Dealing with interconnection in a net neutrality order is unnecessary, Verizon Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Maggie McCready and other company officials told FCC Associate General Counsel Stephanie Weiner, Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Matthew DelNero and Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan Jan. 15, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Wednesday. Arguments by Netflix “and its allies” that broadband providers have incentives to thwart the open Internet at interconnection points are “misplaced,” Verizon officials said. “Internet interconnection has always been handled through an unregulated system of voluntary commercial agreements," said the ISP. "This flexible approach has been a resounding success that has encouraged investment and provided flexibility for innovative interconnection arrangements that accommodate new business models, new types of Internet traffic and changes in end users’ preferences.” Paid direct interconnection agreements are a “longstanding way to ensure a high quality connection and adequate capacity, particularly where traffic flows are not balanced,” the company said. “These arrangements ensure great service for mutual customers, and help to cover a portion of the costs associated with the content provider’s traffic.” Verizon also said it's not using paid prioritization, but if the commission were to adopt rules prohibiting it, the outlawed practice should be defined as broadband providers charging a fee to deliver bits faster than the bits of others over the last mile. Under that definition, the rules would not apply to arrangements other than in the last mile. Any rules on throttling should be focused on intentionally slowing particular traffic based on “the traffic’s source, destination, or content,” Verizon said, not impacting the option consumers have to slow all Internet traffic after reaching a certain threshold of data usage to avoid overage charges. The company reiterated its opposition to a Communications Act Title II approach and said forbearing from parts of the section is no “no panacea to address the many harms that would result from reclassification.” Opposition to forbearing from certain sections of Title II shows that the end game” of reclassification proponents “is not rules to ensure an open Internet, but regulation for regulation’s sake,” Verizon said. Also representing the company at the meeting were William Johnson, associate general counsel, Roy Litland, assistant general counsel-legal regulatory affairs, and David Young, vice president-public policy. The American Cable Association in a letter to the commission posted in the same docket also urged the commission, if it reclassifies broadband providers including cable operators as telecom providers, to “take immediate action” to eliminate or reduce higher pole attachment rates telecom providers can be charged compared to cable operators. While the commission reduced the disparity between attachments rates paid by telecom carriers and cable operators in 2011, “there can still be a considerable disparity when a pole owner uses the actual average number of attachers on its poles in the formula, rather than presumptions provided in the Commission’s rules,” ACA said. The association reiterated its stance that small ISPs should be excluded from reclassification, or if they are reclassified, they should be foreborn from Title II’s requirements (see 1501130049).

Martha Wright “showed the power and ability of one person to make a difference,” FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in a statement after Wright’s death Sunday. A 2012 petition to reform high inmate calling rates by Wright, a Washington, D.C., woman whose grandson was imprisoned (see 1209260042), set into motion interim interstate price caps approved by the commission last year (see 1308120049). She died as the commission is considering taking further steps in a rulemaking, including making the interstate caps permanent and adopting intrastate caps (see 1410170047). Wright “had the courage to stand up and petition the FCC to change an untenable and unreasonable rate structure for inmate calling services,” said Clyburn, who pledged to “continue the fight in her honor so that all grandmothers, family members and friends can afford to stay connected with loved ones behind prison walls.”

The father of the Texas woman who died after her young daughter was unable to reach 911 will speak at a Friday event in Marshall, Texas, organized by FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai (see 1501120026) on improvements being made to reaching emergency personnel, Pai’s office said in a Tuesday news release. Pai in January sent letters to the CEOs of major hotel chains, after a December 2013 incident in which the child tried to dial 911 when her mother, Kari Dunn, was being strangled by her estranged husband (see 1401210049). The child had not first dialed 9 for an outside line, so the call did not go through, Pai said. In addition to Dunn’s father, Hank Hunt, Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, and Marshall Police Chief Jesus Campa will speak at the event.

