NRTC agreed to buy Pulse Broadband, a rural-oriented fiber provider, they said in a news release Thursday. The acquisition will facilitate NRTC's efforts to offer communications services to its electric and phone members, it said. "It takes multiple technologies to overcome the broadband and communications connectivity challenges in the more rural areas served by our members," said NRTC CEO Tim Bryan. "Adding fiber to our portfolio of infrastructure services, including wireless and satellite, allows us to meet the broadest set of member needs." The deal is expected to close "over the next few weeks," the release said.

FCC Form 395 for common carrier annual employment reports must now be filed through the agency's electronic comment filing system (ECFS), said a Wireline Bureau public notice Friday. The next annual filing is due May 31, but resubmissions of past reports (except confidential filings) also must be filed through ECFS starting immediately, the PN said.

The National Exchange Carrier Association proposed modifications to its USF formula for calculating high-cost loop support for "average schedule" rate-of-return companies in 2017. The proposal incorporates changes from the FCC's March 31 rural broadband USF overhaul order, including a continued annual reduction of 25 basis points in the authorized rate-of-return and new restrictions on operating expenses, said a NECA filing Thursday in docket 05-337. The previous 11.25 percent rate of return dropped to 11 percent July 1 and will drop to 10.75 percent July 1, 2017, under the proposed formula, on its way to 9.75 percent in 2021.

FCC staff approved the sale of TVC Albany, TVC Holdings and segTel to OHCP Northeastern Fiber Buyer. DOJ and other executive branch departments asked the FCC April 14 to defer action while they reviewed the transaction on national security, law enforcement and public safety grounds, but said Thursday they had no objections, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Friday in docket 16-107 granting associated license transfers. The combined entity will have a U.S. domestic long-distance market share of less than 10 percent and will provide any competitive local phone services in areas served by a dominant telco that's not a party to the deal, the bureau said.

FCC staff announced two new filing windows for seeking USF rural healthcare support for the 2016 funding year that began July 1, plus another window for the 2017 funding year. The program provides subsidies for rural healthcare telecom services and broadband connectivity. An initial March 1-June 1 filing window drew $35.5 million in requests, with the program operating on a first-come, first-served basis since then, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Friday in docket 02-60. A new filing window is Sept. 1-Nov. 30, with no funding requests accepted through Jan. 31 the PN said. Universal Service Administrative Co. will process all the requests to that point; if there's still funding available under the FCC $400 million annual cap for the program, which the bureau expects, a third funding request window will run Feb. 1-April 30, with the possibility of a new window after that, it said. It also announced an overlapping initial filing window of Feb. 1-April 30 for the funding year that begins on July 1, 2017. The PN said demand for rural healthcare USF support has been growing and could reach the $400 million cap during one of the windows for this funding year, which would require USAC to divvy up support to qualifying requests on a "pro-rata basis" for that window.

NTCA said the FCC should approve its petition for reconsideration of a USF overhaul for rate-of-return carriers, given the lack of any opposition to its requests and ITTA's support for some of them. The FCC should admit that its rules will preclude most rural telcos from offering standalone broadband at rates reasonably comparable to urban rates, and either revisit its rate-of-return budget or suspend a requirement that carriers certify they are providing standalone broadband at reasonably comparable rates, said NTCA in reply comments, one of several replies posted Thursday and Friday in docket 10-90. NTCA also said it asked the agency to address concerns its new budget controls and "haircuts" would create an unlawful regulatory "black hole" into which carrier costs disappeared and were never recovered. GVNW Consulting, which works with rural carriers, agreed with NTCA's "black hole" description and proposal to either revisit the budget or suspend the stand-alone broadband certification requirement. GVNW also backed various WTA requests, including for the FCC to alter the definition of a qualifying unsubsidized competitor (which prevents an RLEC from receiving funding) as one that can provide the same broadband speeds as the incumbent, and to give carriers more flexibility on meeting buildout requirements. Custer Telephone Cooperative and other RLECs said there was no opposition to their petition for reconsideration of the agency decision to reduce support and add broadband buildout requirements for rate-of-return carriers remaining on revised legacy support mechanisms while shifting support to carriers electing model-based support. The National Tribal Telecommunications Association agreed with NTCA and WTA concerns about the budget and the need to ensure reasonable comparability, which NTTA believes is particularly appropriate regarding tribal areas. NTTA believes its proposed tribal broadband factor would help rate-of-return carriers provide tribal service. Sacred Wind Communications, which serves the Navajo Nation, agreed with WTA that qualifying competitors should be held to the same broadband speed standards as incumbent rural carriers, and said there should be a streamlined extension process for meeting buildout duties.

