New telecom revenue reporting materials were released, said the FCC Wireline Bureau in a public notice in docket 06-122 listed in Tuesday's Daily Digest. It said the materials include (1) the annual Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-A) and accompanying instructions (FCC Form 499-A Instructions) to be used to report 2015 revenue, and (2) the quarterly Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-Q) and accompanying instructions (FCC Form 499-Q Instructions) to be used to report projected and collected revenue on a quarterly basis in 2016. The worksheet materials included various revisions after no comments were filed on the proposed revisions, said the PN, which was posted along with the forms on a bureau Web page.

Inmate calling service providers and their critics generally continued to disagree on the need for additional ICS regulation being considered in an FCC Further NPRM, following up on initial comments (see 1601200053). In reply comments mostly posted Tuesday in docket 12-375, Securus and Telmate urged the commission not to expand ICS regulation, though Pay Tel Communications opposed some potential new mandates and supported others. The Human Rights Defense Center, Martha Wright Petitioners, Prison Policy Initiative and other advocates for inmates and their families called for the agency to adopt various new regulations. The National Sheriffs' Association said the FCC should take a "hands-off approach" and allow video calling, video visitation and other new technologies, and shouldn't ban exclusive contracts.

Florida Power & Light was dismissive of Verizon's request for urgent FCC intervention in their pole attachment dispute (see 1602030050). "Verizon needs to be saved from itself because it has chosen, unilaterally and unlawfully, to withhold from FPL and its customers nearly $6.5 million, an amount which increases with every passing day, pursuant to a contract under which both companies operated amicably in a successful infrastructure development partnership for decades. Had Verizon adhered to the Commission's precedent prohibiting self-help or its own standard customer service contract policy, there would be no parallel litigation, no pending appeal and no default," said FPL in a filing Monday in docket 15-73. Contrary to Verizon's "misrepresentation," the utility made no threat to "disrupt service" or "remove Verizon's facilities," but has said only that if the telco doesn't cure its default, FPL will "terminate Verizon's rights to attach to any of FPL's poles. ... While FPL has put Verizon on notice that FPL is asserting and preserving its rights to collect the millions Verizon owes, Verizon can easily solve the problem of its own making at any time by paying its debt."

Alaska Communications and USTelecom opposed General Communications Inc.'s petition for the FCC to reconsider its decision to relieve local telcos of equal access and dialing parity duties in rural Alaska as part of a broader order on a USTelecom forbearance request (see 1601280031). Both entities' opposition filings were posted Tuesday in docket 14-192. The FCC should dismiss GCI's petition as defective, or deny it because it failed to show the commission erred in providing the forbearance relief from the "outdated" rules, said Alaska Communications, which already had told us it would oppose the petition (see 1601290045). "The decision to forbear was a reasoned response to the dramatic changes in the wireline voice market since these requirements were established, and the equal access and dialing parity obligations are no longer necessary for competition and consumer protection going forward," USTelecom said.

CenturyLink asked a court to stay FCC inmate calling service rate caps pending further judicial review of ICS rules. "A stay is warranted because the rate caps will prevent CenturyLink from recovering its reasonable cost of providing ICS in several jurisdictions, in violation of the Communications Act's requirement that the Commission 'ensure that all [ICS] providers are fairly compensated,'" the telco said in a motion filed Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the consolidated case (Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461). CenturyLink said the rate caps violated the act in other ways, and the telco is likely to succeed on the merits of its challenge and suffer irreparable harm absent a stay. The telco said its bid for an administrative stay is still pending at the commission (see 1601280033), but it filed its request with the D.C. Circuit to meet its deadline for any further stay motions (see 1602040023). Global Tel*Link, Securus and Telmate previously filed stay requests (see 1601270029 and 1601290067).

Comments are due Feb. 22, replies March 8, on a waiver bid from South Carolina RLECs, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Friday in docket 01-92. Four rural carriers are seeking a waiver to recover $128,827 in costs they say they were unable to collect from Halo Wireless, which they said avoided payment of access charges before it went into bankruptcy (see 1602020053).

Comments are due Feb. 19, replies Feb. 26 on GTCR Onvoy Holdings' planned takeover of Communications Infrastructure Investments' operating subsidiaries, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a Friday public notice in docket 16-20. The CII subsidiaries are Broadvox-CLEC, Layered Communications, Minnesota Independent Equal Access, Onvoy and Zayo Enterprise Networks, said the PN, which called GTCR Onvoy Holdings an "investment vehicle created to aggregate the ownership of various investment funds managed by GTCR LLC."

CenturyLink and USTelecom sought to back AT&T's challenge to FCC decisions declining to remove price-cap telco "eligible telecom carrier" obligations to offer voice service in high-cost areas where they no longer receive USF subsidies under a broadband-oriented Connect America Fund (see 1601110036). "The result is an unfunded mandate," CenturyLink said in a Thursday motion for leave to intervene filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is reviewing the case (AT&T v. FCC, No. 16-1002). USTelecom's motion said AT&T is challenging an FCC order issued in response to a USTelecom forbearance petition (see 1512170052). Meanwhile, Bruce Kushnick of the New Networks Institute said the FCC based much of its USTelecom forbearance order "on biased and manipulated information or else major facts were totally ignored." In a filing posted Thursday in docket 14-192, the institute asked the commission to investigate "the data used in this and every related FCC order." Kushnick alleged major telcos have manipulated their accounting to gain regulatory advantages (see 1512230049).

A draft FCC item on interstate inmate calling services is circulating, according to the FCC's list of such items. It's an order that addresses an ICS provider application for commission review of a bureau decision regarding a request by another provider, Pay-Tel Communications, seeking outside counsel access to confidential data in the ICS proceeding (docket 12-375), which is under a protective order, an FCC spokesman told us Friday. The Wireline Bureau had denied Securus objections to granting Pay-Tel's outside counsel access to certain data. The spokesman did not say how the draft commission-level order would decide the matter.

Further motions to stay FCC inmate calling service rules should be filed by Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in a Wednesday order (Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461). The court granted an unopposed FCC motion to file a 35-page consolidated response to stay motions by Feb. 12 (see 1602010027), and gave stay movants until Feb. 19 to file replies. Global Tel*Link, Securus Technologies and Telmate have asked the court to stay ICS rules pending further review of underlying challenges (see 1601270029 and 1601290067). In addition, CenturyLink has asked the commission to stay its own order (see 1601280033). The Martha Wright Petitioners, which prodded the FCC to issue the rules, filed opposition in docket 12-375, saying CenturyLink had provided no support for treating its request differently from the requests of the other three ICS providers, which the agency denied (see 1601220040). On a separate track, the Martha Wright Petitioners asked the FCC to deny a Global Tel*Link petition to waive GTL’s duty to comply by March 17 with a rule prohibiting ICS providers from requiring prison customers to have minimum balances in their accounts. GTL asked that compliance be delayed until a June 20 "no minimum balance requirement" deadline for ICS providers on jail customers. In a filing posted Thursday, the Martha Wright Petitioners asked the FCC to review “certain advice that is apparently being provided to governmental agencies” on the ICS rules that the group suggested appeared to be trying to bypass or game the rules. While the petitioners said they hadn’t confirmed the authorship of a document and aren't asserting it came from an ICS provider, they said the contents were “startling,” particularly in light of a recent Wireline Bureau letter to Securus that had cited the company’s “mischaracterization” of the rules and had warned the agency would remain vigilant in monitoring industry implementation (see 1512040001).