The FCC needs to take “both near-term and longer-term steps to address statistical and data-related shortcomings” of USF regression-analysis based caps, NTCA told aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bobd4p). The agency should refrain from extending the caps to other components of USF support, or applying them in full effect, “in light of the many obvious and significant issues that remain to be worked through,” the association said. NTCA also called for “Commission-level oversight” of the caps to high-cost loop support.

The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on two petitions for waiver of the rule that requires ILECs receiving high-cost USF support to report their local residential voice rates in effect as of June 1 each year. FairPoint Communications Missouri said it wants a waiver to correct errors in the rates it reported (http://xrl.us/bobdxm). Steelville Telephone Exchange seeks permission to refile its local rate data to reflect rates that went into effect after June 1 (http://xrl.us/bobdxo). Comments on each waiver are due Feb. 19 in docket 10-90, replies March 6.

An adviser to FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach filed comments Wednesday to inform interested parties that the commission’s responses to the House Commerce Committee Request for USF data “may be relevant to a number of issues raised in the petitions for reconsideration pending before the commission” (http://xrl.us/boa8ii). Several parties have filed petitions for reconsideration of the reforms passed in the USF/intercarrier compensation order. The commission’s responses to Congress, which were provided in October, are available at http://xrl.us/boa8ik.

The telecom industry is at a “defining moment” that gets to the heart of “the way we used to think” about investment, versus how the industry needs to think about it in the future, said Bob Quinn, AT&T senior vice president of federal regulatory. At a Minority Media and Telecom Council event Wednesday, telecom executives urged lifting legacy regulations they say are counterproductive in an increasingly wireless world. Panelists also called for more spectrum to help narrow the digital divide, and more outreach programs to encourage broadband adoption.

Don’t doubt the success of the federal government’s wide-ranging broadband stimulus launched two years ago, program officials said. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling gathered representatives from four of its 224 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grantees at the Brookings Institution Wednesday to discuss different projects’ virtues, lessons learned and as Strickling said, “to demonstrate the successes” and “humanize” the $4-billion stimulus investment with “tangible” details of how the different projects work. The message glossed over past concerns, such as overbuilding (CD Sept 27 p6), accountability (CD Nov 15 p15) and, in the past year, partial suspension of eight of the program’s largest infrastructure grantees -- seven in May due to FirstNet compatibility concerns (CD Aug 7 p1) and one in December (CD Dec 10 p6) due to compliance problems. The event coincided with NTIA’s 15th quarterly BTOP update to Congress (http://xrl.us/boa3z2).

Before the FCC can implement its Connect America Cost Model, it must settle a more fundamental question than what capabilities should be added to the model, said commenters on a December rulemaking notice on the features. The real question, they said in filings and interviews, is whether to use a greenfield or a brownfield approach to estimating costs. “Of any changes that could be made to the model, this is by far the biggest,” said Ross Lieberman, American Cable Association vice president-government affairs. The ACA has been a primary proponent of the brownfield model, one option offered in the latest version of the CACM.

Several stakeholders complained about and appealed the Colorado Public Utilities Commission’s deregulatory reform, which the PUC ordered and adopted in late December (CD Dec 18 p9). Many voiced concerns in interviews immediately after the PUC adopted the order (CD Dec 26 p8), reflecting loud debate that happened in the months leading up to the order, and filed their concerns formally this week. The PUC initiated its telecom reform in August and ultimately chose to cap its high-cost fund at $54 million, cut retail regulation and reduce high-cost funding in areas deemed effectively competitive, among other changes.

Proposed changes to FCC forms used to report annual and quarterly revenue raise Paperwork Reduction Act concerns, Sprint Nextel said in comments filed Friday. Carriers also questioned whether the new language on reseller certification conflicts with the commission’s 2012 wholesaler-reseller clarification order. Most commenters commended the commission for soliciting suggestions on the instruction changes, but XO cautioned that even with comments the instructions lack the legal significance of an actual rule.

The American Cable Association recommended several capabilities be added to the Connect America Fund cost model (http://xrl.us/boaeu7). It should provide the ability to separate operating and capital expenditures in the reporting model; include or exclude “telco served” locations with a new reporting toggle; and exclude capital expenditures for all locations that are “telco served;” provide for inclusion of existing download and upload speed data for each geographic area from the national broadband map. ACA also sought a toggle to exclude Alaska from the calculations; a new summary report that shows expected annual capital expenditure cash flows by asset category for each year; and new fields in the support model detail report indicating which census blocks were previously eligible for USF support. The additions would facilitate more detailed analysis and better modeling transparency, ACA said. The model helps calculate USF costs for broadband that gets USF funds.

Thousands of census blocks are incorrectly identified as “unserved” by the National Broadband Map (NBM), said cable companies and wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) in comments in FCC docket 10-90 (http://xrl.us/bn99cn). But USTelecom, the Independent Telecommunications and Telephone Alliance (ITTA) and individual ILECs said the map incorrectly overstates the areas listed as served. 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.