New York’s plans for its new state USF fund have not...

plans called for “the scheduling of consideration of Phase III issues (intrastate access charges and the New York Targeted Accessibility Fund ("TAF")), and discussions on these issues will commence within 30 days” among the relevant stakeholders (CD Aug 17 p9). Administrative Law Judge Eleanor Stein expressed doubts on Friday that these stakeholders can come together properly, and the stakeholders disagreed in the Tuesday letter. Initial proposals for settlement were due to Stein Sept. 21, an earlier notice said (http://xrl.us/bnuow9). “Even if Your Honor concludes that an impasse has been reached in the collaborative, the Signatories -- a diverse group with widely varying interests that constitutes a clear majority of the parties who have been active in this proceeding -- believe, based on their exploratory discussions both within and outside of the collaborative, that they should be able to enter into a Joint Proposal with respect to Phase III issues,” the group said in a letter to Administrative Law Judge Howard Jack. These signatories include the PSC staff, the New York Cable Telecom Association, Level 3, Frontier, tw telecom, Verizon New York, Windstream, and a group of smaller ILECs. These parties want “a reasonable opportunity to finalize and submit their Phase III Joint Proposal,” they said, which would avoid “lengthy and burdensome evidentiary hearings on the merits of the access and TAF issues."