The Wyoming Legislature may limit state regulation of Internet Protocol-enabled services. About half of U.S. states have passed laws limiting state regulators from overseeing IP, most notably California, which adopted its law last fall (CD Oct 2 p7). Months of tense debate last year generated the Wyoming bill, stakeholders told us. House Bill 18 was introduced to the Wyoming House of Representatives Jan. 8, unanimously passed the nine-member Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee Jan. 24 and passed out of the House after three readings Thursday, moving to the Senate.

Clarification: The research note encouraging the FCC to reformulate several of its USF rules and hold a careful rulemaking proceeding on the transition to all-IP networks was written by John Staurulakis Inc., a sister company of JSI Capital Advisors (CD Jan 3 p7).

The telecom industry was sharply divided on AT&T’s petition to eliminate legacy interconnection rules, as the U.S. telecom infrastructure moves toward all-Internet Protocol services. ILEC comments supported the petition, which would start with deregulatory “experiments” in various wire centers to gauge the technological and competitive effects of eliminating several ILEC obligations. Carriers and cable companies cautioned against eliminating interconnection requirements in the Telecom Act that they say protect consumers and competitors. The CLECs were split on a competing proposal by NTCA, which seeks an omnibus proceeding the association said would retain consumer-friendly regulations and incentivize IP interconnection. State associations and commissions worried about ensuring consumer protections as well as maintaining their own authority. Public interest groups were wary of AT&T’s petition, but several minority groups encouraged the idea of limited deregulatory trials to determine the effect on minority customers.

Telcos and cable companies said there wasn’t enough time to sift through the hundreds of thousands of National Broadband Map (NBM) challenges by the filing deadline for reply comments in docket 10-90 Thursday. The proceeding seeks input on the process of challenging the map’s designations. The cable and phone companies agreed a new, more formal challenge method was needed, but disagreed on the specifics. In comments earlier this month, cable companies and price-cap carriers criticized the NBM as “grossly” overinclusive and underinclusive depending on where one looks (CD Jan 11 p7). The map is used to determine where Connect America Fund Phase I money can be distributed. Price-cap carriers get access to the money to help fund broadband buildout in areas the map lists as unserved.

NARUC will tackle spectrum sharing, emergency communications coordination and the FCC’s “repeated abuses of informal rulemaking,” according to draft resolutions released this week (http://xrl.us/bob6pm). State regulators will consider the resolutions at their winter meeting in Washington in February. The proposed resolutions delve into past controversial territory, such as addressing FCC referral to the Federal-State Joint Boards on Separations and Universal Service. USTelecom objected to joint board referral provisions at the past two NARUC meetings, in Baltimore in November (CD Nov 14 p5) and Portland, Ore., last July (CD July 25 p8), although both of the resolutions passed.

Telcos and carriers could soon face a mandatory data collection to determine the extent of the rural call completion problem, FCC and industry officials told us. They said a Wireline Bureau notice of proposed rulemaking that circulated Jan. 14 proposes to require the first facilities-based originating interexchange carrier to track certain information about when calls to rural areas are completed, versus when calls to urban areas are completed. The NPRM proposes banning “phantom ringback” tones, which falsely lead a caller to believe the call is being connected, FCC and industry officials said. Rural phone associations have been pushing for action since it became clear that last year’s declaratory ruling on the importance of call completion wasn’t having the effect they had hoped for (CD April 16 p3). Last month, 34 senators urged FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to investigate why some calls to rural areas calls are delayed, have poor quality or fail to connect altogether.

Central Texas Telephone Cooperative needs the FCC to act quickly on its petition for waiver and application for review of USF rules, it told Wireline Bureau officials Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bob2nb). Central Texas has high capital expenses because it buries cable in the rocky terrain it serves, but this also means extremely low operating expenses, the telco said. Under the current regression model, which looks at capital expenditures and operating expenditures separately, the co-op’s “substantial cost savings” are not being recognized and the company’s costs are “arbitrarily” being labeled as “imprudent,” the telco said. By collapsing the opex and capex results into “one overall loop cost output,” the commission could take into consideration operating efficiencies, the telco said. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has urged the agency to combine the two separate benchmarks into one benchmark “to simplify the regression analysis and provide carriers with flexibility to meet our new limits” (CD Nov 20 p5).

The Kentucky Public Service Commission granted Boomerang Wireless status as an eligible telecommunications carrier as long as the company complies with its commitments to the PSC as well as to FCC rules. The company is certified for “the purpose of offering Lifeline service only in the underlying carriers’ licensed service areas throughout the state” and will now be able to receive federal and Kentucky USF money for that service, the PSC said in its Tuesday order (http://xrl.us/bob2nj). Boomerang will advertise the Lifeline service and comply with the FCC’s certification rules, the PSC added. The “planned wireless Lifeline offering will provide eligible customers with the following two alternative Lifeline plans: 125 units that roll over; or 250 units without roll over,” one unit the equivalent of one minute or one text, and customers will get free handsets and can “purchase additional airtime,” it said. Other included services, without charge, are voicemail, call forwarding, three-way calling, caller I.D. and call-waiting services.

Major changes in the U.S. telecom marketplace in the 15 years since passage of the 1996 Telecom Act highlight the need for reforms to that legislation, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May Wednesday during an event. The pro-deregulation think tank was promoting its new book, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age, which focuses on how U.S. telecom law and policy should change over the next five years. Reforms should reflect changes to the marketplace since 1996 -- the switch from analog to digital, the switch from narrow-band to broadband networks and the switch from a mostly monopolistic marketplace to one that’s highly competitive, May said. “Those changes call for a new communications law, and certainly, absent waiting for the new law, changes in the direction of communications policy,” he said.

Reply comments on intrastate access charge reform before the New York State Public Service Commission continue to show a sharp split among parties. The divide is between AT&T and Sprint Nextel, which both argue for settling the reform through litigation, and a November joint proposal. Verizon, the PSC staff, cable companies, smaller telcos, tw telecom and Level 3 argued in the proposal that the reform should wait on FCC proceedings. The proposal from 13 entities urges for status quo consideration of intrastate access charges and has been a source of contention for months, most recently in initial comments earlier this month (CD Jan 8 p7).