Comptel’s “so-called ‘managerial framework'” for copper retirement and IP interconnection would stand in the way of the “market-led progression to IP interconnection voice traffic” and would “prejudge” the FCC special access proceeding, Verizon told the agency in a filing posted Wednesday to docket 13-5 (http://bit.ly/1rhGGyj). Comptel’s framework (CD April 3 p18) would “harm consumers and impede the transition to IP-based networks,” Verizon said. Comptel’s “radical” request that the FCC suspend its copper retirement rules would reverse “long-settled policies” that have encouraged facilities-based broadband investment and competition, Verizon said. The telco is “at the forefront” of IP VoIP interconnection agreements, and “the only thing standing in the way” of such agreements is certain providers’ “unwillingness” to pursue arrangements on “commercially reasonable terms,” Verizon said. “The Commission should reject Comptel’s continuing unsupported and unsupportable claims, and it should let its proceedings follow their normal course in order to reach data-driven decisions that encourage investment in next generation IP-based broadband networks."

"Significant gaps” exist in the rural call completion record, and there should be a 90-day “moratorium” in the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) application process, the Voice Communication Exchange Committee told the FCC Thursday. The FCC’s plan to use a data collection as a means of discovering further call completion problems will have “no practical utility” in addressing the root causes of the call completion issues, VCXC said in a filing in WC docket 13-39. “An industry wide ‘everyone presumed guilty’ data collection represents an extremely inefficient means of triggering enforcement actions,” VCXC said. “In the unlikely event problems arise with even 1 percent of total calls, 99 percent of the data collection burden represents a waste of resources the PRA approval process exists to prevent.” The FCC “failure to properly prepare” during the 40 months of investigations leading up to its rural call completion report “puts the application at risk and makes any outcome vulnerable to litigation and further delays,” VCXC said. A 90-day moratorium would let the FCC determine whether its PRA application can pass, and the agency might also convene industry meetings to discuss the issue, VCXC founder Daniel Berninger told us. The root cause of the call completion problems is the IP transition itself, Berninger said: “Chaos in the network” combined with “bad guys lurking out there, finding ways to collect money without delivering a service.” The problem is “a symptom of the chaos that ensues when you try to transition a network from TDM to all IP,” he said. Submitting the call completion data collection proposal to the Office of Management and Budget for PRA approval, only to have it be rejected, would be “a bigger setback than if we pause and assess the application before submitting it,” Berninger said. A data collection won’t fix anything, he said; it will just look for more problems. A better solution is for the FCC to “set up a process of anonymous whistleblowers” to find the bad actors, Berninger said.

Offering free peering to content providers is a “win-win-win situation,” said Google Fiber Director-Network Engineering Jeffrey Burgan in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1jH3aEP). Giving companies like Netflix and Akamai free access to space and power in Google’s facilities lets providers “deliver really high-quality streaming video to their customers,” Burgan said. It lets Google save money -- “it’s easier to transport video traffic from a local server than it is to transport it thousands of miles.” And it’s good for Google Fiber customers, who get “the fastest, most direct route” to content. Offering free peering arrangements helps user-requested video to steer clear of potential congestion elsewhere in the network, Burgan said. “Since people usually only stream one video at a time, video traffic doesn’t bog down or change the way we manage our network in any meaningful way -- so why not help enable it?"

Smith Bagley asked the FCC for a waiver of its final Lifeline biennial audit plan, which requires an independent auditor to randomly select one month during the audio period and three states or territories where the eligible telecom carrier (ETC) is designated. “SBI is the only Lifeline ETC that operates in exactly three states, and as a result, would be the only multi-state operator to be required to have 100 percent of its operations audited,” the ETC said in a filing posted Thursday in WC docket 11-42 (http://bit.ly/RdB6ML). “The underlying purpose of the rule -- namely, to review a sample of a Lifeline ETC’s operations -- does not require an audit of 100 percent of SBI’s operations across three states in order to accomplish that purpose.”

The FCC plans another inmate calling workshop, it said in a public notice Wednesday. Scheduled for July 9, it will “analyze the impact of the reforms and gather information to inform additional reforms of inmate calling services,” it said (http://bit.ly/1nr1eON). “Topics for the workshop will include state reforms of ICS, the cost characteristics of the provision of ICS in different correctional facilities, the regulation of ancillary charges, and non-traditional communications technologies used in correctional settings.” The agency revamped its prison calling rules last year, instituting strict limits on per-minute charges for interstate calls. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has stayed much of the prison calling order (CD Jan 14 p3).

