Many competitive carriers see voice-over-IP (VoIP) as the next step in their evolution after UNE-P, CompTel/Ascent Alliance CEO Russell Frisby said Thurs. at a roundtable that brought together 20 top Alliance company executives. He clarified, however, that VoIP couldn’t be used in “substitution” for UNE-P yet because of technical limitations. Frisby stressed that a “competitive environment” was the key for CLECs to succeed in the next- generation network marketplace: “It is critical that competitors gain access to those wholesale facilities that they need in order to be able to provide VoIP.”

FCC Comr. Martin said the Commission should continue to fight the courts and grant Title I regulatory status to DSL and cable broadband. In a Q&A session at a Charles Schwab telecom conference in Washington, Martin said the FCC shouldn’t “give in” to the 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco. Despite the court ruling against the FCC’s Title I declaration that cable modems were an “information service,” Martin said the Commission should fight that ruling and also not declare DSL to be a “telecom,” as opposed to “information,” service. In the meantime, he said, the FCC could issue guidance on certain regulations, such as the status of law enforcement access, to give companies some certainty. But “the litigation may limit what we can do,” Martin said in regard to guidance. “We don’t have to give up the legal pursuit.” He said Title I regulatory status probably would allow the FCC to prevent the “net neutrality” concerns that some had raised. However, he said there had been no evidence that ISPs were blocking access to sites and that the FCC shouldn’t take action until such evidence was presented. Martin said in evaluating Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), the Commission should distinguish types of VoIP services. An Xbox videogame system that allows users to talk with one another probably shouldn’t have Enhanced 911 requirements, while one that functioned like traditional telephone service probably should.

Asked in a Q&A session at a Schwab Washington Research Group conference whether some wireless carriers were having trouble porting numbers, FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta said the agency had been monitoring carriers, but: “It’s too early to call.” In the telecom conference, Muleta also said the Commission was examining proposals on how to mitigate interference to public safety at 800 MHz: “It is too early for anyone to read into it that one approach is better than another.” Nextel, public safety groups and others have proposed a rebanding plan at the FCC for a spectrum swap among licensees at 700, 800 and 900 MHz and 1.9 GHz, including an $850 million pledge from Nextel to relocate displaced incumbents. CTIA, the United Telecom Council and others have weighed in against the plan, arguing that best practices and other measures could be used to correct interference problems. “I don’t think that the answer is simply a technical solution versus rebanding,” Muleta said. “I think it’s probably somewhere in the middle. There’s got to be some spectrum-management types of answers to this and probably some technical-based ones.” Factors affecting where the agency comes out include the timing of different solutions, he said. If the FCC were to follow a path that involved rebanding and compensation for displaced incumbents, the question it must answer would be what form such payments should take, he said. “What we are trying to find is what’s an appropriate model for addressing this sort of compensatory system if you go in that direction,” he said. Muleta said that in the last several months, participants in the “consensus plan” had submitted several changes to address areas of disagreement, including measures Nextel said it would undertake to further secure its $850 million funding commitment. Schwab analyst Paul Glenchur asked Muleta about Nextel’s assertion that it stood behind the plan, including the funding portion, if the FCC accepted it in whole. Concerns have been raised as to what happens if the cost of relocating public safety incumbents and others exceeds $850 million. “Clearly one of the issues that we are struggling with is what if the costs exceed this,” Muleta said. The other issue has been what form such a compensation system should take. “Clearly that is for the Commission to decide,” he said: “It’s too early for at least anybody at my level to conclude that we are going in one direction or another on how to solve this problem.” While he said he couldn’t speak for the timeline of the 5 commissioners on that item, he said, “we are trying to come to some closure on that in the next quarter.” On wireless LNP, which took effect Nov. 24, Muleta said the process was highly systems-driven, meaning it was not unexpected that one or several carriers might have issues with implementation. He said he continued to talk with carriers about how things were going. In response to a question about what could trigger an FCC enforcement action, he said the agency would have to examine mechanisms to bring operators into compliance if a problem arose. Operators have had sufficient notice to know the requirements were coming, he said. Muleta likened the issues the FCC is examining for LNP compliance to factors at play in Enhanced 911 compliance: “We want to make sure carriers are doing everything they can. We want to be sure we understand what the issues are.”

Wis. 911 public safety officials cautioned that consumers who ported their landline phone number to their wireless phone and gave up the landline service could lose E911 location capability. The Wis. Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officers cautioned that it could take up to 3 years before wireless E911 location identification was in place statewide. The officials said the problem could be critical for wireless users with young children, elderly residents or persons with serious medical problems who might be able to dial 911 on a cellphone but not to describe where they were. They said households with persons in those categories would be better off staying with a landline phone until wireless E911 was statewide.

FCC Chmn. Powell gave early indications of his thinking about a regulatory regime for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) Mon., saying he saw consensus that the service might be deemed “interstate” in nature and that concerns about VoIP were focused on 4 or 5 discrete issues. His comments to reporters came after an FCC forum on VoIP that featured industry leaders, state public utility commissioners and others.

