If the FCC plans to revise “core elements” of the Connect American Fund Phase II program -- such as the cost model or the challenge process -- it should reopen all core elements to eliminate aspects that are not competitively neutral, the American Cable Association said in meetings with aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday (http://bit.ly/1ijdiBs). For CAF Phase II competitive bidding to be successful, the maximum number of qualified providers need to participate, ACA said. Many of ACA’s small and mid-sized cable operators want to participate, but will only do so if “unreasonable barriers are eliminated,” ACA said. That’s why they're “heartened” to hear the commission is considering streamlining the eligible telecom carrier designation process, ACA said. ACA recommended several changes to CAF Phase II: non-ETCs should be able to apply to become an ETC after winning a bid, and groups that participate in the competitive bidding process should need only one ETC. ACA recommended a 60-90 day shot clock should be instituted for state decisions, and that states be prohibited from imposing requirements in addition to those adopted by the commission.

The FCC needs to make continued Lifeline program overhaul a priority, the “Lifeline Reform 2.0 Coalition” told the agency in a letter Monday. The coalition is comprised of Telrite, Blue Jay Wireless, Global Connection of America and i-wireless. The Lifeline program would benefit from a rule change permitting eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) to retain proof of eligibility for audit purposes, and to “respond to negative media stories that claim an ETC did not require proof of eligibility, the coalition said. ETCs should be required to do a non-commission-based review and approval of all enrollments, the group said. Minimum standards for state eligibility databases would enable real-time enrollment and “guard against denying Lifeline service to eligible consumers,” the group said. The coalition also asked for a safe harbor from enforcement actions for alleged duplicate enrollments for Lifeline subscribers that have been submitted to the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD) or a similar state database. Commission rules don’t define a “duplicate” for purposes of the one-per-household rule, the coalition said. “Despite the lack of clarity regarding duplicate accounts prior to NLAD implementation, the Commission has undertaken a misguided and harmful process of proposing multi-million dollar fines against ETCs for failing to eradicate 100 percent of end-user fraud allegedly perpetrated in the form of intra-company duplicate enrollments in the Lifeline program,” it wrote. “The Commission should establish a safe harbor reflecting a minimum level of due diligence that a Lifeline ETC should employ to screen for duplicates.” A Lifeline provider that has conducted appropriate due diligence to identify duplicates should not be liable for retroactive reimbursements to USF, the coalition said.

AT&T’s “advanced discussions” on deploying gigabit fiber broadband to six North Carolina cities shows incumbent providers “have moved a long way in their thinking” about next-generation network deployments, said Gig.U Executive Director Blair Levin Friday during a speech at the Connecticut Gigabit Summit. AT&T said Thursday it was entering final negotiations for the deployments with the North Carolina Next Generation Network (NCNGN), an initiative among six municipal governments and four research universities -- Duke, North Carolina State, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Wake Forest (CD April 11 p14). The AT&T negotiations don’t mean “we've hit a tipping point but we know a lot more about what any provider, including incumbents, need,” Levin, former manager of the National Broadband Plan, said in a prepared version of the speech. Although NCNGN’s “multi-community collaboration entailed upfront costs and a feeling of slogging that often accompanies multi-stakeholder coordination, it brought scale to the project,” Levin said. Since scale is important to providers, regional approaches “may be the only way some communities obtain an upgrade,” he said. NCNGN used a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to obtain feedback on the AT&T proposal from all community stakeholders, which “is a model that can be utilized by other communities throughout the country,” Levin said. The RFP process works only if local governments get flexibility, so “taking options off the table takes away the creativity and leverage local governments need to obtain new investments,” he said.

The FCC should implement updates to the existing high-cost rules “as soon as possible” to strike a balance between preserving and advancing universal service in areas served by rural rate-of-return regulated LECs, NTCA told aides to every commissioner except the chairman Wednesday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1sNJzoX). “Such updates must ensure that predictable and sufficient support is available both for recovery of prior investments consistent with rules in place at the time those investments were made, and also for the additional future investments that are essential to ensure access by rural consumers to reasonably comparable services at reasonably comparable rates going forward.” The commission should proceed with “substantial caution” with respect to consideration of policies that might be based on the “purported presence of an ‘unsubsidized competitor,'” NTCA said.

