The FCC dismissed a pole-attachment complaint filed by Frontier Florida (previously Verizon Florida) against Florida Power and Light after the companies settled their dispute, under an Enforcement Bureau order Thursday in proceeding 15-73 (see 1702100048).

Verizon pressed a 100/20 Mbps tier as it and others lobbied the FCC on bidding weights for the different broadband performance tiers in the agency's planned Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II reverse auction of subsidies for fixed broadband/voice services. Because of limited funds and related tradeoffs, Verizon said the FCC should design the rules "to achieve reasonably fast speeds, emphasizing the above-baseline tier, to a reasonable percentage of eligible locations." The FCC plans four tiers: minimum (above 10/1 Mbps), baseline (above 25/3 Mbps), above baseline (100/20 Mbps) and gigabit (1 Gbps/500 Mbps), with the first two having usage allowances of at least 150 gigabytes per month and the latter two having unlimited usage. The FCC should seek to minimize the number of eligible locations that are unsubsidized, but its speed and coverage goals can best be achieved if the costliest locations are addressed by a Remote Areas Fund, said a Verizon filing posted Thursday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with aides to all three commissioners. It said the FCC "should adopt a smaller differential between the weights for the above-baseline and gigabit tiers than between the weights for the below-baseline and baseline tiers or baseline and above-baseline tiers. A small differential between the above-baseline and gigabit weights is warranted because high bids for the costliest tier will deplete the auction budget more rapidly and because there are few subscribers for gigabit services even in urban areas," it said. An ITTA filing said the agency should promote "breadth of deployment" and urged little differentiation in the bid weights accorded the four tiers, which it said would also challenge bidders seeking to offer higher speeds to do so as economically as possible. It recommended a significant penalty for high-latency services. The American Cable Association (here), Hughes Network Systems (here) and ViaSat (here) pushed previous arguments. The FCC plans to consider a CAF II auction order at commissioners' Feb. 23 meeting (see 1702020051).

The FCC invited input on why it shouldn't move to revoke Sandwich Isles authorizations, after commission findings that the company apparently violated agency rules by failing to maintain its accounts, records and memoranda and by submitting and falsely certifying inaccurate data in costs studies used to calculate USF support. Comments on whether the commission should open such revocation proceedings are due March 16, replies March 31, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 16-405 Wednesday.

The FCC announced a 2017 rate floor for incumbent eligible telecom carriers and "reasonable comparability" benchmarks for fixed voice and broadband services, based on an urban rate survey. For voice services, the monthly rate floor is $22.49 and the reasonable comparability benchmark is $49.51, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 10-90. It said ILEC high-cost ETCs must by July 1 report in their annual Form 481 submissions the number of residential voice lines for which the sum of local rate and state fees is below $22.49; to the extent the combined fees are less than $20, the carrier's high-cost support will be reduced dollar for dollar. All ETCs providing fixed service must certify in Form 481 that the pricing of their basic residential voice services isn't above $49.51, it said. The broadband reasonable comparability benchmarks vary by data speeds and minimum usage allowances.

AT&T scoffed at a motion to reissue a 2007 FCC order filed by Group Discounts, One Stop Financial, Winback & Conserve Program and 800 Discounts. "Petitioners’ motion is simply a rehash of baseless allegations and arguments that Petitioners have raised before -- including, in particular, their untenable reading of the Commission’s January 12, 2007 order -- and that have been the subject of extensive prior briefing in this proceeding," said an AT&T filing Tuesday in docket 06-210. AT&T referred the FCC to its prior submissions, which it said show petitioner claims "have no merit and that their motion should be denied." If the commission has further questions, AT&T said it would be happy to address them, but it said it "did not intend to respond further to Petitioner’s repetitive arguments." The petitioners believe AT&T counsels are involved in intentional fraud, said their Jan. 31 motion in a phone tariff dispute dating to the mid-1990s.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai responded on Twitter to Incompas CEO Chip Pickering after their meeting to discuss the group's proposals on pole attachments, business data services and other matters (see 1702130023). "Enjoyed our discussion, @INCOMPAS/@ChipPickering! Look forward to working with you on promoting digital deployment," Pai tweeted Monday. An earlier Incompas tweet noted a filing by the group and called competition the key to the success of Pai's broadband deployment agenda.