FairPoint Communications updated the FCC on its move to private broadband carriage for its rate-of-return telco affiliates, which allows them to stop making USF contributions for associated revenue (see 1606280037). The telco June 23 notified the commission it planned to cease offering broadband internet transmission service as a telecom service and begin offering it as private service for 19 of its rate-of-return LEC affiliates (see 1606230071). That took effect Monday, FairPoint said in a filing Wednesday in docket 14-28. It further notified the FCC of its plans to shift its three remaining "average schedule" rate-of-return LEC affiliates to private broadband carriage on Oct. 23. In a June 15 order, the FCC confirmed that rate-of-return carriers could offer de-tariffed wholesale transmission service only to their affiliated ISPs on a private carriage basis as an input in the provision of mass market retail broadband Internet access service, relieving that service of USF telecom revenue contribution duties. Carriers choosing that option had to give the Wireline Bureau 60 days notice. Trey Judy, Hargray Communications director-regulatory affairs, said in June he expected other rate-of-return carriers to follow FairPoint's example. Home Telephone ILEC told the FCC in an Aug. 12 filing it would move to private broadband carriage. Price-cap telcos, including FairPoint's affiliates, are currently not subject to USF contributions for their broadband revenue, though a USF federal-state joint board that advises the FCC is reviewing contribution issues.

FCC staff granted Sprint and Hamilton Relay temporary waivers from "two mandatory minimum requirements" for providers of traditional telecom relay service (TRS), speech-to-speech relay service (STS), and captioned telephone service (CTS). The rules "require TRS providers to allow users to have long distance calls carried by their preferred long distance carrier and to offer the same billing options (such as collect, calling card, and third party billing) traditionally offered by wireline telephone companies," said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau order in docket 03-123 Wednesday. "These two requirements are temporarily waived for providers of traditional TRS, STS, and CTS, to the extent that the providers do not assess a toll charge for long-distance calls. Each waiver remains in effect for two years, or until the effective date of a Commission rulemaking or other decision as to the continuing application of the requirement to traditional TRS, STS, and CTS, whichever occurs first."

A group of business customers asked the FCC to reconsider the relief it gave ILECs in granting USTelecom's petition for nondominant treatment of incumbent telco interstate switched access services connecting local callers to long-distance networks. The FCC reclassified the ILECs as nondominant "despite its failure to finalize access rate regulations for toll-free originating access minutes," said the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee in a petition posted Tuesday in docket 13-3. To justify the relief, the commission partially relied on the continuing applicability of regulatory protections for terminating access rates, said the group. "But the Commission has yet to act on its long-standing proposal to apply those same rate protections to originating access for toll-free service. The Commission must either (1) reconsider its decision to declare ILECs non-dominant or (2) act on its proposal to apply the same regulatory protections to the 'open' end of a toll-free call as apply to terminating 'sent paid' service." As the FCC noted on intercarrier compensation, "the 'open' or originating end of a toll-free call is the equivalent of the terminating end of a 'sent paid' call," the group said. Because in both cases the access-paying customer has no control over the choice of access provider at one end of the call, the providers of both forms of access are insulated from competitive forces and should be regulated to protect consumers, it said.

Parties backed the FCC 2015 tech transition order on the discontinuance process for replacing legacy telecom services provided over copper networks with IP services over fiber and other broadband networks. CLECs, their trade group Incompas, and Public Knowledge said the FCC correctly interpreted Communications Act Section 214 "to require approval for wholesale changes" to ILEC offerings that would limit consumer functionality. "Petitioner's contrary argument reduces to the assertion that service is not 'impaired' or 'reduced' when fax machines stop working, customers can no longer reach 911, medical monitoring devices stop working, and retailer credit-card readers do not function -- or even call clarity and reliability decline -- absent inconsistency with some representation in a tariff," they said in an intervenor brief (in Pacer) Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1414). But Section 214 "is a licensing provision requiring a certificate of public convenience and necessity for any change" that degrades service, not just changes that create inconsistencies with tariffs, they wrote. The FCC properly decided Section 214 approval is needed for changes that degrade service to any customer, including CLEC customers, not just ILEC customers, and that ILECs should be required to provide reasonably comparable replacement services before discontinuing wholesale service, they said. The CLECs were: Access Point, BullsEye Telecom, Granite Telecommunications, Level 3, Manhattan Telecommunications, Matrix Telecom, New Horizon Communications, Windstream, Xchange Telecom and XO Communications. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's brief (in Pacer) said the FCC adopted "forward looking" regulations to maintain "public safety, pro-consumer, pro-competition policies and protections." Citing the FCC determination that tech transitions shouldn't be a "pretext to limit" competition or "compromise" wholesale access, the PUC agreed the federal agency took reasonable action to ensure new IP services meet consumer and provider needs.