Ericsson’s continued insistence that the FCC can designate a Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA) without issuing an NPRM “reflects a fundamental disregard for the law,” current LNPA Neustar told the agency in a letter Monday (http://bit.ly/1k395Dx). “No lesser authority than the Supreme Court ... has expressly recognized that the Commission’s exercise of authority under Section 251(e) constitutes rulemaking,” Neustar said. Ericsson owns Telcordia, which is battling with Neustar over the LNPA contract, which is up in 2015. Ericsson is trying to relegate to a “historical footnote” the FCC’s rule barring selection of a telecom network equipment manufacturer and its affiliate, Neustar said. Ericsson’s effort to “wrap a veil of secrecy” around the North American Numbering Council recommendation, and block public participation in the LNPA selection process, “betrays its unwillingness to compete in a fair and open manner,” Neustar said.

Incumbent providers’ continued dominant positions in the market for interconnection services let them delay the IP transition “because competitive IP-based carriers lack the leverage necessary to demand IP interconnection,” Cablevision and Charter Communications told the FCC in a letter posted in docket 12-353 Friday (http://bit.ly/1mOVoIB). They were responding to a USTelecom letter arguing ILECs are no longer dominant providers in the relevant markets. Cablevision and Charter have experienced the problem firsthand as they've tried to negotiate for such agreements “absent legal guidance from the Commission on the applicability of Section 251(c) to IP-to-IP interconnection,” they said of the Communications Act. Despite competitive providers’ gains in some local markets, interconnection agreements typically cover entire states or regions, and no competitive providers have market penetration comparable to ILECs over such large areas, the cable companies said. The FCC should ensure that ILECs carry out their statutory duties under Section 251(c) and provide IP-to-IP interconnection on reasonable terms, they said.

Making all Number Portability Administration Center bid documents publicly available “would be extremely anticompetitive if re-bidding on this contract were to occur in the future,” Telcordia wrote Friday in response to a question from the FCC Wireline Bureau. “Any public release of Telcordia’s confidential and proprietary technical, pricing, and operational information, by or at the direction of the Commission, would be contrary to the Trade Secrets Act,” Telcordia said. Telcordia, an Ericsson subsidiary, is competing for the Local Number Portability Administrator contract, which Neustar has for sure only until its contract expires next year. “Neustar, of course, offers to make its bid public -- it has concluded that its bid was uncompetitive anyway, meaning that public release of bids will only benefit Neustar, while causing maximum harm to Telcordia. All along, Neustar has been trying to determine how large of an incumbency premium it could seek and still retain the LNPA contract -- and its actions show that it believes its bid miscalculated the premium it could demand and was therefore too high. It would destroy the competitive process if Neustar were now given Telcordia’s proprietary pricing, and an opportunity to revamp its bid using that trade secret information."

Verizon lost a dispute about facilities charges in a telephone interconnection agreement before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday, as the court vacated a lower court ruling in Verizon’s favor (http://1.usa.gov/1sOVxNY). But several other lower court findings in favor of Verizon were affirmed. Soon after agreeing to an interconnection agreement, CoreTel and Verizon had found themselves in a dispute on the rates CoreTel was required to pay for interconnection entrance facilities, the court said. CoreTel was entitled to summary judgment in its favor on both its and Verizon’s claims for declaratory relief relating to Verizon’s facilities charges, the 4th Circuit said. But the 4th Circuit affirmed the lower court grant of summary judgment in Verizon’s favor on CoreTel’s “reciprocal compensation” claims. The 4th Circuit also upheld a lower court Verizon victory on its switched-access claims. The opinion was written by Judge Allyson Duncan.

Comptel met with FCC Wireline Bureau officials Thursday to discuss the FCC timeline for action on the IP transition, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday to docket 13-5 (http://bit.ly/1mnwhfV). The conversation focused on three issues Comptel wants the commission to address this year: Adopting rules to prevent the exclusionary impact of special access term and volume discount agreements; confirming IP interconnection rights for the exchange of voice traffic; and revisiting the existing copper retirement rules. Existing copper retirement rules are insufficient to protect the public interest, because they provide only for notification that the copper loop will no longer be available for competitive services, but don’t ensure an alternative form of access to last-mile facilities, said Comptel. “This creates substantial harm, particularly to small and medium size businesses that rely on competitors to provide the affordable broadband services they need to run and grow their business."