The Wholesale Voice Line Coalition urged the FCC to change the trigger for ending a wholesale platform service requirement for incumbent telcos in the transition from legacy TDM networks to IP-based systems. Backing a Granite Telecom request in docket 13-5, the coalition said the commission should tie the sunset of the "regulatory backstop for wholesale platform services to the conclusion of an examination of the relevant market for wholesale platform services, rather than the special access market." Coalition members "serve business customers across the United States, primarily focusing on providing voice lines to national companies and other entities that need a small number of voice lines at a large number of disparate, often suburban, rural and remote locations where facilities-based competition with the ILEC is uneconomical," said a filing posted Thursday. It was from Access Point, Birch Communications, BullsEye Telecom, Manhattan Telecommunications, Matrix Telecom, New Horizon Communications and Xchange Telecom. Without competitive service from the wholesale platform, customers would have no alternative to the ILEC, they said.

The FCC asked a court to suspend its review of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case so the agency can rule on the regulatory definition of a "residential telephone line," which is central to the litigation. The FCC filed an amicus brief in response to a request from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it weigh in on Todd Bank v. Independence Energy Group and Independence Energy Alliance, No. 15-2391. Bank sued the Independence defendants under the TCPA for a call they made to his home "without his consent and using an artificial or prerecorded voice," said the brief, posted on the FCC's website Thursday. The TCPA restricts such calls to residential telephone lines, but the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York said the restrictions didn't apply to Bank's home phone because it was held out for business purposes. The FCC said neither it nor the TCPA had defined the term "residential telephone line," including the extent to which a home line can support business uses and remain "residential." Bank petitioned the FCC to clarify that the TCPA restrictions apply to phone lines used for business purposes if they're registered with the service provider as a residential line, prompting an agency public notice with a comment period ending May 17 (see 1603310045). He also asked the 2nd Circuit to stay his appeal of the lower court ruling pending FCC resolution of the issue. The agency agreed: "The proper course is for this Court to grant Bank’s motion for a stay and, consistent with the doctrine of primary jurisdiction, hold this case in abeyance pending the Commission’s disposition of the petition. The term 'residential telephone line' is a fundamental element of the restrictions on artificial or prerecorded voice calls contained in the TCPA, a statute that the Commission implements and administers. It is accordingly appropriate for this Court to stay its hand to give the Commission an opportunity to address the meaning and scope of the term (as Bank has now requested) in the first instance."

CenturyLink said it was chosen as an authorized network services provider by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency under its $4.3 billion Global Network Services (GNS) contract. Authorized providers can bid on orders for network transport services that support DOD operations, mostly outside the continental U.S., said a release Thursday from CenturyLink, which noted it could bid on a suite of services that includes "content delivery networks, virtual private networks, fiber-optic broadband, Wi-Fi, satellite, wave length, network security, colocation, cloud connectivity and software-defined networking services." GNS is a multiple-award contact with a five-year base period (and five one-year extensions possible) aimed at shifting the use of point-to-point circuits to "newer technical approaches" to consolidate DOD's "network for global voice, video, imagery and data transmissions" on a 100 Gbps backbone by 2020, it said.

The FCC removed U.S. TelePacific's planned buy of DSCI from streamlined review, the Wireline Bureau said in a public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest. DOJ, backed by the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, asked the commission March 29 to defer action on the transaction while the departments do their review of national security, law enforcement and public safety issues, the PN said. Final FCC action should be expected after the departments provide notification that they have completed their evaluation, the bureau said, but not later than 180 days from a March 15 public notice opening the proceeding in docket 16-67 (see 1603150039).

The FCC teed up a Somos petition seeking a temporary waiver of a "first-come, first-served" rule for allocating toll-free numbers, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Wednesday in docket 95-155. The bureau sought initial comments by April 21 and replies by April 28. Somos, which used to be called 800/SMS, requested the waiver "to establish a fair system of allocating a large quantity of 800 numbers currently controlled by the Somos Help Desk," the PN said. "Somos seeks to conduct a limited release of the 800 numbers, restricting RespOrgs to 100 of these toll free numbers per day, for a period of five days. According to Somos, prior experience suggests that in the absence of an allocation system, a small number of entities will be able to reserve the majority of these numbers," it said.

Three telcos urged the FCC to provide interim USF support for voice service in extremely rural, high-cost areas not yet covered by Connect America Fund Phase II support. CenturyLink, FairPoint and Frontier Communications said they understand the commission is considering including the areas in a planned reverse auction of CAF II broadband/voice subsidy support, but for now a number of price-cap telcos are responsible for maintaining voice service without support. "Our specific request is that the Commission continue to fund voice services in the highest cost, remote areas where carriers have accepted CAF II support but where there are remaining rural customers that are not covered by CAF II support," they said in a letter to all five commissioners Tuesday in docket 10-90. "Voice access is critical to our customers in these areas for personal, professional and public safety reasons. Therefore, voice service funding should be maintained while these areas await the Commission’s actions to implement a workable broadband deployment solution."

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.