The FCC Wireline Bureau approved a Frontier Communications plan for complying with the agency's decision to give price-cap telcos conditional forbearance relief from cost-assignment requirements, a public notice said in docket 12-61. Frontier filed a compliance plan for three of the four cost-assignment conditions subject to the deregulation detailing how it would continue to fulfill its statutory and regulatory duties in the absence of the rules, the bureau said in a PN dated Friday and included in Tuesday's Daily Digest. It noted the plan was similar to those it had approved for AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon and Windstream. Frontier's plan didn't contain commitments regarding a fourth condition because it's not seeking to take advantage of the forbearance relief from a rule that requires independent ILECs providing in-region, long-distance services to do so through a separate affiliate. No opposition was filed to the Frontier plan (see 1506010024).

The American Cable Association called on the FCC to approve an NCTA petition to revise a pole-attachment formula despite power company opposition. "ACA is heartened that the Commission is considering granting the NCTA Petition and urges it to do so," said an ACA letter posted Friday in docket 07-245. A draft FCC order would approve the petition, agency and industry officials have told us (see 1510020043). NCTA and telecom providers say the current formula is being used by electric power companies to keep the telecom rates well above those paid by cable companies despite a 2011 FCC order to harmonize the rates at the lower cable level. There are also concerns the agency's reclassification of broadband access as a telecom service could give power companies a justification to raise cable broadband pole-attachment rates. ACA noted a group of electric utilities met recently with agency staffers to oppose the petition (see 1510080045). The utilities argued that the 2011 order had already reduced telecom pole-attachment rates by one-third "in every instance" and that the current formula doesn't discourage broadband deployment because the only group whose rates could be affected by the FCC's recent reclassification of broadband as a telecom service would be cable companies, which have already deployed their networks, according to the utilities. ACA said the 2011 order wasn't intended simply to lower the telecom rates, but to bring them into parity with the lower cable rates, which the group said hasn't always happened and warrants further FCC action. ACA also said cable companies continue to deploy transmission lines, particularly as they enter new areas and install more fiber "to meet exploding broadband demand." ACA disputed power company arguments that FCC action would render statutory cost allocators "meaningless," and it said the commission should use its discretion to interpret the Communications Act to spur rapid broadband deployment.

The Communications Workers of America continues to belittle Verizon's expenditures of "more than $200 million" on its copper network since 2008 despite a Verizon clarification. After CWA criticized the amount as "paltry" (see 1508040061) and asked state regulators to investigate (see 1509020035), Verizon responded in a filing that said the figure didn't cover all of its copper network expenditures, just "one category of capital investments, dedicated to copper infrastructure improvement and focused on proactive rehabilitation of copper facilities and related network support elements -- i.e., cable, air pressure, batteries, etc." CWA was not impressed. "Verizon's attempt at clarification remains vague, inconsistent, and inadequate," CWA said in a filing posted Friday in FCC docket 13-5. "Even taking Verizon's statement at face value, $200 million is a paltry amount to spend on proactive rehabilitation of copper facilities over a seven-year period on a network that covers the vast majority of the population in eight states -- New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, plus Washington, D.C., and parts of California, Texas, and Florida. (Prior to 2010, the Verizon footprint included an additional 4.8 millions lines in 14 additional states.)" CWA also attached a letter from 14 mayors to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam that expressed concern the company is "abandoning the copper network" and delivering poor service without making good on FiOS fiber deployment commitments -- a letter Verizon had called "nonsense" (see 1510050047). A Verizon spokesman Tuesday referred us to the company's previous filing and said, "Verizon has made clear that the figure the CWA put forward neither represents all of the capital Verizon is investing in the copper network, nor the significant expenses incurred, including maintenance and repair costs.”

