Observers disagreed on the FCC’s legal authority to implement the sweeping reforms in its 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order, which is now the subject of a challenge in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The commission argued in briefs Wednesday that its order was reasonable and grounded in law (CD March 7 p3). Analysts differed on the order’s chances of being upheld, but agreed that the key legal issues will be the scope of the FCC’s jurisdiction, and the true meaning of Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act. Oral argument is set for Nov. 19 in Denver.
Georgia legislators’ attempt to restrict municipal broadband failed Thursday night in a 94-70 House vote. But House Bill 282, introduced last month, echoing a failed Georgia bill last year and laws in other states, skyrocketed into a national debate about municipal networks this year before dying on the House floor. Vigorous back and forth occurred among legislators before the evening vote and carried over into stirrings of victory and lamentation Friday.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai threw his weight behind an IP pilot program, based on AT&T’s proposal for deregulatory trials in various wire centers around the country, in a speech Thursday at the Hudson Institute (http://bit.ly/WNAjif). The program would allow “forward-looking companies” to select wire centers where they could “turn off their old TDM electronics and migrate consumers to an all-IP platform.” Some criticized Pai’s proposal as going even further than AT&T’s original “beta trials,” warning that the deregulatory proposal could harm consumers without leading to any real data.
The landmark order reforming the USF and intercarrier compensation system was a bastion of reasonableness, the FCC argued in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. In two briefs totaling more than 130 pages -- one devoted to USF issues, the other to ICC issues -- the commission argued its 2011 USF/ICC order was lawful, necessary and well within the FCC’s authority. Challengers to the order are merely “seeking to preserve the status quo,” the FCC said, arguing the claims of overstepping jurisdiction and violating procedure are “baseless."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a draft order Wednesday proposing limited trials allowing VoIP providers direct access to numbers for set periods in a few unspecified markets, with regular reporting back to the commission, agency officials said. Genachowski also circulated an NPRM and an NOI further exploring questions about giving VoIP companies like Vonage direct access to numbers. All three items would have to be approved by commissioners.
Aventure Communications is an unlawful telecom scourge, telcos told Iowa state regulators this week in multiple filings. The company has faced scrutiny from the Iowa Utilities Board in the past, and now its opponents insist it’s violating past terms of the board’s orders and creating an ongoing problem. They point specifically to the need for appropriate intrastate high-volume access service rates and traffic pumping allegations, which Aventure attempted to downplay. Several stakeholders had failed to successfully negotiate a rate for what Aventure’s high-volume traffic should cost in 2011, prompting Aventure to initially complain to the board and inspiring several strong counterclaims. Stakeholders still debate what this rate should be. Aventure has operated since the fall of 2005 and is based in Sioux City, Iowa, according to its website.
The Michigan Public Service Commission fielded 2,102 telecommunications complaints and inquiries and issued 227 telecom orders in 2012, it told the Michigan Legislature in its 2012 report this week (http://1.usa.gov/ZdIHI4). The PSC noted the number of complaints dropped slightly compared to the year before and attributed the change to customers’ migration “from landline telephones to wireless and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.” Top concerns from state residents include billing errors, repair problems, cellular phones, cramming, service complaints and local number porting, it said. The report described ongoing complaints from rural telcos about least-cost routing and service quality problems in completing long-distance calls. “The Commission’s work in the telecommunications area included approving nine licenses for new telephone companies and revoking licenses for 17 companies that were grossly deficient in the statutory and regulatory responsibilities of licensed basic local exchange service providers,” the report said. “The Commission also approved 58 carriers as eligible telecommunications carriers to apply for federal Universal Service funding.”
The West Virginia Public Service Commission (WVPSC) supports USF waiver requests by four small rural telecom providers operating in the state, it told the FCC in comments posted Tuesday (http://bit.ly/YLClPn). Armstrong, Hardy Telecommunications and Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks Telephone had sought a waiver from the method the FCC uses to calculate the rate floor for USF support recipients. The companies asked that the end-user rate benchmark be applied to a weighted average of all their local service plan rates, rather than separately to each rate on a plan-by-plan basis. “Without using a weighted average,” the companies “must increase rates paid by consumers” of certain local service tiers “to avoid losing a portion of their USF support,” the WVPSC said. Elderly and low-income customers will be disproportionately affected if that happens, it said. NTCA and Frontier also supported the request (CD March 4 p7).
Border to Border Communications needs to provide more information for the FCC Wireline Bureau to decide whether to grant its requested waiver of some of the high-cost USF rules, Bureau Chief Julie Veach said in a letter to the company Monday (http://bit.ly/YLBoXp). Border had asked for a waiver of the $250 monthly line cap and the limit on reimbursable capital and operating expenses for high-cost loop support. The bureau asked for the names and salaries of workers at an engineering company Border contracts with; a description or “illustrative network diagram” of Border’s wireline and 700 MHz radio networks; and additional information about its financials. The bureau also asked Border to describe the applicability of the new Texas statute requiring the state public utility commission to “implement a mechanism to replace the reasonably projected change in revenue” caused by FCC rules.
The FCC must ensure that any future Connect America Fund Phase I support be used to meet the “original intent” of the funding mechanism, which was to bring broadband to unserved areas, NCTA told several FCC Wireline Bureau officials Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/ZRt6UN). The commission shouldn’t change the Phase I focus to let ILECs upgrade existing DSL service, or overbuild unsubsidized providers by awarding funding for second-mile fiber, NCTA said. NCTA urged the commission to enforce the requirement that ILECs use one-third of their frozen high-cost support to areas that are substantially unserved by an unsubsidized competitor. The FCC should reject ILEC requests to “repurpose” such support if they don’t have any such unserved areas, NCTA said. “This legacy money does not belong to the incumbent LECs to use where they see fit.” NCTA asked for the commission to provide information about the disbursement of USF high-cost funds “in a more transparent and open manner by making such information readily and easily accessible” on the FCC website.