The FCC understands that some companies may not be able to meet newly imposed deadlines for auditing their books under new Universal Service Fund rules, Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey said Thursday. “We are well aware of the challenges of companies that have not been able to submit to a financial audit,” Mattey said in a webinar hosted by USTelecom. “I do very much appreciate the time-sensitivity of it and I think we will be able to give some guidance on the timing of that. We recognize that certain things may not be able to be implemented by the deadline of this year.”

CenturyLink sees four key growth opportunities: broadband, fiber-to-the-home initiatives, managed hosting/cloud services and CenturyLink Prism TV, said financial chief Stewart Ewing during Citi’s investor conference Wednesday. The company seeks to focus on enterprise and business markets this year, Ewing said, saying business customers offer a stable revenue stream. More than 60 percent of revenue in 2011 came from business and wholesale customers, he said. The company is expanding its sales team in the enterprise group, he said, and plans to expand its broadband and IPTV offerings in the consumer market. Meanwhile, as broadband usage becomes higher there will be usage-based pricing, he said. There would be minimal impact of the FCC’s Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order on the company’s 2012 revenue, he said. The long-term impact would depend on CenturyLink’s participation in the USF for broadband program, he said. It will probably take a year for the company to determine whether it will participate and where to build, he said.

T-Mobile USA might be ready to re-emerge as a competitor now that the deal with AT&T is over: The carrier is seeking low income-only eligible telecommunications carrier status in five states. Even as the deal with AT&T was moving forward, T-Mobile was quietly seeking certification as an ETC in four states. Meanwhile, it’s protesting the FCC’s 2011 Universal Service Fund order’s treatment of carriers designated as ETCs. Its petition for reconsideration or clarification (http://xrl.us/bmnmv4) of the FCC’s USF revamp order was the first major filing by T-Mobile since AT&T’s proposed buy of the company was officially terminated Dec. 19.

Petitions for reconsideration of the new Universal Service Fund rules came in from every corner of the telecom world. A review of docket 10-90 revealed no frontal challenges to the FCC’s October reforms (CD Oct 28 p1), but, as had occurred in the months-long runup to the reforms, each sector of industry gave a laundry lists of grievances to the FCC.

Wireless carrier MetroPCS asked the FCC to clarify several items MetroPCS regards as ambiguities and make some limited changes to the Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order adopted at the commission’s Oct. 27 meeting. Several states also asked the commission to reconsider or clarify several state-specific issues in the order.

The FCC agreed to raise the limit on the number of pages in petitions to reconsider its Universal Service Fund reform order, the Wireline and Wireless Bureaus said in an order dated Friday and circulated Tuesday. Parties now have up to 40 pages to make their cases against the October order (CD Oct 28 p1), the FCC said. The change was in response to a request from rural telco associations, as the telecom world prepares to file challenges to the FCC’s USF reforms. Replies will be limited to 15 pages, the FCC said. The previously announced limit was 15 pages for recon petitions, 10 for replies. “We agree with the Rural Representatives that interested parties should be given sufficient opportunity to provide meaningful comments and necessary information regarding the USF/ICC Transformation Order,” the commission said (http://xrl.us/bmm2kk).

Representatives of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUS) had meetings at the FCC last week to ask that NTUA Wireless be approved as eligible telecommunications carrier under the FCC’s Universal Service Fund program. Among those NTUA Wireless met with were Commissioner Robert McDowell and Zac Katz, aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmmqub). NTUA Wireless officials discussed the build-out of the company’s broadband infrastructure project covering parts of the Navajo Nation, the filing said. “The group discussed the services to be enabled by the broadband project, as well as services that would be enabled through participation in USF programs,” the filing said. “The Tribal members of the group representing NTUA Wireless discussed the need for ETC designation to enable potential funding to address various communications needs on the Navajo Nation. The NTUA Wireless business representatives reiterated their desire for the FCC to act on NTUA Wireless’ pending petition for ETC designation, acknowledging the FCC’s workload."

The FCC agreed to put off imposing rules that would subject local wireless-wireline exchanges to bill-and-keep rates, the commission said in a reconsideration order issued Friday. The commission had been expected to issue a reconsideration notice sua sponte, on its own (CD Dec 23 p3). Under the reconsideration, local wireless-to-wireline exchanges won’t be subject to bill-and-keep until July 1. Bill-and-keep would have taken effect Thursday under the original order (CD Oct 28 p1).

The FCC should adopt “a strict ‘one-per-household’ limit” to help curb waste and fraud in the Lifeline program, NTCA told the FCC staff in a meeting earlier this week, according to an ex parte notice released Thursday. Some commenters have suggested the FCC create a “one-per-eligible-adult” rule. “But there is no reason to base a rule of general applicability on unique circumstances that may be faced in specific serving areas,” NTCA officials told Wireline Bureau staffer Garnet Hanly in a their meeting, according to Thursday’s notice (http://xrl.us/bmmoj8). “Rather, much like its waiver-based approach to many questions in the context of recent reforms of high-cost USF support, the … Commission … could always allow providers who believe they serve areas of such special interest to request a waiver of the ‘one-per-household’ limit,” NTCA said. The group also backed “a robust national database” to head off fraud, waste and abuse, its ex parte notice said. But NTCA is worried about “subsidizing non-facilities-based providers through the Lifeline program,” the group said. “Although competition may be a desirable policy outcome, Lifeline’s fundamental purpose and funding resources should be aimed at ensuring that low-income consumers can obtain essential telecommunications services at affordable rates.” Windstream had a meeting of its own with Wireline Bureau staff, the company said in a separate ex parte notice. Windstream, which has 106,000 Lifeline customers across 19 states, urged the FCC to tailor “non-usage” rules so that they “minimize reimbursement for customers who have abandoned their service” (http://xrl.us/bmmokc). The commission can also help things out by requiring a minimum charge for Lifeline service, Windstream said. “By paying for service at least in part, Lifeline customers will demonstrate that they find meaningful value in the service, sufficient to warrant supplemental expenditure of federal support,” Windstream said. While Windstream supports rules that would end “Link Up support for unjustified service activation fees,” the FCC “should continue the Link Up program” for what Windstream called “full” eligible telecommunications carriers “that customarily charge activation fees,” the company said. Turning to the question of whether ETCs should be required to offer Lifeline through their designated service areas, Windstream said that if the FCC does adopt such requirements it should “be consistent” and “adopt measures to ensure that these services are ‘affordable’ … and in particular, should maintain Link Up for customary service initiation charges imposed by full ETCs.”

The FCC can expect to be flooded with petitions to reconsider its Universal Service Fund reforms (CD Oct 28 p1), telecom officials said and the public record showed. Petitions were expected from nearly every sector of the telecom industry, from state regulators to rate-of-return carriers, several telecom officials said. The commission is drafting a sua sponte -- of its own accord -- reconsideration in an effort to head off one of the thorniest issues in the docket -- whether local rates on local traffic exchanged between wireless and wireline companies should be subject to bill-and-keep immediately, FCC and telecom officials told us.