s meeting where it’s scheduled for a vote, industry and agency officials said.

The second edition of “Digital Crossroads” is available for pre-order on Amazon (http://amzn.to/10uNBrc). Its authors, Dean Philip Weiser of the University of Colorado Law School, and Wilmer Hale partner Jonathan Nuechterlein, spoke at the American Enterprise Institute Tuesday (http://bit.ly/10uO90g) on changes they made for the new edition of their book, first published in 2004. The authors limited the amount of time spent discussing the increasingly “antiquated” and “obsolete” Telecom Act of 1996, they said, and gave considerable focus to the IP transition and the spectrum issues. Weiser gave the FCC credit for reorienting the USF program to focus on broadband, and on fixing the program to stop producing new wireless carriers in areas that already had wireless service. The big challenge, Weiser said, is whether it’s economical to keep wireline connections in areas that are more remote, he said. Any decision to let go of legacy networks is “one of the painful implementation challenges” the industry will face, he said. In the IP transition, the FCC will have a big role ensuring non-economic, social policy objectives are met, Nuechterlein said. “I am much more skeptical” about the FCC’s role in economic issues such as the need for price regulation, interconnection and leasing obligations, he said.

Commenters urged the FCC to correct “obvious” errors with the Alaskan capital expenditure coefficient in the agency’s quantile regression model, in comments filed Monday. The Matanuska Telephone Association asked the commission in May to strike the use of the negative coefficient. “It is not clear why the Quantile Regression Model yielded a negative coefficient for Alaska, but the stark reality is that it is more expensive to build network in Alaska than in the Lower 48, not less,” General Communication Inc. said (http://bit.ly/15hiFGZ). GCI urged the commission to grant the petition. In so doing, the agency “should not be under any illusion” that this would address “even a significant minority” of the shortcomings of the USF reform rules with respect to Alaska, said the company. Several factors, including unique geography and topography, low population density and harsh climate, contribute to the high costs faced by Alaskan carriers, said the Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative and Copper Valley Telephone Cooperative (http://bit.ly/15hj9Nv). “While we understand that the WCB staff is working to produce a new result for 2014, it is not acceptable to penalize Alaska carriers during the entirety of 2013 while these data errors are being corrected.” If the quantile regression analysis is to be used at all, said NTCA, the commission must “redouble efforts” to ensure that “its inputs are accurate and its outcomes promote the provision of specific, sufficient and predictable high-cost support” (http://bit.ly/10uMZ4T). The negative coefficient for Alaska is a “clear error,” but other erroneous outcomes based on faulty data “may not be as immediately clear,” said the association. It urged the commission to scrub and scrutinize its inputs. The Alaskan costs were also the topic of a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday. (See related report above in this issue.)

Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, traveled more than 5,500 miles to get to a hearing on Capitol Hill on the effect of USF reforms on tribal areas. So did Steve Merriam, CEO of an Alaskan telephone cooperative. Alfred LaPaz of the Mescalero Apache Tribe traveled 2,800 miles. Which is why it’s “beyond my imagination,” said Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, that FCC officials weren’t willing to “travel the mile and a half up the road” to “answer the questions that I would like to ask them.”