Large ISPs like Verizon and Comcast have an incentive to steer their broadband subscribers toward their own on-demand services, and away from unaffiliated providers like Netflix or YouTube, Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer told FCC acting General Counsel Jon Sallet and Senior Counselor Philip Verveer Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1jZT4Ql). Those ISPs are “refusing to upgrade their network connections with companies like Cogent,” leading to “a degraded quality of service to end-users,” Schaeffer said. Schaeffer emphasized Cogent’s belief that broadband Internet should be reclassified as a Title II telecom service, including the common carrier obligations that accompany such a classification. “If the Commission opts not to reclassify at this time,” Cogent’s filed comments “offer ways to enhance the current transparency rule and to identify and remedy network congestion,” Schaeffer said. An FCC spokesman said Tuesday the agency would not consider regulating peering or interconnection agreements as part of its upcoming net neutrality redo (CD April 2 p2).

The FCC lawfully denied USTelecom’s “across-the-board forbearance request” regarding the Uniform System of Accounts (USOA), the agency told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a brief filed Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1i2E6Cd). USTelecom unsuccessfully petitioned (CD Feb 17/12 p14) the agency to use its Communications Act Section 10 authority to forbear from applying the requirement that price cap carriers maintain the USOA as required by the law. The FCC asked the court to deny USTelecom’s petition for review, and not order the FCC to forbear. “The FCC reasonably determined that USTelecom failed to prove that its across-the-board USOA forbearance request satisfied the section 10 forbearance standard,” it wrote. “The central premise underlying the USOA forbearance request -- i.e., that price cap carriers’ rates are not based upon costs, and therefore Part 32 no longer is necessary to ensure that those carriers’ rates are just and reasonable -- is factually incorrect."

The FCC Consumer Advisory Committee recommended E-rate priorities for the agency to follow in its modernization of the program, said a notice posted by the commission Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1lABbr3). E-rate funding should be distributed in a way that promotes “fair and equitable service” and speeds to schools and libraries of different sizes, the CAC said. Funding must not be tied to specific education outcomes, it said. “Funding based on educational outcomes has the potential to further the digital divide and deepen the gap in the effectiveness of our schools.” Funding predictability should be improved, and an electronic filing system should be implemented to “streamline and centralize the application process,” CAC said.

A “clarification” order released by the FCC Wireline Bureau Monday (http://fcc.us/1i8HlJw) corrects “certain rules” relating to implementation of the intercarrier compensation (ICC) transition adopted in the 2011 USF/ICC order. Language in sections 51.907 and 51.909 was clarified to “reflect ongoing rate parity in the transition process for price cap and rate-of-return” LECs, the order said. The bureau also clarified aspects of the rules relating to transition of terminating end office access rates, and the calculation of eligible recovery for price cap and rate-of-return carriers beginning in 2014. The bureau also clarified an issue “related to duplicative recovery and the true-up of regulatory fees and revenue calculations.”

The distribution of potentially funded locations changed “substantially” between Connect America Model 3.2 and 4.0, CenturyLink told FCC officials Tuesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1pk4Bc0). “More sparsely populated locations that had been reserved for the Remote Areas Fund have replaced somewhat more populated high-cost areas in the universe of potentially-eligible CAF II locations,” the ILEC said. Its analysis “raises several questions” for agency staff to consider, it said, citing the “higher-than-expected number” of sites that cover “just a few locations,” and “more instances than expected where normal assumptions regarding the economics of sharing feeder facilities may not apply in practice because of the uneconomic nature of the areas served.” However, “it does not appear at this time that changes to the model itself are called for,” CenturyLink said.

The FCC fined Presidential Who’s Who $640,000 for faxing more than 100 advertisements to consumers who did not request them and had no business relationship with the company, said a forfeiture order released Friday (http://bit.ly/1rM44lg). “Presidential Who’s Who persisted in this conduct after Commission staff issued the company a formal citation, explained that its actions were unlawful, and warned that additional junk faxing could result in monetary forfeitures,” the order said. “Due to the large number of violations at issue, the company’s apparently intentional misconduct, and its failure to provide full and updated support for its inability to pay, we impose the total forfeiture of $640,000."

ENMR Telephone Cooperative asked the FCC for a waiver of some of its rules, “to allow ENMR to correct inadvertent, administrative errors that resulted in under-reporting of billed and collected revenue for Dedicated Transport Access Service, End Office Access Service, and terminating Tandem-Switched Transport Access Service,” in a petition posted Friday (http://bit.ly/1rM5OLl). A waiver for the New Mexico company “will allow NECA to revise ENMR’s Base Period Revenue,” and if not granted, ENMR would be “impacted each year of phased down” intercarrier compensation support, it said.

Neustar hopes the North American Numbering Council made the right decision when it decided to forward the Selection Working Group report and recommendation to the FCC on the next Local Numbering Portability Administrator, it said. “We are hopeful that the NANC has recommended a pro-competitive outcome: another round of bidding,” said Neustar Senior Vice President-Data Solution Steve Edwards in a statement. “There is no downside to better bids -- this can only benefit consumers and carriers alike.” The FCC will now have the opportunity to address the “procedural irregularities” that have arisen throughout the bidding process, he said. “To call the game now would be anticompetitive and exclusionary of stakeholder interests. We continue to believe there should be an additional round of proposals. Failing to offer an additional round deprives the industry and consumers from being able to consider the best available offer.” NANC held a closed meeting Wednesday in which it discussed the LNPA selection process (CD March 26 p7). An FCC spokesman said he couldn’t discuss what was said in the closed meeting.

AT&T responded to dozens of questions from FCC officials in a meeting Friday about its proposed IP transition trials, an ex parte filing posted Wednesday said (http://bit.ly/1p7FVmU). The agency was concerned with what would happen to customers in areas that will not have access to wireline service, or whose assistive devices don’t work with the new technology. “It is still considering its options,” AT&T said. AT&T won’t be able to offer wireless home phone via Voice over LTE in the trial areas until a certain technology is available, it said. The name of that technology was redacted in the public version of the filing. “After HD voice is deployed, the audio quality for VoLTE calls is expected to be superior to traditional [plain old telephone] service,” the telco said. AT&T has “not calculated the number of existing subscribers nationwide that are located in areas outside of AT&T’s wireline IP network footprint and ineligible for Wireless Home Phone due to network coverage issues,” it said. “Doing so would be very difficult and time-consuming.” AT&T is working on developing technology to support “standards-based analog health monitoring, home alarm, fax” and credit card validation devices over wireless services, it said. If a customer’s TDM-based “assistive technology device” does not work with U-verse voice or its wireless home phone service, the customer would be asked to obtain an IP-compatible device, AT&T said. If that’s not feasible, “we will work with the customer to develop a solution, which may include restoring TDM-based service” to the customer during the trial, it said. During the trial, AT&T will continue to make existing bare copper loops available for wholesale customers, it said. Payphone coin lines will be excluded from the IP transition trial, but AT&T is monitoring call volumes in the trial wire centers to determine “whether and when to transition such lines off,” it said.

If the FCC decides to allow document retention of sensitive Lifeline customer data, it’s important to safeguard that information, the National Consumer Law Center and National Hispanic Media Coalition told Wireline Bureau officials Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1p7op25). “It must only be allowed in very limited and controlled circumstances to protect customer privacy and protect from ID theft,” they said. It’s also important to have a consistent level of training among sales representatives, they said.