The FCC should reform Lifeline USF, which is overly complex, said CenturyLink in a filing Tuesday in docket 11-42 on meetings with aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. The complexity has caused consumer confusion and frustration with the "bureaucratic nature of the program," while saddling providers with administrative burdens and regulatory costs that discourage participation, the telco said. If Lifeline support is extended to broadband, program administration should be streamlined for all providers and not just new entrants, "especially by promptly shifting eligibility verification to a third party and by not requiring offering of all Lifeline broadband options in all areas," it said. "The company also cautioned against making participation mandatory for any providers or applying a rigid 10/1 Mbps minimum service level for wireline Lifeline broadband service, as it would limit options for consumers who may prefer less expensive options or who live in rural areas where only lower download and/or upload speeds are currently available."

Level 3 said an AT&T blog made "tired arguments" that again ignored "the facts, basic economics and the law" in saying CLECs were pushing the FCC to impose ill-advised reregulation on ILEC fiber-based ethernet business services (see 1603160020). "The facts are that, for the vast majority of businesses that purchase dedicated services, there is only one option: the incumbent telco. That lack of competition has meant higher prices for American businesses, governments, non-profits and others -- higher prices that get passed on to consumers," emailed Joe Cavender, vice president-federal affairs. "For years, they’ve leveraged their market power to lock out competition for these services, and now they’re using the same tactics to try to throttle competition for newer services like Ethernet. There’s no question the FCC has the authority to protect consumers from AT&T, as much as AT&T might prefer to continue to abuse their market power without oversight.”

The FCC teed up U.S. TelePacific's planned buy of DSCI LLC from DSCI Holdings, inviting initial comments by March 29 and replies by April 5, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 16-67. TelePacific offers competitive telecom services to business customers in California and Nevada, and DSCI offers CLEC services in 13 states (including California) and the District of Columbia, the PN said.

Level 3 highlighted the importance of diversity "of thought, backgrounds and experiences" in releasing its first annual diversity and inclusion report. Business conversations about diversity often involve "an end goal, a particular stat or percentage" on the work force or what a company should look like, said Mary Beth McGrath, senior vice president-global talent management. "However, diversity by its own definition is the state of being diverse; and includes a range of different things. In my mind, diversity isn’t a destination to achieve; a company can’t check the box and move on. Diversity is a journey that has many milestones," she said in a Tuesday blog. "Our goal is to create an environment in which inclusion through diversity helps deepen the lives and work experience of our employees, enhances our innovation and creativity and enriches our involvement in our communities."

Hamilton Relay asked for FCC interim relief from equal-access and billing-option duties for offering traditional telecom relay services (TRS) and captioned telephone services (CTS). In a petition Tuesday in docket 03-123, Hamilton said it and Sprint petitioned in September for a rulemaking to modify rules requiring TRS and CTS providers (1) to offer consumers with hearing disabilities access to their long-distance carrier of choice to the same extent they do for voice users (equal access) and (2) to be able to handle any type of call normally provided by telecom carriers "to the extent that it requires providers to offer users the same billing options (e.g., sent-paid long distance, operator-assisted, collect, and third party billing) traditionally offered to wireline voice users." Sprint also sought interim relief from those rules in September, and Hamilton is now requesting a similar interim waiver until whenever the FCC adopts a permanent exemption from the rules. "Even underlying carriers are actively seeking to discontinue such services," said Hamilton. "AT&T has filed a petition to discontinue operator services, among other services" (see 1603080036).

A Florida state judge stayed his own order that sided with Florida Power & Light in a pole-attachment dispute with Verizon, the telco said in a letter posted in FCC docket 15-73 Friday. Florida Circuit Court Judge John Thornton stayed the order until June 9 in the hope that a state appellate court or the FCC would rule on related Verizon appeals "relatively soon," said the order. FPL had no comment Monday. Verizon has asked the FCC for urgent intervention to prevent FPL from disrupting Verizon broadband service to customers due to the payment dispute (see 1602030050). FPL opposed the request, saying Verizon was asking "to be saved from itself" because it had decided to unlawfully withhold almost $6.5 million in payments, an amount that was increasing with time (see 1602090064).

