An Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions panel asked the FCC Wireline Bureau to revise its methodology for toll-free number codings. The ATIS System Number Administrative Committee said it reached consensus on various recommendations, including that the schedule for new toll-free code openings be based on the expected number of months until code exhaustion, rather than the percentage of numbers in use for open codes. In a filing Wednesday in docket 95-155, the committee also proposed the bureau: (1) not allow the date of the code opening to be changed once it's set, since various parties rely on that date, (2) institute rationing rules when predictions indicate number utilization is occurring faster than expected, (3) make one new toll-free code available at a time and (4) limit each "Responsible Organization" group (including affiliates of each other) to reserving 100 numbers per day during the first 20 days of a new code opening.
The FCC issued the results of its urban rate survey for fixed voice and broadband. The Wireline Bureau "announces the 2016 rate floor for incumbent eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) and reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice and broadband services," said a public notice Tuesday in docket 10-90. "We announce the posting of the fixed voice and broadband services data collected in the most recent urban rate survey, and explanatory notes regarding the data, on the Commission’s website at http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/urban-rate-survey-data. The Bureau also announces the required minimum usage allowance for 2016 for ETCs subject to broadband public interest obligations." The 2016 monthly rate floor for voice is $21.93 and the voice reasonable comparability benchmark is $41.07, while the broadband reasonable comparability benchmark varies from $69.14 to $89.24 per month depending on speeds and usage allowances, it said. For simplicity's sake, the bureau required price-cap carriers receiving model-based Connect America Fund Phase II support to allow customers at least 150 GB of monthly data usage.
Competitive telecom providers "seek to gain competitive advantage through regulatory arbitrage" in the FCC special access proceeding, the Communications Workers of America said. In an ex parte letter posted Monday in docket 05-25, CWA President Christopher Shelton said that the FCC will find the special access market to be "highly competitive" if it counts cable providers in its data collection. If the FCC were to disagree with this approach and side with CLEC arguments, it would kill jobs and network investment by ILECs, he said. CLECs and cable companies "want to subject incumbent providers to regulatory constraints, including price regulation, while they are free to negotiate discount prices and other favorable conditions," Shelton said. He added that while AT&T, Verizon and other incumbents employ skilled union workers, cable companies and CLECs "pay lower wages and benefits, make extensive use of a less-skilled, contract workforce, and block their employees' efforts at collective organization." The fight over the FCC's review of the special access market has been heating up, with ILECs and competitors sparring over market data analysis (see 1603280027).
An FCC webinar Monday at 2 p.m. will summarize the rate-of-return USF overhaul order released Wednesday, said a wireline bureau public notice listed in Friday's Daily Digest. Parties can register at http://bit.ly/1ZRHZla, it said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau provided process guidance for eligible telecom carriers to elect the Universal Service Administrative Co. to perform Lifeline recertification for their subscribers in 2016, a public notice said Friday in docket 11-42. The guidance will remain in effect for subsequent years unless superseded by further FCC action, it said.
Citing the possibility of missing the Alaskan construction season altogether, Quintillion Subsea Operations is asking the FCC International Bureau for special temporary authority (STA) to construct and test its Quintillion System fiber optic system linking Nome and Prudhoe Bay. The submarine cable company in its IB filing Wednesday said it won't operate or initiate service on the system until its pending submarine cable license application (see 1603250010) is granted. According to Quintillion, not having the 180-day STA raises the possibility of construction not being complete by early to mid-October, when the weather turns colder. In its filing the company asked for the STA to be granted by April 15.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is looking more closely at the line between private and commercial phones in regard to Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules. Lawyer Todd Bank in March asked for clarity and the bureau sought comment in a Thursday notice. “Bank is an attorney with a law practice based in his home,” CGA said. The phone number Bank uses for his business is listed publicly as both a business and a residential number, the bureau said. “Bank asks the Commission to clarify the scope of its rules to establish a ‘bright-line’ test that when a telephone line is provided as ‘residential’ service by the telephone service provider, it is subject to the Commission’s rules prohibiting calls using an artificial or prerecorded voice to a ‘residential line.’” Comments are due at the FCC May 3, replies May 17.
Limits on inmate calling service (ICS) ancillary charges, other than one stayed set of fees, took effect on March 17 for all calls from prisons and will take effect on June 20 for calls from jails, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday in docket 12-375. The PN was highlighting updated rate regulations after two court stays temporarily blocked the agency's 2015 caps on domestic ICS rates and single-call service fees, and its application of 2013 interim caps to intrastate services (see 1603070055 and 1603230058). For instance, it said, automated payment fees are capped at $3 and paper bill/statement fees are capped at $2 with no charges allowed for electronic bills/statements. The same effective dates cover other rules, including for: rates of calls involving TTY devices (text telephony used by deaf and hard of hearing people), tax and fee treatment, minimum and maximum calling account balances, a prohibition on per-call or per-connection charges and a prohibition on flat-rate calling. The PN said the interim caps still apply to interstate ICS rates: 21 cents per minute for debit and prepaid calls and 25 cents/minute for collect calls. It also said reporting, certification and disclosure rules are subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act and will take effect upon publication in the Federal Register of Office of Management and Budget approval. All other rules and requirements in the 2015 order are in effect, except for a one-time data collection obligation that will occur two years after OMB approval, the bureau said. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued two orders (here and here) granting the requests of various states (Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada and Wisconsin) and Indiana sheriffs' groups to intervene in support of Oklahoma and ICS provider challenges to the FCC rules, plus a request of Network Communications International to intervene in support of the agency.
Charter Communications and Georgia Power asked the FCC to dismiss a pole-attachment enforcement proceeding. In a joint motion Monday in docket 14-210, the companies said they settled the dispute that gave rise to a Charter complaint.
The FCC should confirm ILECs’ obligation to provide unbundled DS1 and DS3 capacity loops to competitors, said the Minnesota Department of Commerce (MNDOC). In an ex parte letter dated Monday, the department supported other states that have filed in docket 15-1, including Massachusetts, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Vermont (see 1603140070). “The MNDOC urges the Commission to issue a ruling confirming that ILECs’ ongoing obligations to provide DS1 and DS3 capacity loops on an unbundled basis are not affected by the replacement of copper with fiber, or the conversion of transmission from TDM to IP format,” it said. Such a ruling would promote competition, it said. A flurry of filings from ILECs and CLECs have disagreed about market data analysis and possible further FCC regulation of ILEC broadband services in the FCC’s special access review (see 1603280027).