The FCC should refrain from imposing net neutrality rules on wholesale interconnection, Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) President Dean Garfield and ITI Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Vince Jesaitis told Philip Verveer, senior counsel to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and aide Daniel Alvarez Jan. 14, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Tuesday. Including interconnection in the net neutrality order expected in February is still up in the air (see 1501150054). The commission should not act until it develops “a more robust record” on the need for regulatory intervention, defines the problem that needs to be solved, and finds that regulation would not harm the wholesale broadband market or residential consumers’ Internet experience, ITI said. “At a minimum the technical aspects and business implications of peering and interconnection need to be understood fully before deciding on the best path forward,” said ITI, which said regulatory intervention “based on the limited record” could “do more harm than good.” Members include Akamai, AOL, Dell, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, says the ITI website. Meanwhile, in its separate comments in the docket, Verizon called the New Network Institute’s Jan. 13 petition for the commission to investigate the company “frivolous,” in a letter to the agency, posted Tuesday. NNI accused Verizon of “massive deception,” Verizon said, because the telco had relied on Title II in cable franchise applications as the source of its authority to deploy fiber, while opposing a Title II net neutrality approach for broadband. “But there is no ‘gotcha’ here,” Verizon said. Verizon offers plain old telephone service (POTS) over its fiber network, which is subject to Title II. It also offers other services over the same network, like FiOS TV and FiOS Internet, which haven’t been subject to Title II, Verizon said. “Offering POTS over the network -- and relying on our traditional telephone franchise for purposes of deploying networks that are still used to offer traditional telephone services -- is irrelevant to the question of the regulatory classification for broadband Internet access services or what the best regulatory framework is to encourage continued investment in broadband Internet access.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal to raise the benchmark for judging the availability of broadband to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream is facing opposition from Verizon. The proposal will be added to the commission’s Jan. 29 meeting for a vote, an agency official told us Friday. Increasing the standard in determining the adequacy of broadband deployment, from 4/1 to 25/3, would be a “large” shift, Maggie McCready, Verizon vice president-federal regulatory affairs, and William Johnson, associate general counsel, told Wheeler aide Renee Gregory and an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in separate meetings Tuesday, said an ex parte filing. A draft FCC report on the progress of broadband deployment to be voted on at the meeting concludes that deployment, based on the higher standard, isn't occurring in a “just and reasonable fashion" (see 1501070046). Verizon officials disagreed. They said an assessment shouldn't discount the growth in mobile Internet access, “an important source of broadband connectivity that is being widely embraced by consumers, and, particularly with the widespread availability of 4G LTE,” the commission's report should reflect deployment of these services. The draft report calls the 4-year-old 4/1 standard “dated,” and said 53 percent of rural Americans, and 17 percent nationally, lack access to broadband at 25/3 Mbps speeds. A key consideration is the growth in streaming video and audio, which now comprises 63 percent of downstream traffic, an agency fact sheet about the proposal said. The commission also will vote on issuing a notice of inquiry on how to improve broadband deployment.

