Four South Carolina rural telcos asked the FCC for a waiver to recover access charges they said they were unable to collect from Halo Wireless. In an emergency request filed in docket 10-90, Horry Telephone, PBT Telecom, Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative and Piedmont Rural Telephone Cooperative sought the waiver in order to include amounts Halo owed them in their "Base Period Revenues" effective as of July 1, 2012. They said they had been deprived of $128,827 that would have been included in their BPR "but for Halo's access avoidance efforts and subsequent bankruptcy." The Wireline Bureau recently sought comment (see 1601150052) on a similar request from five Georgia RLECs (see 1601060013).

The FCC dismissed Comcast's pole-attachment complaint against Duke Energy of Indiana at the request of the two companies after they settled their dispute (see 1601150016). The request was stamped "Granted" by the Enforcement Bureau and posted in docket 15-290 Tuesday. Comcast had alleged the dispute hurt broadband deployment in Indiana.

The FCC terminated a Chattanooga utility's bid for rural broadband experiment funds. The Wireline Bureau denied the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga (EPB) a waiver and extension of a June 2, 2015, deadline to submit proof of its designation as an eligible telecom carrier (ETC) in all areas covered by its experiment, which had been provisionally selected to be funded with $710,147 to serve certain rural Tennessee areas. The bureau said the EPB filed a petition for a waiver and time extension so it could submit an ETC application to the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA). "We find no good cause to grant EPB's waiver petition," the bureau said in an order Monday in docket 10-90 that appeared in the next day's FCC Daily Digest. "EPB provides no explanation for, or defense of, its failure to submit its ETC application to the TRA at any point during the 90 days between the provisional selection of its bid and the associated June 2 deadline to submit proof of ETC designation. Moreover, even though EPB commits in its petition to keeping the FCC 'fully apprised of any and all developments throughout the application process at the TRA,' EPB has not filed any additional documentation or otherwise contacted the FCC since filing its waiver petition. Indeed, to this date, EPB has submitted no evidence that it ever even filed an ETC application with the TRA." The bureau found EPB had defaulted on its ETC obligation and removed its rural broadband experiment bid from further consideration. EPB had no comment Tuesday.

The FCC extended an inmate calling service reply comment deadline to Feb. 8 on a further NPRM. In an order posted Friday in docket 12-375, the Wireline Bureau said the seven-day extension was more appropriate than a 15-day extension sought by Telmate and Pay-Tel Communications. The ICS providers said the extension was needed because a reply comment period already had been shortened by a delay in initial comments, and was further compressed by office closings due to Winter Storm Jonas. In initial comments, parties were sharply divided over a possible expansion of ICS regulation (see 1601200053).

Level 3 asked to withdraw a petition it filed last week seeking a temporary FCC waiver (see 1601280045) for classifying certain phone numbers the carrier has given to interconnected VoIP providers or other noncarrier entities under a 2015 commission order (see 1506180060). The withdrawal request posted in docket 13-97 contained no explanation, and Level 3 didn't comment Monday.

The FCC sought court permission to file a consolidated 35-page response to separate motions by Global Tel*Link, Telmate and Securus to stay inmate calling service rules pending further judicial review of underlying legal challenges (see 1601270029 and 1601290067). The FCC also asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for permission to slightly delay its response to Feb. 12, according to a motion the agency filed Friday that it said was unopposed by the stay movants (Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461 and consolidated underlying challenges). The commission already denied the parties' stay requests for administrative relief (see 1601220040) and is considering another stay request by CenturyLink (see 1601280033).

Telmate asked a court to stay FCC inmate calling service rules before they take effect, pending further review of its underlying challenge, according to a motion filed Friday. Global Tel*Link and Securus recently also sought stays in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1460 and consolidated cases) (see 1601270029), while CenturyLink recently asked the FCC for a stay (see 1601280033). The commission previously denied GTL, Securus and Telmate stay requests (see 1601220040).

