NCTA Disputes Level 3 Arguments for new FCC Broadband Reporting Duties

the indisputable fact that the conduct of both parties affects the performance experienced by the customer," NCTA said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-28 responding to a Nov. 25 Level 3 filing (see 1511270035). NCTA said the FCC had recognized that interconnection was "far more complex than suggested by Level 3," and found in its net neutrality order that prescriptive rules would be premature. "Of particular note," the commission considered and rejected additional reporting duties on interconnection link performance, the cable group said, asking the agency to dismiss Level 3's plea for new reporting duties as "untimely and unwarranted." NCTA disputed Level 3 suggestions that, absent further reporting obligations, the FCC's performance measurements in its Measuring Broadband America (MBA) reports are misleading and harmful to consumers: "This allegation is complete nonsense." The charge is "particularly inappropriate given the structure of the program and the significant role Level 3" has played in it in recent years, the group said. "Through the program, broadband providers voluntarily submit to a measurement process that is overseen by a government agency (the Commission), administered by the Commission’s contractor (SamKnows), and run on facilities provided by third-parties whose advocacy is consistently hostile to broadband providers (M-Lab and Level 3)," NCTA said. "Given the rigorous nature of the testing, the Commission appropriately has found that disclosure of MBA results constitutes a safe harbor with respect to the requirement to report the actual performance of broadband service." NCTA also disputed Level 3's proposals for specific reporting requirements. Level 3 called the NCTA filing disappointing. "This isn't, or at least shouldn't be, about Level 3's or NCTA's members' business interests," emailed Joe Cavender, Level 3 vice president-federal affairs. "It should be about consumers. Consumers deserve to know what kind of performance ISPs actually are providing, and any performance disclosure that ignores the importance of interconnection simply fails consumers. Moreover, as we explained in our ex parte, the types of performance disclosures we propose are required by law. NCTA's argument to the contrary is just wrong."