If the FCC takes a Communications Act Title II net neutrality approach and opts not to forbear from Sections 201 and 202, it should, at most, rely on the sections only to provide additional authority for transparency, no-blocking, and antidiscrimination rules, CEO Michael Powell and other NCTA officials told agency General Counsel Jonathan Sallet, Philip Verveer, senior counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and other officials Monday, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-28. Applying Sections 201 and 202 beyond what’s needed to enforce net neutrality rules “would expose broadband providers to the investment-reducing and innovation-chilling risks that have sparked vehement opposition to reclassification,” NCTA said. It’s “particularly important to forbear from enforcing Section 201(b),” the filing said, because “the directive to ensure that all ‘charges’ and ‘practices’ are ‘just and reasonable’ would subject every aspect of a broadband provider’s business to regulatory second guessing and micromanagement.” President Barack Obama’s call, while endorsing reclassification, to forbear from rate regulation “cannot be accomplished without forbearing from Section 201(b) -- as that provision is the primary source of statutory authority for the FCC to engage in rate regulation,” NCTA said. The association stressed it continues to oppose reclassification, and wants forbearance from all requirements if the commission adopts the Title II approach. Forbearance also should be done concurrent with any approval of reclassification, NCTA said. Calls by some to suspend sections of Title II, while the commission decides whether to forbear from them, “would deprive industry participants of much-needed regulatory certainty,” NCTA said. Also attending the meetings were James Assey, executive vice president; Rick Chessen, senior vice president-law and regulatory policy; Steven Morris, associate general counsel; Latham Watkins’ Matthew Murchison and Matthew Brill; and members of the commission’s general counsel’s office and the Wireline and Wireless bureaus. NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield urged Sallet Monday not to forbear from Section 254 because it could block the agency’s ability to require broadband customers to begin contributing to the USF (see 1501120039), said an ex parte filing. Brendan Kasper, Vonage senior regulatory counsel, and Morgan Lewis’ Joshua Bobeck and William Wilhelm urged an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Monday not to forbear from Sections 201, 202 and 208, the company’s ex parte filing said. Vonage backed Google’s position to not forbear from Section 224, which gives broadband providers access to utility poles and other infrastructure needed for deployment (see 1412310041).

Edge companies’ stocks are “as vulnerable to being devalued by the FCC’s move to Title II” in a net neutrality order as broadband providers’ stocks, wrote Anna-Maria Kovacs, visiting senior policy scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy, in a paper released Tuesday. “As the FCC engages in its Procrustean task of trying to fit [broadband Internet access providers] into Title II, it is unlikely to be able to keep the knife away from content delivery networks (CDNs), peering and transit providers, and providers of VOIP, texting, tweeting, social media, and content,” Kovacs wrote. “These entities, by equally arbitrary means, could also be sliced and diced into something they never intended to be. All parts of the Internet ecosystem are at risk of being forced to deconstruct their service offerings. ... No one will be safe.” Kovacs urged Congress to step in.

The FCC’s requirement that formal complaints under Section 208 of the Communications Act and Section 224 pole attachment complaints be filed electronically took effect Monday, an Enforcement Bureau public notice said. The commission’s order in November implemented a 2011 order requiring the docketing and electronic filing of all new Section 208 and Section 224 complaints (see 1410220045).

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai will give a progress report Jan. 23 on his efforts to improve access to emergency personnel when dialing 911, a news release said. Pai in January sent letters to the CEOs of major hotel chains, after a December 2013 incident in which a child tried to dial 911 when her mother was being strangled by her estranged husband (see 1401210049). The child had not first dialed 9 for an outside line, so the call did not go through, Pai said at the time. Pai’s news conference will be at the Marshall (Texas) Police Department, where the child’s 911 call would have gone, Pai’s release said. It was unclear if the event will be webcast.

States “remain in the best position to oversee and investigate” intrastate inmate calling services rates and service, NARUC said in comments posted in docket 12-375 Monday. State authority “is clear,” NARUC said, and additional federal actions on ICS “are unlikely to survive judicial review and are likely to undermine existing State actions to address this issue.” NARUC supports FCC action to regulate interstate ICS calls, the group said. Fifty-one former state attorneys general urged the agency to regulate “high intrastate” ICS rates, a letter posted Friday said. They wrote that in their former positions, they “came to understand virtually all aspects of state government. Most of us were both criminal prosecutors while at the same time represented state departments of corrections. We fully understand the pressures on state budgets and how government often struggles to come up with enough funding to do even the simplest of things.” But they said they were “fully aware that 95 [percent] of the 2.2 million people held in prison and jails in the United States will one day be returned to society. We know that recidivism rates are high and that we as a society should do all that we can to lower that rate. Studies indicate that prisoners who maintain close connections with their families and children while incarcerated have lower recidivism rates.”