Alaska Communications opposed General Communications Inc.'s push for FCC reconsideration of equal access and dialing parity relief it gave incumbent telcos in rural Alaska in a broader decision on a USTelecom forbearance petition (see 1601280031). “The FCC correctly abolished its outdated equal access and dialing parity rules, after recognizing that standalone long distance is out of step with modern consumer preferences," Alaska Communications, the state's largest ILEC, emailed us Friday. "Even in rural Alaska, today’s consumers often choose wireless or VOIP national calling plans over traditional local service with a separate pre-subscribed long distance carrier. The USTelecom petition was filed more than 15 months ago, and GCI chose not even to present its arguments to the Commission before the Commission ruled. GCI’s Petition for Reconsideration offers no new evidence, and we are confident that the FCC will uphold its grant of forbearance."

General Communications Inc. asked the FCC to reconsider its forbearance decision relieving local telcos of equal access and dialing parity duties in rural Alaska as part of a broader order on a USTelecom request (see 1512170052). The commission said the rules were no longer needed to ensure long-distance providers could compete with the long-distance services of local incumbents, though it provided some “grandfathering” protections for existing services. The forbearance, “without regard to the level of competition for local services or the status of equal access deployment, threatens to send or suspend consumers in some of the most remote areas of the country in a 1980s time warp for their long distance services. The relief granted was overbroad,” said GCI in a petition for reconsideration posted Thursday in docket 14-192. GCI said stand-alone long-distance service is common in rural Alaska, unlike in the rest of the nation. “GCI estimates that it is the presubscribed [interexchange carrier] for perhaps one-third of rate-of-return customers in Alaska,” it said. Tim Stelzig, GCI federal regulatory attorney, added: “Equal access continues to be a unique source of competition between long distance providers in Alaska. We don’t believe the Commission intended to send rural Alaskans back to the 1980s when high costs made many families think twice before picking up the phone to make a long distance call.” The Alaska Telephone Association is reviewing the equal access issue but hasn't taken a position on the GCI petition. "Over the years we've seen that applying broad policies in Alaska sometimes has unintended consequences, so at times it's been necessary to tailor rules to fit our unique network," emailed Executive Director Christine O'Connor. "I expect there will be contrasting opinions on the petition," she added, calling ATA a "diverse group" of ILECs and wireline and wireless competitors.

CenturyLink became the latest inmate calling service provider seeking a stay of the FCC’s rate caps on domestic ICS calls, pending judicial review on the merits of an underlying legal challenge. “A stay is warranted because the rate caps will prevent CenturyLink from recovering its reasonable cost of providing ICS to multiple facilities in several jurisdictions,” the company said in a petition to the commission in docket 12-375. The caps thus violate Communications Act requirements, including that ICS providers be “fairly compensated,” and will cause the CenturyLink irreparable harm, the company said. The Martha Wright Petitioners asked the FCC to give parties until Wednesday to respond to the stay request. The CenturyLink petition was dated Jan. 22 but not received by the FCC and posted electronically this week until Wednesday. CenturyLink said expeditious review is particularly important because the commission could rule soon on the stay petitions of other ICS providers; in fact, the Wireline Bureau denied those petitions Jan. 22 (see 1601220040). Global Tel*Link and Securus Technologies have since asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for a stay of various ICS rules, including the rate caps (see 1601220040). Separately, Customer Teleconnect, a wholesale telecom provider, asked the FCC to reconsider its order to the extent it "purports to rely on" the company's cost data as an example of an "efficient" ICS provider. "The cost information submitted in good faith by Custom Teleconnect represents the costs that the company incurs to provide a limited number of wholesale calling functions that may be used by ICS providers, but these functions ... do not represent a complete end-to-end ICS service," the company said in a letter posted in the docket. The FCC's "extensive reliance" on the cost information "is in error and misconstrues" the data, which doesn't reflect the full cost to provide inmate calling services, it said.