Telmate asked the FCC Wireline Bureau to clarify whether interim rate caps for inmate calling services apply only to interstate rates and not also to intrastate rates for the first time. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently stayed FCC interstate and intrastate rate caps of 11 to 22 cents per minute under a 2015 ICS order, but left in place a 2013 order's interim rate caps of 21 and 25 cents/minute on interstate inmate calling services and a 2015 change removing the word "interstate" from the ICS definition (see 1603070055). A bureau "clarification is necessary because, while the Commission’s public statements appear to confirm that Section 64.6030 simply preserves the interstate interim rate caps established in the 2013 Order, counsel to the Wright Petitioners has asserted that these caps should now apply to intrastate rates as well," Telmate said in a filing Friday in docket 12-375. "That result would negatively affect both providers and States, which would suffer the dramatic and immediate site commission (revenue) reductions otherwise avoided by the D.C. Circuit’s stay." Telmate asked the bureau for an answer by Wednesday, the day before Section 64.6030 is scheduled to become effective for prisons.

NCTA urged the FCC to deny an incumbent telco bid for an additional $175 million in annual USF subsidy support for voice service in costly remote areas where the ILECs are no longer being subsidized. Responding to a request from CenturyLink and Frontier Communications (see 1602240033), NCTA said price-cap ILECs had "received exclusive access to $9 billion in high-cost support" over six years through the FCC's broadband-oriented Connect America Fund Phase II USF mechanism. "At a time when the Commission repeatedly has acknowledged the importance of providing all Americans with access to broadband, the notion of spending hundreds of millions of consumers’ dollars on a program that does not deliver broadband to a single home should be a non-starter for the Commission," NCTA said in a letter Friday in docket 10-90. NCTA said it didn't oppose providing support to the areas identified by the ILECs. "But any additional money for these areas should be distributed solely through the competitively and technologically neutral Remote Areas Fund the Commission adopted in 2011 for the express purpose of bringing broadband access to these remote areas, not through a new ad hoc fund for incumbent LEC voice services," it said. NCTA said CenturyLink and Frontier hadn't offered any evidence to support their assertion the ILECs would be unable to maintain and repair the voice network in the identified areas without the additional subsidies. It also said the new money "seems to be untethered from any obligation," unlike new broadband support. CenturyLink and Frontier had no comment Monday.

The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a Global Tel*Link waiver request seeking more time to implement a "no minimum balance requirement" for prisons in the agency's 2015 inmate calling service order (see 1510220059). "GTL did not provide sufficient justification to warrant a temporary waiver of section 64.6100(a) of the Commission’s rules, which prohibits inmate calling service (ICS) providers from requiring end users to deposit a minimum amount of money in a debit or prepaid calling account," said a bureau order issued Monday in docket 12-375. GTL and other ICS providers must thus eliminate minimum deposit requirements by Thursday for inmates in prisons they serve, the bureau said. GTL had sought an extra 90 days to implement the requirement for prisons so it would correspond with the June 20 deadline for implementing the rule for jails (see 1601130066).

Verizon said the FCC should allow the telco to retire copper loops in a New York City wire center without delay, despite an objection from Transbeam. Verizon said residents served by the West 36th St. wire center had already "overwhelmingly made the decision" to shift to Verizon's fiber-based services or to competitor services. "Completing the migration to Verizon’s more advanced and reliable fiber facilities, and retiring the legacy copper loops in this wire center, is not just a logical and efficient step, but an incremental one," Verizon said in a response Thursday in docket 16-40. "One objector, Transbeam, seeks to delay the copper retirement for a time period well beyond the length contemplated by the rules or else halt it altogether. But Transbeam misconstrues the nature of the facilities being retired, ignores the fact that it has already been offered several alternative products to serve its customers after the copper is retired, and fails to support its claims as required by the copper retirement rules. Its objection is meritless."