Broad Valley Micro Fiber Networks filed a petition for reconsideration of FCC decision making in developing a Connect America Fund Phase II auction of broadband-oriented subsidies in price-cap telco areas where carriers aren't receiving such support. The commission should "rule that any carrier who was a provisional winner in the FCC Rural Broadband experiment should automatically qualify (even without 2 years of ops/3 years of tax returns/etc.) for participation in the CAF PH Il Reverse Auction," said the petition Wednesday in docket 10-90. "Given how thoroughly the vetting was for those funds, all those provisionally selected have already spent the effort and money to prove eligibility. Thus we request this be established as an alternative eligibility path." It also provided recommendations for weighting and ranking subsidy bids in the auction. Comments on a Further NPRM are due Thursday. Broad Valley's webpage says it's a startup putting the final touches on designing a fiber network throughout Delaware.

The FCC should halt any further phasedown in E-rate support for voice service, said Administrative and Technical Consulting (AdTec) in reply comments in docket 13-184 on the agency's proposed eligible service list for the funding year beginning next July 1. AdTec said it fully backed initial comments by Funds for Learning, which included a call for temporarily suspending the E-rate voice support phasedown at its current 40 percent reduction from the support level for "Category One" services, now defined as providing broadband internet access (see 1607050066). AdTec said the FCC's move to phase out E-rate voice service discounts violates a rule requiring the agency to "support services that are essential to education, public health, or public safety." Replies were due Wednesday.

NTCA asked the FCC to set a clear implementation schedule for its USF overhaul order transitioning rate-of-return carriers from voice to broadband-oriented support in two mechanisms, including a new option based on a broadband cost model (see 1603300065). The schedule should "enable all reforms (model and non-model) to take effect at approximately the same time to the extent possible, and to provide carriers with sufficient estimates, calculations, and other data in advance of any implementation deadlines to help inform" their upcoming USF support elections, said the rural telco group in a filing Wednesday on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai in docket 10-90; it also met separately with Wireline Bureau officials: "NTCA noted the importance of providing data or analyses that would allow carriers to estimate, if not completely ascertain, the impacts of reforms still being implemented -- specifically: (1) the new operating expense limits; (2) the competitive overlap rule; (3) any new buildout obligations; (4) the budget control as it might apply in 2017, and (5) the new capital investment allowance governing recovery of prospective investments." NTCA continues to believe questions of USF support sufficiency, rural-urban service/rate comparability and intrastate cost recovery need to be addressed in its petition to reconsider/clarify the March 31 FCC order, but it said the most urgent priority is for budget management in the event some carriers elect and then decline model support It's "essential" the model elections be carried out in a way that does "not leave non-model carriers with insufficient support by penalizing those carriers that did not elect the model for the choices of those that expressed initial interest in the model but then 'backed out of' a final election," it said.

Google told the FCC of the benefits of "climb once" policies to allow communications providers attaching lines to poles to perform all "make-ready work" that doesn't cause service disruptions as long as the engineering designs and contractors are approved by the pole owner. Such "one-touch make ready" policies "reduce the disruption, inconvenience and delay that come from work by multiple crews, reduce make-ready costs, and improve safety and pole integrity," Google said in a filing Tuesday in docket 07-245 on a meeting with agency officials, including Stephanie Weiner, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero. Current make-ready processes prevent affordable, timely and efficient pole attachments because charges aren't predictable or verifiable, individual line adjustments take months to complete, and repeated climbs by multiple teams increase costs, compromise pole integrity, create dangers and inconvenience nearby residents, the company said in an attached presentation.

The FCC paused the 180-day clock ​on its review of Verizon's planned buy of XO Communications and its wireline assets, Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero notified them in a Wednesday letter. DelNero said the FCC would pause the unofficial clock as of July 7, which was Day 86 of review. The FCC sought information and documents from both companies with a July 7 due date, the letter said. As of Wednesday, “neither Applicant has completed their production of responsive material,” DelNero wrote. “With respect to certain information requests no anticipated production date has been offered.”

FCC staff granted the applications of Manhattan Telecommunications and Telnyx to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering resource administrators (see 1606200023). So said Tuesday public notices (here and here) from the Wireline Bureau in dockets 16-134 and 16-172. Manhattan and Telnyx follow Vonage, Mix Networks and AT&T in gaining interconnected VoIP direct numbering access under streamlined procedures authorized by a 2015 order.

