Despite FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s pledge that the draft net neutrality order wouldn't regulate rates, it preserves the agency’s ability to do that by not forbearing from Communications Act Section 201, NCTA President Michael Powell wrote in a blog post Wednesday. “The Commission can convert its promises into reality quite simply by forbearing at least in part from section 201(b)’s authority to regulate charges,” Powell wrote. “If the FCC means what it says and is not intent on regulating rates … they need to take the bullets out of the proverbial gun.” The agency has said mobile has been under Title II and hasn't been subject to rate regulation. While Wheeler is pledging not to require carriers to file proposed rates with the commission for approval, “anyone will be permitted to file complaints about rates and the Commission will decide if those rates are ‘reasonable’ under their section 201 authority,” Powell wrote. “If they believe they are not [reasonable], then they will declare the rate ‘illegal.’ That is regulating rates no matter how you cut it and it is insincere to suggest otherwise.” Forty-three municipal broadband providers meanwhile urged the FCC in a joint letter posted in docket 14-28 Wednesday not to reclassify broadband. As smaller providers, they “do not have an incentive to harm the openness of the Internet, the ISPs said. Customers would switch to competitors if they were to engage in any business practices that interfere with their Internet experience, the filing said. None of the providers has “the market power to compel payments for unblocking, non-discriminatory treatment or paid prioritization services” because they “serve too few Internet subscribers to matter to edge providers such as Netflix, Amazon or Hulu,” the filing said.

Consumers have access “to a range of services designed to aid them in managing annoyances and harms” from unwanted phone calls, USTelecom said at the end of the FCC reply period on a petition by the National Association of Attorneys General seeking guidance on robocalls. NAAG had asked the agency for a formal opinion on whether legal or regulatory prohibitions prevent phone carriers from implementing call-blocking technology. Technologies that use “black lists” may not be able to distinguish between legal and illegal calls, USTelecom said in its reply posted Monday in docket 07-135. Consumer outreach and education can play an important role in preventing unwanted calls, the association said. It said the industry is doing “important work” to deal with robocalls, caller ID spoofing and secure phone number authentication, and the commission “should support these various efforts including by identifying areas where additional research and developments may need to be emphasized.”

Telcordia and parent Ericsson would be willing to discuss steps to deal with future issues that could compromise neutrality requirements for the local number portability, Telcordia counsel John Nakahata told FCC officials, including Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach and an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, said an ex parte filing posted Monday. Rival Neustar has raised questions about Ericsson’s ability to provide LNPA services neutrally given Ericsson’s business relationships (see 1408250042). Telcordia and Ericsson meet neutrality requirements but would be willing to consider such steps as instituting a voting trust for a portion of Ericsson’s interest in Telcordia, with any trustees approved by the FCC, Nakahata said.

Several rules from which the FCC already has granted forbearance for common carriers, plus several references to telegraph services, would be removed from the Code of Federal Regulations, under an NPRM issued by the agency Friday. The commission in 2013 approved two orders granting forbearance from 126 legacy wireline regulations, many of them involving recordkeeping, the NPRM said. The agency’s process reform report also recommended removing regulations made unnecessary by technological or market changes, the NPRM said. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 45 days after publication.

The FCC “should hold fast” to protecting taxpayers from the misuse of rural broadband experiment funds by denying applications to ease the program’s letter of credit requirement (see 1501070042), filed by several applicants tentatively approved for funding, Free State Foundation’s Senior Fellow Seth Cooper wrote in a blog post Monday. The agency “has a paramount duty to protect consumers,” and “must not squander Universal Service Fund ‘surcharges’ imposed on consumers’ telephone bills,” Cooper wrote. “Like tax dollars, consumer surcharges must be used efficiently and not put at unnecessary risk.”

The proposed requirement in the IP Transition rulemaking (see 1411210037) that providers supply at least eight hours of backup phone power in the case of power outages isn't enough, said the National Association of State 911 Administrators in comments posted Friday in docket 05-25. The requirement should be at least 24 hours, because “consumers in the midst of a power outage due to a natural disaster or other emergency will likely have urgent communication needs that may take time to accomplish,” NASNA said. When legacy copper landlines are being retired, consumers repeatedly should be made aware of the change before the switch, the group said. To get agency authorization to retire a service, providers should be required to show that a substitute service is available to customers that offers 911 capabilities consistent with the commission’s standards, NASNA said. It said public safety answering points should be given adequate notice of the retirement. If not, legacy PSAPs may be forced “to replace, upgrade or reconfigure their equipment with very little notice and before they are able or ready to do so,” the group said.

President Barack Obama’s support for federal pre-emption of states’ municipal broadband restrictions, if enacted at the FCC Feb. 26, “would put [U.S.] broadband policy somewhere to the left of Europe,” said Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology Director Fred Campbell in a blog post Monday. The EU ruled last year that government-owned broadband networks harm competition when deployed alongside private networks, Campbell said. The EU subsequently issued a law that requires that broadband network investments “shall be undertaken primarily by the private sector, supported by a competitive and investment-friendly regulatory framework.” Municipal broadband networks like the one in Cedar Falls, Iowa, that Obama praised in January “would be presumptively illegal under EU law -- just as it would be under many of the state laws the President wants to overrule,” Campbell said.

Frontier Communications agreed to buy Verizon's residential, commercial and wholesale wireline operations in California, Florida and Texas for $10.54 billion, Frontier said Thursday. Included in the deal, which doubles Frontier's size, are 3.7 million voice connections, 2.2 million broadband connections and 1.2 million FiOS video connections, a news release said. Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2016. "These properties are a great fit for Frontier and will strengthen our presence in competitive suburban markets and accelerate our recent market share gains,” said Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter. The deal further strengthens Verizon’s focus on its core markets, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said, promising “a smooth transition” for customers and employees. Verizon also said it will lease the rights to over 11,300 of its wireless towers to American Tower Corp., which will also purchase about 165 Verizon towers for $5 billion. The telco also announced $5 billion accelerated share-repurchase program.

Those opposing USTelecom’s petition for the FCC to reconsider a declaratory ruling strengthening requirements for retiring a service are wrong in saying the change doesn't create substantive requirements for providers, the association said. Under the ruling, providers have to file for Communications Act Section 214 approval from the agency if a community believes services are being changed, not only if a listed service on a tariff is being affected (see 1501260049). That has created “impossibly vague new substantive requirements” that are “a significant burden on providers,” USTelecom said. It said in a filing posted Monday in docket 13-5 that providers “may now have to file for section 214 authority in every instance where they seek to upgrade legacy facilities, or face unpredictable and unknown consequences.”

CenturyLink requested a waiver from filing some special access data before the FCC Jan. 29 deadline. In a petition posted Friday in docket 05-25, the company asked to submit its data container and its response to Question II.A.5 of the data collection Feb. 17. The other information will be submitted by the January deadline, the carrier said. “While CenturyLink is in a position to file the entirety of its submission by the deadline, the additional time requested will enable the company to address a set of recently-discovered errors and omissions in approximately 11 million records that would significantly undermine the accuracy and usability of its submission,” CenturyLink said.