Customs Duty

TracFone resisted AT&T Lifeline proposals for the FCC to overhaul the USF support program for low-income consumers. TracFone opposed AT&T suggestions that carriers be removed from all Lifeline enrollment functions and that eligibility be initially tied solely to the federal food stamps program, which TracFone said would have a “devastating impact on Lifeline availability.” The comments came in a response posted Tuesday to a Nov. 23 AT&T filing flowing from an NPRM (see 1506180029). Other parties filing recently in docket 11-42 included the Cherokee Nation, Incompas, Lifeline Connects Coalition and Smith Bagley, with many comments addressing proposed minimum service standards for Lifeline broadband/voice coverage.

Cable officials said they had concerns with the FCC's Measuring Broadband America (MBA) program, though overall it "continues to serve the public interest." In a meeting with FCC staffers, including Chief Technologist Scott Jordan, the industry officials noted “periodic failures on the Measurement Lab test server platform” resulting in faulty test results (see 1510150052). They also discussed considerations to apply in possible guidance from Jordan under paragraph 166 of the net neutrality order. “With respect to the requirement that broadband providers disclose actual performance that is 'reasonably related' to the geographic area where the customer purchases service, we reminded the Commission that the MBA program considered reporting results at a regional level but rejected that approach because of the significant expense it would entail,” said the NCTA filing in docket 14-28 on the meeting, which also included officials from Charter Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable. “We also explained that individual cable operators generally deploy the same technology and follow the same operational practices across their footprint, so the nationwide results reported by the MBA program should reasonably reflect performance in each geographic area served by a particular operator.” In addition, the cable officials said smaller fixed broadband providers faced challenges complying with a duty to disclose actual performance data. Thousands of providers haven't been included in the program, depriving them of access to the MBA test platform and equipment, NCTA said. “While a handful of larger non-MBA companies have taken it upon themselves to deploy a similar testing regime, any guidance issued by the Commission should reiterate that alternative, less expensive, approaches also are permissible,” the group said. “We also encouraged the Commission to offer additional companies the opportunity to participate in the MBA program, thereby increasing the percentage of broadband consumers that are covered by the program.”

Consumer advocates, CLECs and others urged the FCC to implement and even augment proposals to codify specific standards for discontinuance of copper-based telecom services as industry shifts to IP-based services over fiber networks. ILECs said the proposed criteria would hinder the transition to IP/fiber systems that already was far along without regulatory mandates. “An air of unreality pervades this proceeding,” said AT&T, which called charges of ILEC bottleneck control "patently absurd." The parties filed reply comments on the commission’s technology transitions Further NPRM, most of which were posted Tuesday and Wednesday (for further filings, see docket 13-5).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is proposing ILECs receive significant forbearance relief, a senior agency official said Tuesday. Wheeler circulated a draft order granting several aspects of a USTelecom petition in docket 14-192 asking the commission to stop applying various regulations to the regional Bells and other local incumbents, the staffer said. Included is relief from certain wholesale obligations that Granite Telecommunications has said are key for competitors serving multioffice businesses in many areas (see 1511120031). The petition is due for a decision by Jan. 4. Wheeler is putting the draft order on the tentative agenda for the FCC’s Dec. 17 meeting, the staffer said.

USTelecom disputed Granite Telecommunications arguments opposing ILEC relief from certain FCC wholesale obligations. USTelecom said Granite believes Communications Act Section 271 Bell duties and ILEC 64 kbps wholesale voice duties give CLECs a "regulatory backstop" to obtain UNE-P (unbundled network element platform) replacement products from the incumbent telcos. “Granite’s imagined ‘regulatory backstop’ is not real and has been expressly disavowed by the FCC. UNE-P replacement products are the result of marketplace conditions that have enabled negotiated commercial agreements,” USTelecom said in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 14-192. "Regulatory obligations did not cause these agreements, and they do not ‘backstop’ them. Any savings claimed by Granite resulted from market conditions, not regulatory ‘backstops.’” Granite recently suggested it would stop serving 1.4 million lines and there would be consumer welfare loss of $4.4 billion to $10.2 billion if CLECs lost wholesale rights targeted by a USTelecom forbearance petition, which is due for a decision Jan. 4 (see 1511120031). USTelecom said the provisions Granite cites require ILECs to offer wholesale access to certain network elements, but don’t require them to offer a wholesale voice platform. “By implying that they do, Granite resurrects and tries to re-litigate issues that were settled years ago in the Commission’s UNE proceedings,” USTelecom said. “There is no requirement that companies assemble the various elements available under the sections and rules Granite cites into a finished wholesale business voice service.” A 2011 FCC amicus brief in a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case (BellSouth v. Kentucky PSC, No. 10-5311) confirmed that ILECs aren't required to recreate UNE-P, USTelecom said. A Granite representative had no comment Wednesday. The company did respond to a recent Verizon filing in the docket that argued a 2005 FCC forbearance order -- citing strong cable competition to Qwest (now CenturyLink) in Omaha, Nebraska -- supported the USTelecom petition. Granite said that order didn’t address the kinds of multilocation business customers Granite serves, the “vast majority” of which don’t have cable alternatives. Granite said there is no basis to assume Verizon and other ILECs would lose many customers to cable if CLECs have to pull back due to ILEC wholesale relief. CLECs have no concrete assurances Verizon and other ILECs will continue to offer commercial platform services in the absence of the regulations, Granite said.

