Video relay service providers offered mixed reaction to FCC proposals to incorporate interoperability and portability standards into agency rules (see 1608050031). Convo Communications, CSDVRS (ZVRS), Purple Communications and Sorenson Communications backed the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau's proposed incorporation of one interoperability profile (Session Initiation Protocol profile) into telecom relay service rules. The bureau shouldn't incorporate "the Interoperability Profile for Relay User Equipment ('RUE Profile') because doing so would have the unintended consequence of imposing the RUE Profile on all provider-distributed endpoints," the providers filed, as comments were being posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 10-51. "This goes far beyond the purpose of the RUE Profile, which was intended solely to govern the interactions between the Commission’s Accessible Communications for Everyone ('ACE') software and VRS providers. And it would force providers to remove any innovative or useful features of their endpoints that are not specified in the RUE Profile and to subject their networks to lower security than they employ today." The VRS providers also said 60 days is insufficient time to implement either standard, saying at least 120 days is needed for the SIP profile and a year for the RUE profile once a certified compliant version of the ACE application is available. Sorenson and ZVRS separately elaborated on their concerns. ASL Services Holdings (GlobalVRS) supported incorporation of the SIP profile but said the FCC should clarify its intent regarding the RUE profile and allow parties to participate in further development of the standard. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association for the Deaf and other consumer advocacy groups supported incorporation of the RUE interoperability and portability standards, but said they should be subject to further revisions in the future. The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and Omnitor said the RUE specification, as written, raised some technical questions and issues that should be addressed and revised before being incorporated.

FCC staff made available fixed broadband deployment data as of Dec. 31. The information is based on industry Form 477 submissions, including revisions made by Aug. 29, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 11-10 posted Wednesday in the Daily Digest. The data are available on the commission's Form 477 webpage.

Judges shouldn't rule on previous FCC inmate calling service rate caps because they were significantly altered in an August reconsideration order, the commission and DOJ told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. There isn't any reason for the court to address the caps in a 2015 order because they have been stayed and "will now never take effect," said the government reply brief posted by the commission Tuesday in Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461 and previously consolidated cases. It said the D.C. Circuit either should dismiss the challenges as moot or consolidate them with new challenges to the recon order, which will raise the tiered rate caps for debit/prepaid ICS domestic calls in prisons and jails from 11-22 cents per minute to 13-31 cents per minute, but without regulating site commission payments to correctional authorities (see 1608040037). If the D.C. Circuit nevertheless decides to rule on the 2015 order, it should uphold the commission decisions, said the brief responding to the arguments of ICS providers, states and sheriffs (see 1606070030). Global Tel*Link said in a release it challenged the FCC recon order at the D.C. Circuit. GTL and others have asked the commission to stay the order pending judicial review of underlying challenges. An inmate advocacy group opposed the requests (see 1609060072). Network Communications International also opposed the stay petitions -- from GTL, Securus, Telmate and states and sheriffs -- in a filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 12-375.

A group of state and local CLEC associations supported several parts of the Verizon/Incompas proposal on business data services. A letter Monday to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was signed by CalTel, CompSouth, Midwest Association of Competitive Communications, Michigan Internet & Telecommunications Alliance and the Northwest Telecommunications Association. They supported parts of the Verizon/Incompas plan including (1) a competitive market test using three bandwidth tiers, (2) ensuring that price adjustments adopted by the FCC should result in “significant actual price reductions from current levels” for TDM and IP-based services, (3) reductions in price cap levels for TDM of at least 15 percent, and (4) adoption of an X-Factor reducing rates annually by 4.4 percent minus inflation. The groups backed adoption of an enforceable framework of ex ante price regulation for Ethernet services, which “should result in price reductions for Ethernet services that are at least as large as those proposed for TDM services on a one-time and on-going basis.” The CLEC associations supported a proposal of the Wholesale Voice Line Coalition to extend the FCC requirement that ILECs provide a reasonably comparable replacement product for its wholesale voice services when they transition to IP-based networks. Incompas General Counsel Angie Kronenberg said in a statement she welcomed the support from associations “on the front lines of state and local broadband challenges.” In a separate letter in docket 16-143, Verizon proposed an effective date of July 1 for implementing the order if it’s adopted later this year. The date is “aggressive, but Verizon suggests the Commission should align the deadline for implementing the major reforms with next year’s annual filing,” it said.

The FCC sought nominations by Oct. 21 for six seats on the board of Universal Service Administrative Co. "We encourage nominees with expertise relevant to running a large and complex organization with such skills as accounting, finance, auditing, procurement, data management and information technology," said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 96-45 listed in Monday's Daily Digest.

FCC staff adopted an eligible service list for E-rate telecom subsidies for schools and libraries participating in the program for the funding year beginning next July 1. The Wireline Bureau issued an order Monday in which it adopted targeted changes proposed in a public notice in docket 13-184 (see 1606060008), with "small modifications." The order revised the description of eligible leased dark fiber to read, "Leased Dark Fiber (including dark indefeasible rights of use for a set term)," to clarify the distinction with self-provisioned fiber under the rules. It also explained how to classify connections between multiple buildings of a single school: as either "Category One" covering services needed to provide broadband connectivity to schools and libraries, or "Category Two" covering internal connections. Some explanations were in a series of FAQs in an appendix. The bureau declined to make changes in response to comments (see 1607210038), including proposals to add services to the list or provide additional clarifications to previous E-rate orders as beyond the scope of the current proceeding.

U.S. TelePacific's planned buy of DSCI LLC from DSCI Holdings was partially approved in an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Monday in docket 16-67, granting an application for domestic service license transfers under Communications Act Section 214. The bureau cleared the deal after the DOJ and departments of Defense and Homeland Security said Friday they no longer had objections, as long as the FCC conditioned the deal on commitments U.S. TelePacific made in a letter of assurances. Deal-related applications to transfer authorizations for international services are still pending, the PN said.

USTelecom opposed a business group's petition asking the FCC to revisit a ruling granting incumbent telcos nondominant treatment of their interstate switched-access services connecting local callers to long-distance networks. The petition of the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Group "is late-filed, and thus should be dismissed with prejudice on procedural grounds," said USTelecom in opposition in docket 13-3. "Moreover, Ad Hoc raises no new facts or changed circumstances that have not already been considered by the Commission." Ad Hoc said the FCC provided ILECs relief despite its "failure to finalize access rate regulations for toll-free originating access minutes" (see 1608240045).

The Wright Petitioners urged the FCC to deny Global Tel*Link's request for a stay of an August order raising inmate calling service rate caps without restricting site-commission payments to correctional authorities (see 1609020028). GTL isn't likely to prevail on the merits of a legal challenge to the order and wouldn't suffer irreparable harm absent a stay, said the inmate family advocacy group in opposition posted Thursday in docket 12-375, after similar filings against Securus and Telmate stay requests. State and sheriff interests more recently sought a stay (see 1609060072), which the Wright Petitioners also opposed in a Friday filing.

The FCC sought input on Frontier Communications' plans to offer internet access in 3,146 "unserved" census blocks using Connect America Fund Phase I, Round 2 incremental broadband support. Other providers have until Oct. 24 to indicate whether they already serve the census blocks with 3 Mbps (down) and 768 Kbps (up) data speeds, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 10-90. Frontier must then certify that to the best of its knowledge, the locations it's targeting are in fact unserved before beginning construction, the PN said.