The FCC freed AT&T, Verizon and Qwest from various accounting and reporting rules. Late Wednesday, the Wireline Bureau granted each of the carriers’ compliance plans, which showed how the companies will continue giving the commission usable accounting data the agency requests once orders granting them forbearance on cost-assignment and Automated Reporting Management Information System rules take effect.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
An overhaul of intercarrier compensation and the Universal Service Fund could upset broadband deployment and hurt companies in and outside the telecom industry, telecom interests warned in reply comments this week. Replies were due Monday on three FCC overhaul plans. Though many arguments were repeats from the initial comment round, some new faces appeared, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service, and associations for utilities and payphone providers.
With little more than a week left before deaf consumers can get 10-digit phone numbers for Internet-based telecom relay services, the FC released details on its implementation plan. Late Friday, in a second report and order, and order on reconsideration, the commission tackled 911 implementation, user registration processes and numbering costs, among other issues.
Sprint Nextel urged the FCC to strengthen its legal argument for keeping a $0.0007 rate for ISP-bound traffic. In a reconsideration petition filed last week, Sprint said it agreed with the FCC’s November order responding to the remand of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. But the order -- now facing an appeal in that court -- could be improved by adding an alternative argument, Sprint said: “Given the complexity of the statutory scheme, the lengthy history of litigation concerning compensation for carrying ISP-bound traffic, and the pending petition for review filed by Core Communications in the D.C. Circuit, the Commission would be well-served by relying on two alternative legal theories.”
The FCC appears to be a year behind on a Regulatory Flexibility Act duty to annually review regulations adopted ten years previously. Thursday, the commission sought comments on the possible revision or elimination of rules adopted by the agency in 1997, which “have, or might have, a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.” Comments are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The agency sought comment on 1996 rules on Nov. 12, 2006, but released no public notice about 1997 rules until Thursday. An FCC spokeswoman said the report on 1997 rules was finished at the end of 2007, but the agency had to circulate it through all its bureaus and offices. Usually circulation is finished by the second quarter, but the 2007 report “got behind,” she said. The 1998 report is finished, and now circulating the commission, she said.
A federal court denied an appeal related to the timeliness of an FCC forbearance order. In a petition for review at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, competitive local exchange carrier Fones4All said the FCC improperly released a backdated forbearance order one day after the statutory clock ran out. Citing two decisions by the D.C. Circuit, the court said Fones4All couldn’t challenge the timeliness issue in court until it appealed at the FCC. The court also upheld the FCC’s order on the merits.
Verizon’s forbearance petition on reporting requirements remains active, though the carrier got some relief last week in an FCC order on a similar Qwest petition. Late Friday, the commission conditionally granted Qwest forbearance from Automated Reporting Management Information System requirements related to financial data and extended the relief to Verizon and AT&T (CD Dec 15 p1). A footnote in the Qwest order said, “We address the merits of Verizon’s requests with respect to the ARMIS Financial Reports in this Order. To the extent that Verizon’s petition seeks other regulatory relief, those requests remain pending.” The FCC must still deal with Verizon’s request for relief from maintaining Continuing Property Records, said a spokesman for the carrier. The order pleased Qwest, said Shirley Bloomfield, a senior vice president. “The structure of the telecommunications marketplace has dramatically changed since these rules were established many years ago and the reports are no longer relevant or meaningful in today’s environment.”
Carrier contributions to the Universal Service Fund will decline 16.7 percent in Q1 2009, due mostly to falling high- cost support requirements, the FCC said on Monday. Next quarter, carriers must contribute 9.5 percent of their long distance revenue to USF. That’s 1.9 percentage points less than Q4, and 0.7 less than Q1 last year. To set the carrier “contribution factor,” the agency divides projected carrier revenue by expected USF subsidies for a given quarter. Of an estimated $1.84 billion in Q1 subsidies, about $1.06 billion is for the rural high-cost program, $525.74 million for the E-rate program, $204.89 million for low-income support and $49.49 million for the rural health-care program. Support requirements for the high-cost program dropped most, falling $120 million from Q4. The interim cap on the competitive eligible telecom carrier (CETC) portion of the high-cost fund is partially responsible for the drop, said Curt Stamp, president of the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Association. An industry official estimated that the CETC cap reduced demand on the high-cost fund by about $64 million. The five-month CETC cap took effect in August, but apparently took an extra quarter to kick in, Stamp said. The contribution factor decline could relieve some of the short-term emergency behind USF reform efforts, but ITTA hopes the FCC and Congress won’t lose focus, he said.
Incorrect payments continue in the universal service schools and libraries E-rate program and low income fund, the FCC’s inspector general said Friday. These are payments that shouldn’t be made or are for the wrong amount. The E-rate program had a rate of payment errors of 13.9 percent in audits just completed, up from 12.9 percent in 2007, the IG said. The incorrect payments totaled $232.7 million, compared to $210 million in 2007. The problem puts the program “at risk,” according to Office of Management and Budget guidelines that set 2.5 percent as the highest acceptable rate.
The incoming Commerce Committee chairmen asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to take up only DTV items at the commission’s Dec. 18 meeting. Commissioner Michael Copps quickly expressed agreement, but it was unclear how Martin will respond. The request, in a letter sent Friday, may have cost Martin support from Democrat commissioners on contentious matters not involving DTV, industry sources said. Late Thursday, the FCC released its Dec. 18 agenda listing all of the items that Martin circulated late last month.