Consumer groups asked the FCC to revisit its tech transition backup power order by putting more of the onus and cost on fixed-service providers and less on consumers. The commission should reconsider the order because its rules “depart from the approach” in an NPRM, “transfer the responsibility for ensuring the reliability of 911 and other emergency voice communications from the provider to the consumer, and undermine the public safety and other policy goals” of Section 151 of the Communications Act, said a petition posted in docket 14-174 Tuesday by the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates and other groups. The FCC should revise its conclusion that “carriers are not required to provide back-up power, and need only make back-up power available at the customer’s option and expense,” the groups said. They said consumers expect their 911 and other emergency calls will be completed, but the order's mandates are “insufficient” to protect public health and safety. “The Commission concludes that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for back-up power would disserve customer interests,” they said. “This conclusion is erroneous. It rests on an observation that many customers rely on wireless and cordless phones and an inference that consumers have come to prefer the minimal backup-power afforded by the charge on a wireless phone or the convenience of a cordless phone without backup power. There is no basis for this inference.” Joining the petition were Access Sonoma Broadband, the Benton Foundation, Broadband Alliance of Mendocino County, Center for Rural Strategies, Greenlining Institute, Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, National Consumer Law Center on behalf of its low-income clients, and Public Knowledge.

Granite Telecommunications said it wouldn't be able to continue to serve 1.1 million lines it serves through wholesale voice arrangements, nor profitably continue to serve another 300,000 "fill-in" lines through resale deals, if the FCC eliminates a “regulatory backstop” targeted by a USTelecom forbearance petition. A Granite letter posted Thursday in docket 14-192 “quantifies the harms that would result” from eliminating regional Bell duties to provide wholesale access to discounted “unbundled network elements” (UNEs) under Section 271(c)(2)(B) and ILEC duties to provide 64 kbps unbundled loops pursuant to Sec. 251(c)(3). An FCC decision is due by Jan. 4 on the USTelecom petition, which seeks ILEC relief from various regulations.

The Obama administration released the full text of the telecom chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, spurring reactions Thursday from many stakeholders. Some such as AT&T have strongly backed the trade deal during negotiations. The 22 pages of chapter text were posted on the U.S. Trade Representative website Thursday, alongside a summary document and some other chapters. One such chapter deals with e-commerce. The administration was compelled to release the document 90 days ahead of President Barack Obama’s signature as part of the Trade Promotion Authority arrangement, before congressional consideration.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will reintroduce do-not-track legislation that would give American consumers the power to tell companies, including data brokers, that they don't want their information collected. He announced it during a Senate Privacy Subcommittee hearing on whether information held by data brokers is secure.

Rural telco groups asked the FCC to increase USF broadband speed requirements, with some wrinkles, as part of a planned agency overhaul of high-cost subsidy mechanisms for rate-of-return carriers. NTCA, USTelecom and WTA said the FCC’s current 10 Mbps requirement for broadband-oriented Connect America Fund support “risks locking rural America into lower service levels” contrary to statutory mandates, including that USF ensure “reasonably comparable” rural services at “reasonably comparable" prices. “This is particularly true when one considers that the networks that the USF program enables require planning years in advance and then have life cycles measured in decades once built,” the associations said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. “The Associations propose to tether more closely the applicable USF broadband speed objectives to the Commission’s Section 706 broadband speed objectives.” But the groups said they understood the USF budget may not provide enough support for rural carriers to always meet the FCC’s current 25/3 Mbps wireline broadband definition under Section 706 of the Telecom Act. So they suggested some flexibility be built into proposed USF reforms to change existing mechanisms to cover broadband while giving carriers the option of receiving support based on a broadband cost model. For carriers not electing model-based support, the associations proposed they be required to deliver 25/3 Mbps service (or any new Section 706 definition) upon receiving a “reasonable request,” which the FCC interprets as generating sufficient anticipated revenue to justify the upgrades. If a rural telco can’t offer at least 25/3 Mbps, it would be required to offer 10/1 Mbps if feasible or 4 Mbps/768 Kbps if only that level of service is feasible, they suggested. For carriers electing the model-based approach, the groups would keep a 10/1 Mbps broadband requirement covering increasing percentages of customer locations over time, but with a duty to report how many locations are receiving 25/3 Mbps service, they proposed.