Wireless local number portability (LNP) began Mon. amid continued regulatory challenges, including a new petition for partial stay of the FCC’s wireline-to-wireless order that was filed at the Commission late Fri. by a coalition of rural carrier groups. The groups representing so-called 2% carriers -- those that individually serve less than 2% of telephone consumers in the U.S. -- included the Independent Telephone & Telecom Alliance (ITTA), the National Telecom Co- op Assn (NTCA) and OPASTCO. Although the FCC last week denied a similar petition by USTA and CenturyTel, those filing the new one contended they were raising wireline- wireless issues that hadn’t been specifically raised before. USTA and CenturyTel since have sought a stay in the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., where the case is pending. The D.C. Circuit already had turned down a petition by rural carriers seeking a stay of the wireless-to-wireless porting rules.

The FCC Wireless Bureau unveiled a major restructuring Mon., scaling back the size of larger divisions and doing away with separate branches. The Bureau said the revamping didn’t add or remove functions from its portfolio and all the changes had been carried out by redeploying existing positions. “The overall result is a flatter, more flexible organization that the FCC believes will be more responsive to changes in wireless technology and the telecommunications business environment,” the agency said. Bureau Chief John Muleta said the result was “a mission-driven team that will be innovative in its approach to regulatory policies and customer service.” Under the reorganization, the Bureau now includes: (1) An Auctions & Spectrum Access Div., which covers policy initiatives and legal analysis as well as procedures. Margaret Wiener, chief of the former Auctions & Industry Analysis Div., heads the new group. (2) A Broadband Div., which focuses on deployment of wireless broadband services and consolidates the policy, regulatory and licensing functions for wireless broadband services, excluding public safety and critical infrastructure services. Joel Taubenblatt, deputy chief of the former Policy Div., heads the new unit. (3) A Mobility Div., which consolidates the policy, regulatory and licensing functions for wireless mobile services. Roger Noel, deputy chief of the former Commercial Wireless Div., is chief. (4) A Public Safety & Critical Infrastructure Div., which brings together wireless homeland security and public safety issues, including Enhanced 911 and system interoperability. It covers policy, regulatory and licensing for public safety entities and critical infrastructure industries. D'Wana Terry, chief of the former Public Safety & Private Wireless Div., is chief. (5) A Spectrum & Competition Policy Div., which will focus on new spectrum, competition and infrastructure policies, including Spectrum Policy Task Force issues. William Kunze, chief of the former Commercial Wireless Div., is chief. (6) A Spectrum Management Resources & Technologies Div., which will focus on information technology, licensing support and auctions support, which had been split between 2 divisions. John Chudovan, chief of the former Data Management Div., is chief. The Commission approved the reorganization Nov. 13 but it wasn’t announced until Mon.

The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., turned down a request by rural carriers for a stay on wireless-to-wireless local number portability (LNP) rules in a decision late Fri., but set a briefing schedule for an 11th-hour challenge by USTA on a wireline-to-wireless LNP order. Wireless LNP is to take effect today (Mon.) in the top 100 markets. USTA and CenturyTel had filed an emergency motion for a stay at the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Fri., seeking to forestall the FCC’s wireline-to-wireless LNP rules. CTIA warned that if the request were honored, millions of wireline customers wouldn’t be able to transfer numbers to mobile phones.

The FCC turned down a petition by 12 small wireless carriers seeking relief from certain accuracy standards of Enhanced 911 Phase 2 requirements. The carriers -- the Tier 3 Coalition -- sought forbearance from enforcement of the Phase 2 requirements for small, non-nationwide carriers until Jan. 1, 2006. The FCC concluded the group had “not offered adequate evidence to support the broad, class-wide relief that it requests.” The coalition had argued that if the FCC granted such relief, the small carriers still would have to meet most of their E911 obligations, including ordering and installing Phase 2 technical solutions within 6 months of a request from a public safety agency. The FCC said the carriers had failed to meet conditions for forbearance by: (1) Not showing the accuracy standards weren’t necessary to protect subscribers of Tier 3 carriers. (2) Not demonstrating that forbearance from enforcement met a public interest standard. It said that in the past it had granted small carriers some relief from E911 deadlines, recognizing that equipment-makers were meeting the demands of large carriers first. The Tier 3 Coalition filed its petition last Nov., arguing there wasn’t a commercially available Phase 2 compliant handset or network location solution that could meet FCC accuracy requirements and could be deployed economically in a rural area. The FCC rejected arguments that there wasn’t evidence the same accuracy standards imposed in urban areas were needed in rural areas. “The record supports the conclusion that accurate location information is as important in rural areas as it is in urban areas,” the agency said. It also turned down arguments that current technologies couldn’t produce the location accuracy needed for a rural carrier’s service area without severe financial hardship. “There has been no showing that the majority of wireless consumers in rural areas would lose service or be subject to excessive charges if the Commission’s accuracy requirements were enforced,” it said. The FCC said broad relief wasn’t warranted because of the public safety importance of those caller-location accuracy standards.

Qwest reported a 3rd-quarter profit of $1.8 billion, reversing a year-ago loss of $123 million. The latest results included a gain of $2.5 billion from the 2nd phase of its sale of its QwestDex telephone directory business. Revenue in the quarter dropped 5.4% to $3.6 billion, mainly due to “competitive pressures in local voice and wireless services.” Qwest, which announced its results late, said the delay was caused by the restatement it released in Oct.