AT&T has begun working with special access customers to migrate them from legacy time-division multiplexing services to IP services. The carrier said Thursday it has negotiated multiple agreements enabling TelePacific Communications to “accelerate” its migration to IP-based services like Ethernet data and IP voice. AT&T asked the FCC to approve its tariff revision in December eliminating long-term discounts for special access services. After the FCC suspended the tariff for investigation (CD Dec 10 p1), AT&T withdrew it and announced it would refile soon with “more evidence” (CD Jan 9 p1). The company hasn’t yet refiled, a spokesman said. TelePacific CEO Dick Jalkut praised AT&T’s “flexibility,” in a statement. TelePacific is a California CLEC catering to business customers. An AT&T spokesman declined to disclose the terms of the contract. “Generally speaking, wholesale customers are at different stages on their migration path to IP,” he said. “Although many customers are already moving to replace TDM services with IP-based services, we understand that others may be on a longer migration path to IP and that, as a result, may want to continue to purchase TDM services in the near term. As our discussions continue, we will be flexible to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers throughout the course of the entire TDM-to-IP transition. There isn’t a one-size fits all approach.” Willkie Farr attorney Thomas Jones, who represents CLECs, said without appropriate FCC regulation “designed to constrain AT&T’s market power” over wires connecting to business customers, “AT&T will always have the power to dictate the terms of sale for local transmission facilities purchased by its competitors.” Regardless of which electronics are connected to AT&T’s wires, “AT&T has powerful and understandable incentives to use its market power over wireline connections to businesses to slow roll innovation and diminish competition,” Jones told us. That ultimately leaves AT&T “in charge of the transition to IP and packet-based services,” Jones said. “This is, for all of us, the inconvenient truth of telecommunications policy.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved average schedule formulas as proposed by the National Exchange Carrier Association, it said in an order Thursday (http://bit.ly/1oR27VI). NECA proposed to revise the formulas for average schedule interstate settlement disbursements in connection with provision of interstate access services for July 1 through June 30, 2015. Formula changes will decrease settlement rates by about 1 percent, at constant demand, the order said.

Unregistered IP Relay users are making fraudulent calls to 911 “in an attempt to trick Public Safety Answer Points” into dispatching emergency services based on false reports, Sprint told FCC officials Wednesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1si915L). “Due to the risk of life and safety to first responders and the public,” the commission should “provide immediate relief on this matter” by “waiving the requirement to handle calls to 911 from unregistered IP Relay users,” Sprint said.

"The transition to fiber is already well underway,” Verizon’s David Young said in a blog post Friday (http://vz.to/1si8513). About 70 percent of Verizon’s footprint will soon be “fiberized,” said the vice president-federal regulatory affairs. Only 6 percent of homes in those areas still get service over copper lines, and keeping the copper network running is very expensive, he said. “Unfortunately, there are some who for a variety of reasons are trying to put the brakes on fiber upgrades, and by extension, fiber deployment,” Young said. “They think that the old copper networks should be kept indefinitely.” No existing telco will be able to invest in fiber if it’s forced to keep the old “redundant” and “costly” copper network up too, he said. “The social benefits of a transition to fiber must outweigh the preference that a few holdouts might have for a more familiar technology,” Young said, urging policymakers to be “courageous."

The E-rate program must recognize the “unique role of libraries in the broadband social landscape,” the Urban Libraries Council told FCC officials Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1i4Lf4Y). It must also recognize the “structural differences” between libraries and schools, ULC said. “Libraries play a critical role for the 90 million adult Americans not currently in the workforce. These individuals cannot access broadband at work or through schools, and many either do not have broadband at home or do not have reliable access to broadband in a home,” ULC said. More than 60 percent of libraries report they are the only free public Internet access location in their communities, it said. The FCC should “define a desired state of library access for high-speed circuits to each library building and internal wireless broadband connectivity,” ULC said, citing a goal of 4-5 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream for each Wi-Fi user during peak hours.

Nearly 200,000 customers of eligible telecom carriers receiving high-cost USF support had rates below the $14 rate floor as of Jan. 2, an FCC Wireline Bureau analysis found (http://bit.ly/1i4EkIY). Of those, about 150,000 were price cap carrier lines, and 50,000 were rate-of-return carrier lines. It’s a decrease from 220,000 lines that had rates exceeding the rate floor on July 1, the analysis showed. The change represents a monthly reduction of about $290,000 in support, the analysis said.