Frontier Florida and Florida Power & Light said they settled a pole-attachment dispute that led Verizon to file an FCC complaint (see 1507010050) before it sold its Florida wireline systems to Frontier Communications. "Frontier and FPL have agreed to seek dismissal with prejudice of the Complaint as to all claims and defenses asserted therein, in order to dispose of all issues and controversies in the Complaint," said their joint motion in docket 15-73. The companies said Nov. 30 they reached an agreement in principle (see 1611300053).

The FCC Wireline Bureau cleared Zayo's buy of Electric Lightwave telecom subsidiaries (see 1611300058). No opposition was filed, said a public notice Friday in docket 16-401 granting the transfer of domestic licenses under Section 214 of the Communications Act. The PN said the bureau action is without prejudice to agency action on other related, pending applications. Electric Lightwave used to be known as Integra Telecom.

The FCC clarified that ILECs can provide copper retirement notifications to interconnecting entities and government authorities with links to searchable online lists of affected addresses, rather than the current practice of providing hard-copy address listings. The Wireline Bureau noted Verizon petitioned for the change because paper address lists are "often unwieldy" and increase costs, leading some recipients to ask for searchable electronic documents for determining who is affected by copper retirements. "Under Verizon’s approach, it will continue to provide paper copies to these interconnecting entities and governmental authorities, but those copies will contain an electronic rather than paper reference to the locations where the changes will occur," said a bureau order in docket 13-5 Friday approving the request

USTelecom knocked proposals to assign large bidding credits to gigabit performance tiers in the FCC's planned Connect America Fund Phase II auction of broadband/voice subsidies. "This type of proposal, if adopted, risks reducing by three-quarters the number of homes and businesses that obtain broadband under this program. That would be an unfortunate result for rural America," ILECs' main trade group said in a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90. The filing was used in meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai (here) and an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly (here). Commissioners tentatively are set to vote on a CAF II order Feb. 23 (see 1702020051). "Assigning bidding weights that would skew auction winners to 1 Gbps networks risks reducing the number of rural locations that would benefit from new broadband connections from roughly 1.5 million to under 400,000, leaving more than 1 million rural homes and businesses without broadband," USTelecom wrote. The group said backing terrestrial broadband to more locations at any speed promotes more rural fiber deployment, which is not only "more equitable" but supports 4G and 5G wireless services. USTelecom proposed "reasonable weighting of the speeds that customers actually demand" to bring broadband to as many Americans as possible. A rural electric/telco coalition has urged the agency to adopt bid weights that promote the higher speeds in rural areas that it said urban customers take for granted (see 1702030040).

A webinar on the local number portability administrator transition is set for Wednesday, 3-4 p.m. (EST), said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 09-109. Officials from PwC, which is managing the planned LNPA transition from Neustar to Telcordia/iconectiv, will host the session. Parties can register here.

Comments are due March 13, replies March 28 on National Exchange Carrier Association proposals for modifying rural carrier "average schedule formulas," said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 16-400. "NECA proposes to revise the formulas for average schedule interstate settlement disbursements in connection with the provision of interstate access services" for the year starting July 1, the PN said. The impact would vary by company, but NECA's proposal overall would increase settlement rates by 0.74 percent if demand is constant, the PN said. It noted a proposal to also modify the methodology for calculating consumer broadband-only loop settlements. NECA's website explains: "A settlement is calculated for each pooling company based on their individual expense and tax amounts, including a share of the pool’s calculated rate of return. Each company then receives its settlement minus the access revenue it has already collected." NECA explains pooling here.

CenturyLink won a task order to provide managed trusted IP services (MTIPS) to the FCC IT center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a company release said Thursday. The facility takes in inquiries and complaints for the commission. CenturyLink will help protect the Gettysburg center and the commission from network attacks with its MTIPS secure connectivity systems, said Erich Sanchack, senior vice president-federal government. The award was made under the Networx Enterprise contract and is worth about $175,000 a year over five years.

Comments on Neustar's planned sale to Aerial Investors, a group formed by Golden Gate Private Equity, are due March 9, replies March 24, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 92-237 in Wednesday's Daily Digest. Neustar, which administers various phone numbering mechanisms, said the privatization move should be approved because the nature of its business and day-to-day management won't change, and it will remain impartial and neutral (see 1702010033). The deal, which already received antitrust clearance and could be reviewed by the executive branch's "Team Telecom," isn't expected to slow the local number portability administrator transition from Neustar to Telcordia/iconectiv (see 1612140062).

The FCC Wireline Bureau granted "two limited waivers" of E-rate compliance duties for "certain category of service classification standards" under the 2017 funding year eligible service list. "We waive the obligation to apply the FY 2017 ESL classification standards to connections provided under pre-existing multi-year contracts if doing so would change the eligibility of the connections from Category Two to Category One," said a bureau order Wednesday in docket 13-184. Category One services support broadband connectivity to schools and libraries, including wide area network systems; Category Two services support broadband within schools and libraries, including local area network systems. "Second, for funding year 2017 applications, we waive the requirement to classify connections between different schools and libraries sharing a single building as Category One services. Pursuant to this waiver, applicants may elect to seek Category Two funding for customer-owned or -controlled inside wiring that connects different schools and libraries within the same building," the order said.

The FCC released its order appointing Commissioner Mike O’Rielly to three federal-state groups. Commissioners unanimously adopted the order Friday and released it Tuesday (see 1702030064). O’Rielly will chair the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, the Federal-State Joint Board on Jurisdictional Separations and the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services.