CenturyLink became the latest ILEC entity to attack CLEC special access arguments about FCC discretion to regulate incumbent telco business market services. In a filing posted Monday in docket 05-25, CenturyLink said Birch Communications, BT Americas and Level 3 effectively had asserted the FCC has "virtually limitless authority to impose every conceivable type of wholesale regulation of ILEC business data services," including by reversing enterprise broadband forbearance relief, scrapping DS1 and DS3 pricing flexibility, reimposing price-cap regulations and reducing price-cap rates. The CLECs believe the FCC can "adopt whatever special access regulation it wants -- regardless of the evidence, or lack thereof -- as long as it mouths the necessary findings, based on its status as an expert agency," said CenturyLink. "In other words, the Joint CLECs suggest, the results of the special access data collection are secondary: the Commission can and should decide now (before even receiving public comment on the special access data) to impose utility-style regulation on ILEC special access and enterprise broadband services, knowing that it can later construct the justifications necessary to have that decision upheld by a reviewing court. The Commission should reject the Joint CLECs’ cynical arguments, which are both wrong and flatly inconsistent with the Commission’s stated intention of employing a data-driven review of its special access regulations." The CLEC proposals would lead to the FCC being reversed in court and "years of investment-choking regulatory uncertainty," CenturyLink said. USTelecom and AT&T previously made similar filings (see 1509250043 and 1509290036).

The FCC should reform USF subsidy mechanisms for rate-of-return telcos this year, two rural LEC representatives and their consultants said in a filing in docket 10-90 Thursday by Cheryl Parrino of Parrino Strategic Consulting Group. Officials of Great Plains Communications and Consolidated Cos., Parrino and former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth met with Wireline Bureau officials and commissioner aides Tuesday and Wednesday, Parrino wrote. "We also informed the offices that a model option is very critical for many rural companies like Great Plains and Consolidated and that without that option many rural customers will not receive the benefits of broadband deployment," Parrino said. "We indicated that the work on the model is well fleshed out and that the industry has made good progress on legacy reform." Rural telco groups proposed a framework for revising FCC (legacy) rate-of-return high-cost USF mechanisms to facilitate broadband support while also giving carriers the option of receiving support based on a revised broadband cost model (see 1506030052 and 1506040028). Rural telco representatives have continued to discuss specific reform ideas with the agency. Asked if the FCC would seek public comment on any proposed new rules, Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero said Wednesday at an FCBA event that the agency would look to whether the proposals "are within the four corners" of a 2014 NPRM to make a determination.

The FCC dismissed the pole attachment complaint of Cox Communications Hampton Roads against Dominion Virginia Power. In an order Thursday, the Enforcement Bureau granted the dismissal motion of the companies after they settled their dispute (see 1509280043).

Broadband privacy, a USTelecom forbearance petition and transaction reviews were also on the FCC Wireline Bureau's agenda outlined Wednesday by bureau chief Matt DelNero at an FCBA event (see 1509300068). He said broadband privacy, which flows from the FCC's decision to reclassify broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, is in the "pre-NPRM stage" and involves various bureaus, but his bureau is taking the organizational lead. He noted the USTelecom petition asking the FCC to forbear from applying various regulations to ILECs is due for a commission decision by Jan. 4 (see 1509250046 and 1509160028). DelNero said the bureau was also devoting "a lot of resources" to reviewing pending transactions, including Charter Communications' proposed buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable.

The FCC is seeking input on a Hawaiian Telecom cost-assignment compliance plan, the Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday in docket 12-61, with initial comments due Oct. 30, replies Nov. 16. The bureau noted the compliance plan must be approved by the commission under its May 17, 2013, decision giving price-cap telcos conditional forbearance relief from rules that required them to assign telecom network costs and service revenue to specific categories.

