Adam Bender

Google Voice has narrowed its blocking of outbound calls to fewer than 100 U.S. telephone numbers that have high termination access fees and are used by free conferencing and adult chat-line providers, Google said late Wednesday in a letter to the FCC. Google said the blocking is permissible because the company provides an information service. It was responding to an FCC Wireline Bureau letter (CD Oct 22 p14).

The economic model being developed for broadband deployment will be the FCC’s largest since its Benchmark Cost Proxy Model, the broadband team’s deployment director, Rob Curtis, said Thursday at an Arts & Labs forum at George Washington University. And in a speech at an FCBA seminar, plan coordinator Blair Levin cited a shortage of spectrum as one of the biggest barriers to spurring broadband.

Advocates and foes of network neutrality rules praised the process set up by the FCC in its rulemaking commenced Thursday, in a panel late Wednesday hosted by the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus. But the telco and cable representatives said they still worry rules could chill broadband network investment. The cable industry is “very encouraged” by the open and data-drive nature of the process established by Chairman Julius Genachowski, said Howard Symons, a cable attorney with Mintz Levin. Cooperation and negotiation between each side of the debate will be critical to making good rules, agreed Amazon.com Public Policy Vice President Paul Misener. “Why not take a real hard look at this and do it right?” However, AT&T Vice President Hank Hultquist said he fears proposed rules are too vague on what operators are allowed to do. For example, it’s unclear whether proposed rules allow AT&T to provide quality of service for customers, or provide “limited-purpose devices” like Amazon’s Kindle, he said. AT&T is worried that the FCC seeks to abandon the Telecom Act Section 202 standard allowing “reasonable” network management, replacing it with a blanket standard banning network discrimination, with some exceptions, he said. Neutrality advocates said exceptions to the FCC’s proposed nondiscrimination rule must be narrow and limited. Public Knowledge doesn’t want “exceptions that swallow the rule,” said staff attorney Jef Pearlman. The FCC mustn’t write criteria for reasonable net management so loosely that it acts as a “Trojan horse” for bad behavior, agreed Misener.

CompTel urged the FCC to “act on or initiate a new proceeding” to stop premature copper retirement by incumbent local exchange carriers. CompTel CEO Jerry James met with members of the FCC broadband team and the Wireline Bureau Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing. Two competitive local exchange company petitions on copper retirement have been pending since January 2007; the FCC sought comment but never took action. Competitors are now enhancing existing copper plant to support broadband services, so FCC action on the subject could take the form of a recommendation in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, said a competitive industry official. The Wireline Bureau could also take independent action, the official said. It’s likely the FCC would refresh the record or open a new rulemaking before making any new rules, the official said.

Purple Communications asked for a five-month delay of the deadline for deaf consumers to register 10-digit phone numbers for Internet-based text relay services. Video relay service users would still have to register by Nov. 12 under the proposal. “Although providers have been largely successful in registering video relay service users, there remains a majority of IP Relay users who have not registered despite aggressive efforts to convince them to register,” Purple said. “More time is needed and more effort is required to educate IP Text Relay users of the need to register.” The deadline has already been extended over concerns about consumer confusion, lack of public education, and technical issues. Consumer groups and relay providers attending an FCC workshop last month said education problems still remain, especially for IP text relay users (CD Sept 28 p5). “Consumer groups at this point are non-committal toward the effort by Purple or any other Internet Protocol text relay service provider” seeking an extension of the deadline, said Claude Stout, executive director of Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: “The FCC will need to make the decision.”

A federal appeals court found that an arbitration clause in AT&T wireless contracts is unenforceable under California law. The arbitration clause requires customers with disputes to seek arbitration, and bars class actions. In an order Tuesday by a three-judge panel, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a district court decision denying an AT&T motion to compel arbitration in a class- action lawsuit. The lawsuit in the lower court challenged the company’s practice of assessing taxes for cellphones based on their retail prices even when they come “free” with a contract.

FairPoint filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, the company said Monday. Though experts saw the move as bad news for Verizon-Frontier review, Verizon and Frontier executives expressed confidence about closing the deal as scheduled.

The FCC Communication Systems Analysis Division called in cybersecurity experts from USTelecom, AT&T, Qwest and Verizon for a meeting Oct. 22, a USTelecom ex parte filing said. They discussed cybersecurity and the commission’s “broader goals of collecting information on the resiliency of networks to withstand cyber attacks,” USTelecom said. The FCC is looking to “broaden its role” in cybersecurity, and it called the industry providers in to get their opinions, a USTelecom spokesman said.

Supercomm organizers hoped to bring “stability” to the annual trade show this year, Managing Director Jan Maciejewski said in an interview. Supercomm has had a complicated history -- “owned by one association, owned by another, joined together, split,” he acknowledged. “We wanted to give it a clear direction,” including by ending the annual guessing game on what the name and location of the show will be, he said. The management has already announced that next year’s show will be back in Chicago, Oct. 26-28. Final numbers on 2009 attendance and exhibit rentals haven’t been released, Maciejewski said. “Before we opened we were tracking ahead of our expectations,” he said. If the trend held up, “we should all be satisfied with what we've done.” Maciejewski said “some people have challenged me about which companies are here and which are not, and my response is very straightforward: The industry changes and therefore people choose to be in or not depending on how we drive the show and what’s in vogue and where developments are.” He predicted that a growing number of applications and services companies will participate “as we develop the show.” Supercomm staff held focus groups throughout the three days, but the results have yet to be released. “Every piece of feedback that I've had has been outstanding” on the keynote speakers and other show content, Maciejewski said. A meeting after the show is planned with exhibitors to get their comments about the show, he said: “We will listen to them and develop it from there.”

CHICAGO -- The FCC’s National Broadband Plan presents an opportunity to take on long-awaited revamps for the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation, said industry executives on a panel Thursday at Supercomm. But analysts said they were skeptical. “The realist in me doesn’t think it’s going to happen,” said Moody’s analyst Gerald Granovsky.