The FCC must not ignore U.S. successes as it develops broadband policy, Commissioner Robert McDowell said Wednesday at a Phoenix Center event introducing a new study on adoption. And it shouldn’t base policy on one group’s report card, he said. Despite the economic crisis, the telecom industry plans to invest $80 billion this year, McDowell said. “Whatever we do should help attract more private investment capital, not deter it.”
Jeff Pulver aims to “reboot telecom” by lobbying in Washington for widespread adoption of HD voice technology, the VoIP pioneer and Vonage co-founder said Tuesday. Pulver plans in September to formally introduce his effort, which seeks to make HD voice the “bare-bone minimum quality” voice standard for broadband, wireless and traditional wireline by 2015, he said.
An AT&T emergency petition on Universal Service Fund contributions is expected to flare up old arguments before the new FCC, telecom industry officials said Monday. Late Friday, the company urged “immediate commission action” to adopt the plan by AT&T and Verizon for a pure numbers-based mechanism, in light of the all-time high 12.9 percent contribution factor that kicked in earlier this month. But AT&T’s foes don’t appear to have budged on the subject.
Qwest rejoined USTelecom, nearly eight years after falling out with the association over membership dues. In 2001, USTelecom suspended Qwest as a member, saying the company was four months behind in paying membership fees and the association didn’t want to create the lower-priced class of membership that Qwest had sought. The same day, Qwest said it “resigned” from USTelecom because it didn’t fully serve its needs. Qwest has rejoined USTelecom as a tier-one member, the same level it was before, a USTelecom spokesman told us Friday. The association doesn’t give out dues information, he said. A Qwest spokesman said it had left “because we believed it to be in our best interests to do so at that time,” but today it is “very excited” to be back. In statements, executives didn’t mention Qwest’s controversial departure from USTelecom. Qwest’s return marks a “formalization” of a collaboration that’s been ongoing “for a number of years,” USTelecom Chairman Ron McCue said. Qwest Senior Vice President Steve Davis said Qwest joined “to work together with their other member companies on important communications issues such as broadband deployment, Universal Service Fund reform, and intercarrier compensation reform, including traffic pumping and phantom traffic.”
Legal action by relay provider Sorenson is “on the table” if the FCC goes ahead with a proposal to reconfigure rates for video relay services, Mike Maddix, the company’s regulatory affairs manager, said in an interview. The commission is considering an early change to rates used to determine compensation for VRS under the interstate telecom relay service fund. The agency is currently following a three-year interim rate plan set by the National Exchange Carrier Association in 2007. In comments last week, Sorenson said abandoning the three-year plan would be “arbitrary and capricious,” and possibly unconstitutional (CD July 8 p3). Taking the FCC to court is a “last resort,” but the company has had success challenging commission orders in the past, said Maddix. He cited a recent appeals court victory on TRS lobbying rules (CD June 8 p3).
The FCC should write detailed rules on 911 network competition, said public safety groups in comments responding to an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice. The notice arose out of two arbitrations involving interconnection disputes between competitive 911 network provider Intrado Communications and Embarq and Verizon (CD June 8 p6). However, some telecom companies said the broad issue of 911 competition should be dealt with in a separate proceeding.
A possible FCC decision to reconfigure video relay service rates may be illegal, said Sorenson Communications, the biggest U.S. VRS provider, in comments this week at the FCC. The commission is considering an early change to rates used to determine compensation for VRS under the interstate telecom relay service fund (CD June 26 p6). The agency is currently following a three-year interim rate plan set by the National Exchange Carrier Association in 2007.
The FCC voted 3-0 Thursday to allow CenturyTel’s $11.6 billion acquisition of Embarq. As expected, the commission conditioned approval on the rural carriers’ abiding by “voluntary commitments” (CD June 25 p7) submitted by the companies last week. The commitments relate to broadband rollout and to CenturyTel wholesale practices that competitive carriers raised qualms about. The deal is expected to close in less than a week and work combining the companies has begun, CenturyTel officials said.
An upcoming FCC report about online child safety doesn’t include new rules, a commission attorney said at a Family Online Safety Institute lunch Wednesday. That the FCC might regulate in the area was a concern expressed in many comments at the agency, said Robert Cannon, senior counsel in the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. Meanwhile, officials from CTIA and Verizon said industry can address online safety issues without government intervention.
The FCC is getting close to approving the Embarq- CenturyTel merger, and an order probably will circulate this week, a commission official told us on Tuesday. People in the office of acting Chairman Michael Copps have held several meetings with Embarq and CenturyTel in the past week, and the companies submitted a revised list of “voluntary commitments” Friday (CD June 23 p6). The companies have received the rest of the approvals for the deal.