Windstream said its EarthLink buy has received all state and federal regulatory approvals. The companies scheduled special merger-related stockholder meetings for Feb. 24, and the deal is expected to close this quarter, subject to customary closing conditions, said a Windstream release Tuesday.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition disagreed with FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's E-rate letter to Universal Service Administrative Co. seeking help in identifying and eliminating potential "waste" on self-construction projects that overbuild existing networks (see 1702100060). SHLB welcomed O'Rielly's effort to improve the program, but said "criticizing dark and self-provisioned fiber may actually reduce competition and ultimately cost the E-rate program more money." It said FCC regulations require schools and libraries to seek competitive bids to get the lowest possible price for broadband/telecom services. "If that competitive bid process reveals that the lowest cost to a school/library is to use dark fiber or build its own, self-provisioned fiber network, then the school/library should be allowed, indeed encouraged, to do so," SHLB said in a statement Monday. "Applicants should not be forced to select a higher priced bid from the incumbent provider simply because the incumbent was there first. Allowing applicants to choose from a variety of competitive options is a market-based approach that does not pick winners and losers." It said the FCC should adhere to its 2014 E-rate order and shouldn't deny fiber applications that comply with associated rules. O'Rielly noted he dissented from that order.

Incompas urged the FCC to address wholesale access to business data services (BDS), pole attachments, access to multiple dwelling unit (MDU) residences and video programming. "Pro-competition policy is key to encouraging build-out of new broadband infrastructure that is both fast and affordable," said an Incompas filing Monday in docket 16-138 and others on a meeting that CEO Chip Pickering and another official had with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide. It said the group was encouraged by Pai's creation of a broadband deployment advisory committee (see 1701310033) and would do everything it can to assist the effort. Incompas said competitors have made significant investments to build broadband facilities to provide BDS to enterprise customers. "Nonetheless, given the bleak reality that last-mile facilities are uneconomic to duplicate in many instances, the footprint-barrier can only be overcome through reasonable wholesale access policies and pricing that enable providers (including incumbents attempting to compete outside their incumbent territories) to extend the geographic reach of their networks to off-net locations to create the multi-location service packages that this customer segment demands and encourage deployment where economically feasible," the filing said. On pole attachments, the group recommended the FCC amend its rules to authorize "one touch make-ready" service, whereby a contractor approved by the pole owner can do all make-ready work at one time. It also urged the FCC to (1) address incumbent provider use of "contractual methods to stymie development" of competitive broadband and video services in MDUs, and (2) help small video providers gain affordable access to video programming.

Wireline broadband will be complemented -- not replaced -- by wireless technologies like 5G, NTCA said Monday with the release of a technical report. The report, done by telco consulting firm VantagePoint, said satellite broadband "will continue to suffer from limitations that are difficult or impossible to overcome if one is attempting to keep pace with ... consumer demand." It said companies "are misusing '5G'" as a marketing term when describing small cell 4G technology aimed at filing gaps or relieving congestion. It said that in some situations, 5G plus fixed wireless offerings will provide service to locations too remote to receive wireline service in the foreseeable future. While 5G will provide better broadband than 4G, it said, it's not the optimal solution for meeting escalating broadband demands. NTCA said technical challenges to 5G include its need for "massive amounts of spectrum," that it's not an optimal option for continuous-bit-rate traffic like video and that fiber to the home is often cheaper and more reliable than a 5G network. With wireless networks heavily relying on wireline networks already, that need will intensify with 5G, the association said. NTCA said it filed the report with the FCC.