FCC staff remanded five reseller USF appeals to Universal Service Administrative Co. for further consideration. The resellers are seeking a credit for USF contributions they say were made by their underlying providers, "or an adjustment to their revenue reporting for revenue they claim was reported by their underlying providers," said a Wireline Bureau order in docket 06-122 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. It said petitions were filed by American Telecommunications Systems, Value-Added Communications and Eureka Broadband seeking reconsideration of bureau denials, and by InComm Solutions and Five9 seeking review of USAC decisions. "We direct USAC to consider whether each reseller can demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that its underlying wholesale provider has contributed on the amounts at issue," said the bureau order. "If a reseller makes such a showing, USAC should not attempt to recover contributions for the subject amounts from the reseller, even if the reseller had the obligation to contribute."

The FCC teed up Consolidated Communications' planned buy of FairPoint Communications in a pleading cycle. Comments/petitions are due Feb. 13, replies Feb. 28, said a public notice in docket 16-417 listed in Friday's Daily Digest. The telcos filed an application Dec. 21 to transfer FCC licenses, saying they don't compete with each other in any of their service territories because none overlap or are adjacent to each other (see 1612210016). They also said FairPoint customers won't experience "any immediate changes in services, rates, terms, or conditions of services," and the combined company would improve broadband speeds and service for all customers, including in rural areas. The deal got antitrust clearance Thursday (see 1701120039). Analysts believe the FCC and state regulators will approve the deal, and the companies expect it to close by mid-year (see 1612050030) .

CenturyLink's planned buy of Level 3 appears likely to enhance competition in the enterprise broadband market, said Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation senior fellow. "Level 3 does not serve residential broadband or video subscribers," he wrote in a commentary Friday. CenturyLink/Level 3 "appears to fully satisfy the public interest standard for FCC approval. It deserves an expeditious review." He didn't endorse the deal, but cited "strong evidence" of potential pro-competitive enterprise broadband effects. "With AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, Comcast, Charter, smaller cable providers, and other competitors such as Zayo all offering business enterprise services, the proposed CenturyLink/Level 3 merger poses no credible threat of market power abuses," he wrote. "Although Level 3 owns or controls fiber into about 34,755 buildings, the merging parties estimate that only 100 buildings would go from two in-building BDS [business data service] connections to one connection without a competing provider operating within 0.1 miles." Cooper said there's little geographic overlap between the companies' long-haul fiber networks and little danger of competitive harm in the market for Internet backbone transit. "CenturyLink/Level 3 raises no vertical integration concerns related to the residential broadband or video services markets," he wrote. Analysts expect the deal to be approved (see 1610310033 and 1610280052).

The FTC broke up on two "massive" robocall telemarketing operations that have made hundreds of millions of calls to consumers on the National Do Not Call Registry since at least 2012, said the commission in a Friday news release. The commission voted 3-0 to authorize staff to file complaints and proposed stipulated court orders, one against Justin Ramsey and other defendants in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and another against Mike Jones and other defendants in the District Court for the Central District of California. “The law is clear about robocalls -- if a telemarketer doesn’t have consumers’ written permission, it’s illegal to make these calls,” said Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich.

Cincinnati Bell said it's adding more than 300 call center agents in the Cincinnati area who are trained to handle both technical and billing questions. "There are currently more than 100 locally-based universal call center agents assisting Cincinnati Bell customers -- up from 20 at the start of 2016," said a company release Thursday. "The number of universal call center agents is growing every month and complements Cincinnati Bell’s team of call center agents who are based overseas."

Consolidated Communications' planned buy of FairPoint Communications got the green light on antitrust grounds, said an FTC early termination notice Wednesday. The FTC publishes the notices for both it and the DOJ, the traditional reviewer of telco transactions. The $1.5 billion takeover still needs FCC and state regulatory approvals. Analysts don't see difficult regulatory hurdles and the companies expect the deal to close in mid-2017 (see 1612050030).

CenturyLink added software-defined and virtualization services to its DOD contract for the Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN III), said a company release Wednesday. The services are "the future of network infrastructure," it said. "All applications -- including multi-label protocol switching, firewall, encryption and orchestration services -- will run on software instead of costly hardware, thus speeding up the testing and review of applications. The project will also help reduce the number of network devices DOD has to buy and manage." DREN is a fiber network connecting five DOD supercomputing facilities to scientists. DREN III is a 10-year contract worth up to $750 million awarded in December 2012.

Litigants should show cause why an FCC inmate calling service case shouldn't be held in abeyance, "in light of the impending changes to the Commission," said a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Responses are due Tuesday by 4 p.m. (EST), said a per curiam order (in Pacer) Wednesday in Global Tel-Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461 and consolidated cases. The order listed Judge Cornelia Pillard and Senior Judges Harry Edwards and Laurence Silberman. The D.C. Circuit has oral argument scheduled Feb. 6 on industry, state and sheriff challenges to various FCC inmate calling service rate caps, ancillary service fees and other rules (see 1612130041).

NTCA asked the FCC to revise parts of a Wireline Bureau public notice that directed telcos to report geo-located broadband data and certify service milestones to Universal Service Administrative Co. (see 1612080050). The full commission should modify or clarify aspects of the Dec. 8 PN's "location" definitions to the extent they conflict with the Communications Act, said the rural telco group's application for review Monday in docket 10-90. The FCC should "revise three of the categorical exclusions included as part of the guidance provided in the Public Notice to: (1) ensure that business locations can be counted as 'locations' served where the connections to them are broadband-capable and regardless of what service any given business customer may then choose to take; (2) ensure that wireless infrastructure sites can be counted as 'locations' served where the connections to them are broadband-capable; and (3) ensure that community anchor institutions can be counted as 'locations served where the connections to them are broadband-capable," NTCA said. In a filing posted Tuesday in docket 09-51, NARUC praised the PN's guidance on telco reporting and certification obligations, and it welcomed USAC outreach efforts. NARUC said recent FCC actions appear to address almost all of the requests contained in a resolution adopted by its members in November. "One crucial request that remains outstanding, is the critical need for some clarification of how State commissions and relevant Tribal and territorial authorities can dispute the accuracy of data being reported" by Connect America Fund recipients, NARUC wrote. "The FCC should, at a minimum, create a process for States to dispute the accuracy of carrier reported information and consider specifying carriers provide the same data directly with the certificating authority."

A court set oral argument for March 31 on a challenge to a 2015 FCC order that awarded AT&T $252,496 in damages from All American Telephone, e-Pinnacle Communications and Chasecom in an access-charge payment dispute. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is usually revealed 30 days before oral argument, said the order (in Pacer) Tuesday in All American Telephone Co., et al., v. FCC, No. 15-1354. The three companies said they terminated calls made by AT&T's customers for years but the telco refused to compensate them, leading to a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which asked the FCC to weigh in on the matter. The commission in a 2013 liability order found the three companies were "sham" CLECs, and it incorporated those findings into its August 2015 damages order. The three petitioners' brief (in Pacer) said the FCC damages order "contains purposely ambiguous language that makes it impossible to determine whether or not the Order exceeds the scope of the FCC's authority." The FCC/DOJ response brief said the petitioners hadn't challenged the FCC's determination they were sham CLECs involved in "traffic pumping" but were trying "to avoid the consequences of their unlawful activities." There's "no basis for petitioners' ambiguity argument," said the government brief, which argued it wasn't up to the D.C. Circuit to provide guidance to the district court about how to interpret the damages order.