Verizon opposed expanding the District of Columbia Universal Service Trust Fund to support broadband for low-income households. "The Commission lacks jurisdiction over broadband services, and thus may not regulate the provision of broadband services," the company commented Monday on the D.C. Public Service Commission’s notice of inquiry in docket FC988. The D.C. Office of the People’s Counsel supported expanding the District’s USF to include broadband as a measure to close the digital divide. “Federal and state programs, like the Lifeline program, designed to facilitate universal access to communications services, must continually evolve to ensure that cost and social barriers do not foreclose the participation of low-income and marginalized consumers,” OPC commented. The USTF should be “updated to reflect changes to the manner in which District residents use communications technologies,” it said. It’s legal for the D.C. program to support broadband because the Communications Act allows states to adopt regulations that advance universal service consistent with FCC rules, and the federal program now supports broadband, OPC said. Section 706(a) directs state commissions to encourage deployment of advanced telecommunications capability, it said. To further close the divide, OPC said the PSC should set up a schools and libraries fund through USTF to supplement the federal E-rate program, and help subsidize the cost of computers for District schoolchildren who participate in the National School Lunch program. In an interview last week, PSC Chairwoman Betty Ann Kane said she expects the her agency will align Lifeline rules with the updated federal program ahead of the December implementation deadline but supports a NARUC resolution seeking waivers for states that need more time (see 1611020045). “It will be tight” meeting the deadline in the District, but doable, she said. Lifeline isn’t a statutory program there, so the PSC merely must make rule changes, she said. However, some other states need legislators to change the statute and probably won’t make the FCC’s deadline, she said.
NARUC members may tweak a resolution on 10-digit dialing ahead of their meeting next week in La Quinta, California, state commissioners said in recent interviews. District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairwoman Betty Ann Kane told us she wants to make sure the item isn’t read as a mandate, and sponsor Commissioner Paul Kjellander of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission said he’s open to edits to ease others’ concerns. Meanwhile, a separate item on VoIP phone numbers is receiving some scrutiny from industry. Wide NARUC support is expected for the final versions of all four telecom resolutions teed up for the meeting (see 1611010042 and 1611020045).
Government shouldn’t tax the internet or compete with private internet providers, a Republican candidate for the Louisiana Public Service Commission told us. “However, I'm open to government providing incentives for businesses to provide service to underserved or rural areas,” emailed the candidate Reldon Owens, Diamond B Construction director-external relations. The GOP-controlled Louisiana PSC is the only commission where power may change hands in this year’s elections, and Owens is running against a Democrat and another Republican for the open seat (see 1610240020). Tuesday is the primary, with the top two facing off in a Dec. 10 run-off election unless one candidate wins at least half of the vote this week. While a campaign priority for Democrat Mary Werner is spreading affordable broadband across the state, Owens noted that the PSC doesn’t regulate the internet. “Those are interstate issues and are governed by the FCC,” he said. “The most the PSC could do is assist other state organizations in their efforts on the internet as well as assert influence to the providers of those services.”
Windstream and EarthLink believe they will break through a growing mergers and acquisitions backlog and secure regulatory OKs for their $1.1 billion deal in the first half of 2017, Windstream executives said Monday. A free-market think tank also predicted a green light, while analysts said the deal combines complementary networks and will result in savings. CenturyLink said last week it's buying Level 3 (see 1610310033) and AT&T agreed the prior week to buy Time Warner (see 1610270046). Those deals are worth about $140 billion combined.