Competify began an ad campaign in Washington to encourage public support for FCC actions to "cure" the "chronic disease" of higher broadband rates caused by "gatekeeper control" of key lines, the coalition said Friday. The group said it placed ads at Ronald Reagan National Airport, in downtown bus stops, and on several tour buses. Sprint, CLECs and other Competify members Thursday urged the FCC to constrain "anti-competitive" Bell special-access rates and practices, including "lock-up" agreements (see 1510080051). Competify says the Bells overcharge rivals and business customers for wholesale and retail access to dedicated circuits that are a broadband network component. The Bells dispute the group's arguments and say new special-access regulation would be legally unsound and bad policy that discourages fiber deployment.

The FCC Wireline Bureau further revised its broadband cost model for rural telcos that could choose to rely on model-based USF support under possible revamping of rate-of-return carrier subsidy mechanisms (see 1510050062). The latest Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM v2.0) incorporates various changes, including to rural carrier "study area" (service territory) boundary lines and node locations, based on updated data collection, said a public notice released Thursday. The bureau said because of the boundary line changes, "it will be difficult to draw meaningful comparisons" between results from ACAM v2.0 and prior versions, the most recent of which was released on Aug. 31 (see 1508310060). The model-based approach is one part of an overhaul envisioned by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who recently said the reform effort was close to bearing fruit but could also still fall apart (see 1509210029).

The FCC should take "immediate action" on a draft item on "functional equivalency and rate stabilization for video relay services (VRS)," said a filing posted Thursday by Convo in docket 03-123. Convo said rate reductions have caused a financial struggle the company can't sustain much longer without a reprieve. Convo noted that some consumer groups have followed VRS providers in filing for a waiver of a requirement that the last four digits of VRS registrants' Social Security numbers be collected.

Securus said the FCC's draft inmate calling service order could put it out business (see 1509300067). In a meeting with agency officials, "Securus explained that, if adopted, the rates and rules in [an FCC] Fact Sheet could be 'a business ending event' for the company," said a filing posted Thursday in docket 12-375. "Under the rate caps listed in the Fact Sheet, there being no rules in the draft order that address site commissions, Securus may be forced to continue paying site commissions on all existing contracts, even though the draft rate caps are significantly below Securus’s cost to provide service. Securus currently pays approximately $140 million of site commissions on local and intrastate ICS." Pay-Tel Communications also made filings expressing concerns about the FCC's proposed treatment of site commissions, which ICS providers often pay to correctional authorities to win contracts. The commission plans to vote on the draft order and a further NPRM at its Oct. 22 meeting.

The FCC should deny a petition to reduce telecom pole attachment rates that was filed by NCTA, Comptel and TW Telecom in docket No. 09-51, said Ameren, AEP, Duke Energy and Tampa Electric in an ex parte filed Wednesday. A 2011 commission order has already reduced telecom pole attachment rates by one-third, they said. The rate formula the companies use now doesn't discourage broadband deployment because the FCC's recent reclassification of broadband as a telecom service would change prices only for cable companies, which have already deployed their networks, their filing said. The petition's proposed definition of cost assumes that the exact same pole decreases in cost each time an attachment is added, which is not the case, the ex parte said. A draft FCC order would approve the cable/telco petition, agency and industry sources told us recently (see 1510020043).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau dismissed another pole-attachment complaint, this one filed by Fiber Technologies Networks against three Duke Energy companies. In its dismissal order posted Monday in proceeding 14-227, the bureau noted the companies had settled their dispute.

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved a Consolidated Communications petition seeking a waiver of the "all-or-nothing rule" for price-cap telcos. In an order posted Tuesday in docket 15-74, the bureau said Consolidated, an ILEC holding company with price-cap subsidiaries, had gained control of three rate-of-return companies, and sought the waiver so it can continue to operate the companies under rate-of-return regulation. "The public interest would be served by granting the requested waiver while the Commission is considering a number of regulatory reform proposals that could impact these subsidiaries," the bureau said. The all-or-nothing rule is designed to ensure that all of a carrier’s territories and affiliates are subject to a single form of pricing regulation, either price-cap or rate-of-return regulation.