Consumer Groups, Industry Battle Over Further IP Transition Rules

ILECS also opposed a tentative conclusion in the NPRM that would require incumbents to provide to CLECs equivalent services when retiring wholesale services competitors say they need to reach their customers (see 1411040060). Public interest groups backed the CLECs. In a separate but related proceeding, ILECs and CLECs took opposing sides on a Windstream petition for a declaratory ruling that ILECs’ obligation to provide access to DS1 and DS3 unbundled loops doesn't end with the transition to IP or fiber. The comment deadline for both the NPRM and Windstream’s petition was Thursday, and filings were posted Friday.

Echoing comments by Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel in approving the NPRM in November, Public Knowledge and other public interest groups said “fundamental values” like consumer protections need to be preserved during the transition. Rather than hindering the technological shift, the groups said stronger regulations would help it. “The best way to encourage consumers to adopt new technologies is to give them confidence that those technologies will be a true step forward for them,” said the joint filing.

The FCC should adopt “strong and comprehensive” metrics in evaluating the new technologies that would be offered instead when existing phone service is being replaced, the groups said. Among them: call quality, network capacity under stress and service to 911 and public safety answering points. If the new service fails in any of the factors, the commission should ensure there is a solution before authorizing the retirement, the groups said. The agency should also provide guidance on whether letting copper lines deteriorate constitutes retiring the service, said the groups. They have said carriers are letting copper deteriorate to push customers to fiber.

Consumers also should be assured of having at least seven days of backup power for IP-based phones to ensure “people will continue to have access to communications services during natural disasters or other events involving electrical power outages,” said the filing. The commission sought comment on an eight-to-24-hour requirement. Joining Public Knowledge in the comments were Appalshop, the Benton Foundation, Center for Media Justice, Center for Rural Strategies, Common Cause, Greenlining Institute, Media Action Center, Media Literacy Project, National Consumer Law Center, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Rural Broadband Policy Group and The Utility Reform Network.

The proposals “would disrupt the ongoing TDM-to-IP transition by imposing unnecessary and unworkable obligations on carriers, requiring voluminous new regulatory filings, increasing costs, and decreasing incentives for investment and innovation,” AT&T said, and the ideas are “bad law and bad policy.” A “multi-factor” test on the adequacy of what’s replacing services being retired “would improperly tip the balance” of the Section 214 discontinuance process, AT&T said, “and would create enormous work” for carriers and the commission. The agency has no legal authority under Section 214 to regulate the technical details of services, said the telco. Issues like 911 service should be handled through industrywide standards, the company said.

The transition already is serving the public interest by “bringing innovation and better services to the marketplace” and the FCC should “stay focused” on creating a “minimal regulatory environment” to help the U.S. reach its broadband deployment goals, USTelecom said. Fiber and IP “offer many more enhanced features and functionality than legacy services are capable of providing,” so the commission should “increase its education efforts [about the transition] so consumers are not blindsided, rather than raise additional barriers to progress,” USTelecom said.

AT&T opposed backup power requirements. Consumers are able to monitor their own power supply and the commission should focus on “promoting consumer education and on working with IP-based service providers to develop industry best practices,” AT&T said. The backup power requirement should be at most eight hours, USTelecom said, saying 90 percent of the customers of association members had wireless service that could be used during power outages.

AT&T and USTelecom opposed a proposal in the rulemaking on ensuring continuing wholesale access to competitors. Section 214 “is meant to protect end-users, not to regulate the rates and terms of intercarrier service arrangements,” AT&T said. Incumbent wholesale connections offer “the only economically viable means” for competitors to connect with business customers, Comptel said in support of the requirements. CLEC customers, including small businesses, nonprofits, healthcare and government facilities, wouldn't continue to have “the benefit of vigorous competition” if the connections become no longer available, Comptel said. Windstream noted that the commission in the NPRM said it sought to preserve competition during the transition. A replacement service to TDM should be considered equivalent if it meets a number of factors including no increase in rates, reduction in bandwidth or in service quality, and if there are no “backdoor fees,” Windstream said.