A federal court denied motions for judgment by all parties in a dispute over whether a state commission may disclose confidential subscriber data to third parties. AT&T, Comcast, CTIA, Verizon and other industry plaintiffs asked the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to stop the California Public Utilities Commission from enforcing a May 3 ruling compelling ISPs to disclose subscriber data to The Utility Reform Network (TURN) or other third parties as part of a state investigation of market competition (see 1610240017). The CPUC’s decision to disclose data to third parties under a protective order “does not, in itself, conflict with federal policy,” Judge Vince Chhabria ruled in the Thursday order (in Pacer). But the protective order must be strong, and the CPUC and TURN “have not yet demonstrated that the protective order adequately guards against public disclosure of commercially sensitive data that would cause competitive harm to the companies,” he said. “If it does not adequately guard against this type of disclosure, there is at least a possibility it could be preempted.” The judge scheduled a telephonic case management conference for Nov. 22 at 2:30 p.m. to discuss how to adjudicate that remaining issue and asked parties to submit statements on the issue by Nov. 15. TURN supports the ruling because it "should help the CPUC and other state commissions conduct meaningful investigations to ensure its telecom customers have fair and meaningful access to high quality telecom services," emailed TURN Staff Attorney Christine Mailloux. "We take confidentiality seriously and are confident that the CPUC's process more than adequately protects carrier data." The California commission "will respond to the court as requested," a CPUC spokeswoman said.
The North Carolina law banning municipal broadband expansion is taking more fire as the gubernatorial election nears and state lawmakers prepare legislation for the 2017 session. In a speech Friday in Wilson, North Carolina, Brookings Institution Fellow and ex-senior FCC official Blair Levin condemned the 2011 state law as bad broadband policy, exemplified by the town of Pinetops losing fiber broadband service provided by Wilson Greenlight. But the author of a conservative study discouraging muni networks said Wilson expanding service to Pinetops was a “very dumb decision” that shouldn't force a change in the state law.
The Wireline Bureau sought public advice after demand for Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) support exceeded the 10-year budget set by the FCC by more than $160 million annually. The bureau said 216 rate-of-return companies submitted letters electing 274 separate offers of A-CAM support in 43 states. NTCA wasn’t surprised by the high demand, and the rural association plans to meet immediately with the agency to offer suggestions, said Senior Vice President Mike Romano in an interview Thursday.
Two state commissions diverged on whether they should regulate fixed interconnected VoIP. Tuesday at U.S. District Court in St. Paul, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission defended its treatment of interconnected VoIP as a telecom service and sought summary judgment. Wednesday, the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) proposed a revised definition of phone utilities that explicitly would exclude IP and VoIP services. The VON Coalition, which represents VoIP providers and opposed the Minnesota PUC as an intervenor, praised the direction of the Iowa proposal. Industry also last week supported state legislation to codify VoIP deregulation in Idaho.
It could take until 2018 for Michigan to align its low-income program with updated federal rules adding broadband internet access service to Lifeline, and many other states are in the same boat, said Public Service Commission Chairwoman Sally Talberg in an interview Wednesday. Talberg sponsored a NARUC resolution urging the FCC to grant waiver requests to postpone the Dec. 2 deadline for states that need more time. It’s seen likely to pass at the state regulator association’s Nov. 13-16 meeting in La Quinta, California (see 1611010042). The FCC is "evaluating the waiver requests,” said a spokesman.
New York state officials cited wide support for the state's request for expedited waiver of Connect America Fund requirements that Phase II broadband subsidy support in New York be awarded through competitive bidding. But some in the industry said in replies posted in FCC docket 10-90 that legal issues remain. Empire State Development Corp. is seeking a waiver that would allow it to tap federal CAF II support, declined by Verizon in New York, to help fund the state's own reverse auction of broadband subsidies for the same areas targeted by the FCC auction (see 1610260057). “The minimal opposition to the Petition was based on inaccurate factual and legal assertions of the waiver request and the many public interest benefits it would bring,” New York said. ViaSat said the record confirms legal barriers to granting the request. The waiver sought by New York is inconsistent with federal universal service policy and the statute governing federal USF distribution, the company said. The American Cable Association said the petition has “many potential benefits” for spreading broadband, but opposed it as “legally infirm” and suggested New York reconsider. USTelecom cautioned the FCC not to lose a national focus. It said the agency "must ensure that it balances any equitable allocation of CAF funds among the states, with the need to ensure the overall integrity of the CAF fund.”