The FCC is "poised to make some real lasting reforms" on inmate calling services, said Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero, speaking at an FCBA event Wednesday shortly before the agency announced it circulated a draft order and Further NPRM in that proceeding (see 1509300067). He credited Commissioner Mignon Clyburn with spearheading the effort and said the bureau was excited by the opportunity to make a “real difference” in the lives of inmates and their relatives. DelNero said a special access rulemaking is another top priority for the bureau and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. He said the commission’s previous tests for providing telcos pricing flexibility “simply weren’t doing the job" and staff was eagerly awaiting feedback from stakeholders on industry data the commission has collected to assist in its review. DelNero also said the bureau was "looking forward to digging in" on comments being filed in its Lifeline USF rulemaking (replies were due Wednesday) and then making recommendations to commissioners for changes to cover broadband and promote administrative efficiency. He noted the FCC had circulated a draft order to create a framework for a high-cost USF reverse auction in some price-cap territories that would "unleash the power of market competition." The draft would build on the lessons the agency has learned in overseeing rural broadband experiments, DelNero said, but he wouldn't say what those lessons were. He also said the bureau was focused on overhauling high-cost USF for rate-of-return carriers and said Wheeler's recent NTCA speech provided a good outline of the commission's direction (see 1509210029). He noted the FCC was following up its recent IP/tech transition order with a Further NPRM that aims to establish standardized discontinuance "metrics" that would provide greater predictability to stakeholders. He said the FCC anticipated a flurry of telco discontinuance applications affecting large numbers of consumers as part of the transition from copper-based networks and services to fiber networks and IP-based services. He also noted bureau efforts to assess the pace of broadband deployment under a Section 706 mandate, implement recent changes to the USF E-rate program, and oversee the local number portability administration shift from Neustar to Telcordia.

The FCC is ready to authorize more than $2.8 million for rural broadband experiments by Northeast Rural Services and BARC Electric Cooperative, a Wireline Bureau public notice said Tuesday in docket 14-259. NRS would receive almost $2.6 million for two experiments in Oklahoma covering 228 census blocks, and BARC Electric would receive about $239,918 for one experiment in Virginia covering 64 census blocks. To be authorized, the entities must submit "at least one acceptable irrevocable stand-by letter of credit and Bankruptcy Code opinion letter from their legal counsel" by Oct. 14, the bureau said. BARC Electric subsidiary BARConnects was recently designated as an eligible telecom carrier able to receive funding support (see 1509280042).

The FCC Wireline Bureau granted Sprint's application to discontinue certain domestic wireline long-distance services. In an order issued Tuesday, the bureau said there were 11 objections filed to Sprint's proposed discontinuance of service, including from the Oglala Sioux Tribe Utility Commission (see 1509140033), and Sprint responded to the OSTUC and provided updates on its efforts to help individual customers find alternative services (see 1509210020). "The record supports granting Sprint’s request to discontinue the Affected Services," the order said, noting the limited number of customer concerns "have been sufficiently addressed through Sprint’s direct efforts to assist these customers" locate service alternatives. "We find that the issues raised by the OSTUC do not bear directly on the criteria by which we typically evaluate discontinuance applications," the bureau said. "Nothing in the OSTUC’s comments indicates that the notice required under our rules was not provided, nor is there any indication that customers will be left without alternative service on the [Pine Ridge Indian Reservation]."

AT&T dismissed CLEC claims that the FCC has wide leeway to regulate special-access rates of both traditional TDM business services and newer IP-based services, regardless of what industry data collected by the agency show. CLEC arguments are “baseless,” both procedurally and substantively, AT&T said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 05-25, responding to a recent filing from Birch Communications, BT Americas and Level 3 (see 1509100050). Any reversal of eight-year-old ILEC forbearance relief on IP-based services would require an NPRM proposing such reregulation, and that hasn’t occurred, AT&T said: “The Commission has not sought comment on ‘unforbearance,’ much less set forth for comment a new regulatory regime for packet-based Ethernet services.” CLEC proposals for “short-cut benchmarks” wouldn’t suffice, because forbearance “is not an ‘on/off’ switch that may be flipped willy-nilly,” AT&T said, citing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler as conceding as much in March Senate testimony when he said “realistically there’s a lot that you have to go through” to undo a forbearance decision (see webcast at 2:00:27-2:02:25). AT&T further said the FCC has no substantive basis to reimpose rate regulation on ILEC special-access services in a business market that has grown even more competitive in recent years. No ethernet provider has a port share that exceeds one-fifth of the market, and eight have port shares over 5 percent, five of which are non-ILECs, the incumbent telco said. “The enormous success in the U.S. of IP-based services -- with providers investing billions of dollars deploying fiber throughout the U.S. -- is due in large part to the historically light regulatory touch government agencies have exerted,” AT&T said. "To reverse those policies now would be directly contrary to the Commission’s broadband goals.” USTelecom also disputed the CLEC arguments recently (see 1509250043). AT&T posted a blog Tuesday urging the FCC to adhere to Wheeler's mantra of "competition, competition, competition" and his belief that regulation can be low when competition is high. It noted specific competitive moves by Comcast and other cable companies to serve the business services market, including for large enterprise customers.

Cox Communications Hampton Roads and Dominion Virginia Power asked the FCC to dismiss Cox's pole-attachment complaint against Dominion. In a joint dismissal motion posted Monday in proceeding No. 15-22, Cox and Dominion said they resolved their dispute through a "confidential mediation settlement" after participating "in mediation with FCC staff."