Barring inmate calling service commission payments to correctional facilities, as the FCC is considering in a rulemaking (see 1410230026), would hurt programs that lower recidivism, Kansas Corrections Secretary Ray Roberts wrote in a letter to the agency posted in docket 12-375 on Wednesday. The payments are used to finance “an array of programs,” including sex offender treatment, vocational education, substance abuse treatment and transitional housing, Roberts wrote. The state has a three-year recidivism rate, half the national average, and losing the programs “would result in 302 more admissions to Kansas prisons per year at a cost of over $3.2 million annually,” Roberts wrote. “For a small state whose prison system is already over capacity, 302 more admissions means over 300 more victims, capacity expansion, and increased cost to taxpayers in the form of increased operational costs,” Roberts wrote. Arizona’s Department of Corrections is statutorily required to use ICS proceeds and commissions to pay for inmate education, work programs and substance abuse treatment, state corrections director Charles Ryan wrote the agency in a letter posted Wednesday. The department “remains concerned … about the FCC’s use of its regulatory powers to establish a national public policy, one-size-fits-all approach, to ICS without fully considering the impact on correctional operations,” the letter said. Columbia Legal Services, a Washington state nonprofit that provides legal assistance to inmates, wrote that collect calls to its hotline cost the organization an average of $410 per month, at an average rate of $1.07 per minute. “Capping the cost-per-minute of intrastate calls, prohibiting site commissions, and reducing ancillary fees will go a long way to ensuring that all people, including those in our countries' [sic] jails and prisons, are able to access timely legal assistance to protect and ensure their rights,” wrote Madeline Neighly, an attorney in the organization’s Institutions Project.

The FCC Wireline Bureau Tuesday provided more time for parties to file oppositions to USTelecom’s petition for reconsideration of the FCC’s Nov. 24 declaratory ruling on what constitutes a "discontinuance, reduction, or impairment of a service” for purposes of interpreting Section 214 of the Communications Act. USTelecom argued the ruling imposed “new substantive requirements, or rules, on providers without any notice or opportunity for comment.” Public Knowledge asked for additional time, in a filing also posted by the FCC Tuesday in docket 14-174. Oppositions were due Jan. 2 and the new due date is Jan. 23. Replies are due Jan. 30. The bureau said there has been some confusion about the opposition deadline and that major holidays fall during the response period. “We find that granting the extension requested by Public Knowledge is warranted by the unusual circumstances here,” the bureau said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau raised the IP Relay compensation rate to $1.37 per minute starting Nov. 15 for the remainder of the 2014-15 fund year, which ends June 30. Purple exited the market Nov. 14 and Sprint became the sole provider offering the service. The bureau provided a special rate of $1.67 per minute, applicable to any monthly minutes in excess of 300,000, through May 15. The bureau said Monday it took the step at the request of Sprint to preserve the service, which is critical to the deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or people with speech disabilities. “Our purpose is to ensure that the remaining provider is reasonably compensated for providing service, including service to users who migrate from the departing provider, and that IP Relay service will continue to be provided without interruption to eligible consumers, especially those who rely on IP Relay as their sole or primary source of functionally equivalent telephone service,” the bureau said. The rate had been $1.0309 per minute. Sprint had warned that the current compensation rate doesn't reflect its allowable costs and its costs will increase due to Purple’s exit, the bureau said. “In addition, Sprint asserts that even before Purple’s announced departure, it had been planning to terminate its IP Relay service and had begun winding down its business. Sprint adds, however, that a sufficient upward adjustment of the rate would enable it to stay in the business, and thereby enable it to serve both its current customers and any new users migrating from Purple.”

USTelecom asked the FCC to reconsider a Nov. 25 declaratory ruling changing the “long-standing” definition of what constitutes a “discontinuance, reduction, or impairment of service” under Communications Act Section 214. “The new definition is impermissibly vague and, instead of terminating a controversy or removing uncertainty, it creates unnecessary confusion,” USTelecom said in a petition for reconsideration filed Tuesday. The new standard says a service may no longer be defined by its provider, but should be defined under an “amorphous” functional test “that takes into account the totality of the circumstances from the perspective of the relevant community or part of a community,” USTelecom said. “Under this new view, providers are unable to gauge what services or aspects of their products or services might require a section 214 filing to discontinue or grandfather.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau released its annual telecom reporting worksheet, FCC Form 499-A, and accompanying instructions, to be used next year to report 2014 revenue, as well as its quarterly telecom reporting worksheet, Form 499-Q, and instructions. “Due to the de minimis nature of the revisions” to the forms and instructions, the bureau said Tuesday in a notice it did not issue a public notice seeking comment on any changes to the documents.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association filed a prohibited written presentation Dec. 9 on E-rate modernization and the Connect America Fund during the sunshine period for the FCC Dec. 11 open meeting, the Office of General Counsel said in a public notice Monday. The text of the group’s filing wasn't posted by the FCC. Commission rules prohibit “making of any presentation, whether ex parte or not, to decision-making personnel concerning any matter listed on the Commission's Sunshine Agenda from the day after the Sunshine Agenda is released until the Commission releases the text of a decision or order relating to that matter or removes the item from the sunshine agenda,” the PN said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau said it has an additional $651,832 in Connect America Fund money for category one funding and $64,600 in category two funding available for next-in-line bidders seeking rural broadband experiments support. Six entities that the Wireline Bureau selected earlier this month to receive CAF funding have decided to withdraw from the funding process, the bureau said Tuesday. The Wireline Bureau also sought comment on petitions filed by 15 provisionally selected bidders who are seeking a waiver from providing a required audited financial statement. Interested parties should file comments by Jan. 6, with replies due Jan. 13, the FCC said.

Windstream Communications selected software-defined network solutions provider Cyan to upgrade its regional and metro networks from 10 Gbps to 100 Gbps using Cyan’s Z-Series pack-optical hardware, Cyan said Monday. The company said it has begun initial deployments of new infrastructure in major Windstream markets. The upgrades will allow Windstream to offer advanced IP services to small and medium-sized businesses and higher-speed broadband to residential subscribers, Cyan said. Financial terms weren't revealed.

Any FCC order requiring calls originating or terminating over VoIP to be subject to intercarrier compensation requirements shouldn't be applied retroactively, AT&T said in comments posted Thursday in docket 10-90. Responding to Level 3’s comments saying requirements should be retroactive (see 1412180032), Sidley Austin’s David Lawson, representing AT&T, said “Level 3 misstates the controlling standards.” An order on VoIP calls would be “substituting a new law for an old law that was reasonably clear,” AT&T said. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that in those cases, “agencies are required to ‘deny retroactive effect,’” AT&T said. Level 3 had no immediate comment.

A defendant who the Federal Trade Commission says was involved in a landline cramming operation settled FTC charges against him, an agency news release said. Under the agreement, Nathan Sann will be banned from placing charges of any kind on customers’ phone bills, and will be prohibited from billing consumers without their authorization, the Wednesday release said. The FTC had charged in a complaint that American eVoice, eight other companies, Sann and three other people were placing charges ranging from $9.95 to $24.95 per month on consumers’ landline phone bills for voicemail services they never signed up for and never even knew they had, the release said (see 1301230059). The case against the other entities and individuals allegedly involved in the scheme is ongoing, the FTC said.