State consumer advocates agreed with concerns by state regulatory commissioners about FCC-proposed changes to the Lifeline program. In a letter last week, NARUC blasted Lifeline proposals to simplify provider participation and bypass state reviews in the FCC's planned expansion of the low-income support program to broadband (see 1603180052). In an ex parte letter posted Friday in docket 11-42, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates said it “agrees that cutting states out of the eligible telecommunications carrier designation and review process will increase fraud and abuse -- especially by carriers -- in the Lifeline program as it transitions to supporting broadband services.” States should maintain a strong role in the ETC process, said NASUCA. “These state ‘cops’ should not be taken off the beat.”

The Office of Management and Budget approved three years of FCC information collection on "network change disclosure rules pertaining to copper retirement notices" flowing from an IP/tech transition order (docket 13-5), said a summary of a commission rule published in the Federal Register Thursday, the effective date of the rule. The order, adopted in August, requires ILECs to notify customers and interconnecting carriers and ISPs about planned retirement of copper lines -- including “de facto retirement” -- and to seek permission when they plan changes that discontinue traditional services to retail end users, including of CLECs (see 1508100019).

The FCC Wireline Bureau adopted a modified protective order "governing the filing of and access to FCC Form 481 financial information filed by privately held rate-of-return carriers pursuant to section 54.313(f)(2) of the Commission’s rules." The order issued Tuesday in docket 10-90 streamlines and updates filing procedures for privately held rate-of-return eligible telecom carrier (ETC) reporting duties. "Privately held rate-of-return ETCs who wish to file confidentially any portion of FCC Form 481 should file one copy of the confidential (unredacted) version of the form with the Secretary’s Office and file a redacted version of the form, including any and all attachments, through the Commission’s electronic comment filing system (ECFS). Filers are no longer required to, and should not, submit two courtesy copies of the confidential (unredacted) version of the form with the Bureau," the order said. "This protective order substantially reduces the number of dockets into which submitting parties must file information."

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.