Crocker Telecommunications asked the FCC to revisit Connect America Fund auction plans. Crocker, headquartered in Greenfield, Massachusetts, said the CAF Phase II auction funds should be sufficient to bring fiber-based advanced services to unserved areas. "We strongly urge the Commission to adopt rules for the CAF PH II auction that will allow for the deployment of the most robust and future proof physical infrastructure possible, recognizing that the infrastructure enabled by the USF support funds should be capable of delivering both broadband and voice services, and be capable of scaling in speed and performance for decades to come," it said in a petition posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. It asked the commission to clarify or reconsider decisions and proposals on scoring and weighting of bids, validating locations, letters of credit and accelerated payments in a May order and Further NPRM (see 1605250046 and 1605260034). Comments are due Thursday.

FCC staff opened a pleading cycle on a VTCSecure petition seeking changes to allow providers of direct sign-language support services to access the telecom relay service (TRS) numbering directory. Initial comments are due Aug. 17, replies Sept. 1, said a Wireline Bureau and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice in docket 10-191 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Direct sign-language communications between the deaf and customer-service representatives of large companies would increase "functional equivalence" for the deaf and hard of hearing, save the TRS fund tens of millions of dollars (relay services use sign-language interpreters) and employ deaf persons as customer-service representatives, VTCSecure had said (see 1607070003).

Electric utility interests criticized an aspect of FCC Connect America Fund auction plans for providing $215 million in annual broadband-oriented support to unsubsidized rural areas traditionally served by larger telcos (see 1605250046 and 1605260034). Of concern in a recent order and Further NPRM was "the Commission decision to eliminate census blocks from the reverse auction in areas where incumbent carriers declined the offer of model-based support and where rural broadband experiments were filed, based upon FCC Form 477 data that was filed for June 2015," said representatives of Ozarks Electric Cooperative and its broadband subsidiary OzarksGo, North Arkansas Electric Cooperative, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Utilities Technology Council. A UTC filing posted Monday in docket 10-90 summarized a meeting with an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler; the officials also met recently with other commissioner aides. They "urged the Commission to adopt weights for the upcoming reverse auction that would promote the deployment of future-proof networks and robust, reliable and affordable broadband services in rural America," said the council said. "They urged the Commission not to reallocate funds from certain census blocks into other census blocks or other states." The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said the FCC should "consider basing bidding weights on percentages" of a broadband "cost model's reserve price or the actual bid, as opposed to a strict numerical value" that "may not account for large differences in cost model prices." WISPA "also explained that low-latency bids should receive significant bidding credit relative to high-latency bids, because high-latency applications will not support 'reasonably comparable' voice service or other real-time, data-intensive services such as video-conferencing," said that group's filing on a recent meeting with Wireline Bureau officials. WISPA also opposed "any earmarking or awarding of minimum CAF support to certain states" where price-cap telcos declined FCC offers of CAF Phase II support.

There's evidence ILECs exercise market power at data speeds above 45-50 Mbps in business data services, said Jonathan Baker, consultant to Level 3 and Windstream, in a declaration posted Friday in FCC docket 16-143 that was resubmitted with parts made public that previously were redacted as highly confidential. "Prices of high-bandwidth connections are likely substantially in excess of competitive levels. (For example, the presence of four or more in-building and four or more in-block high-bandwidth rivals lowers the prices of high-bandwidth connections by 43% according to one estimate and by 25% according to another.) This evidence does not support the suggestion that all business data services markets at bandwidths above 50 Mbps are competitive," said Baker, who was asked to comment on the BDS study of FCC consultant Marc Rysman. Rysman's data analysis "is broadly consistent with mine," Baker said. Free State Foundation criticized the FCC course and said "it's no wonder the Commission opted to change the terminology" from "special access" to BDS. "This whole decades-long proceeding has been driven in large part by ‘special access.' That is, special access to the Commission's administrative processes by some favored parties engaging in special pleading to obtain special rent-seeking treatment," said FSF President Randolph May and Senior Fellow Seth Cooper in a Friday commentary. "Special rent-seeking privileges are sought primarily by a segment of BDS competitors who serve business enterprises, not everyday residential or retail consumers. New rate controls would give these special interest pleaders price cuts on wholesale access to their competitors' facilities, including advanced IP-based broadband networks. Prompted by the continued special interest pleading, the Commission is proposing rate controls based on problematic analyses that disregard existing competitive forces," they said. "It is true that special interest pleading is nothing new at the Commission, and we freely acknowledge that no company or market segment has a monopoly on it. But the long, tortured history of the ‘special access' proceeding, in the face of ever increasing facilities-based competition in most places, is stupefying. ... Awash in special interest pleading, problematic analyses, and questionable agency processes, the best course would be for the Commission to close the BDS proceeding."