The “dynamic of serially escalating rates for local telephone services that reach far fewer consumers than in urban areas will, if anything, almost certainly prompt more consumers in rural areas to seek in the near term to ‘cut the cord’ and obtain only fixed broadband service,” NTCA told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1cuWHdp). This development “underscores the need to solve once and for all” the increased broadband costs for consumers who choose to end voice service in high-cost areas served by smaller rate-of-return regulated LECs, NTCA said.

The National Exchange Carrier Association filed its revised cost allocation manual reflecting changes that occurred during 2013, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Monday (http://bit.ly/1isq4vn). NECA said it made these changes to improve reporting accountability and more accurately reflect cost pools, the notice said. Comments in docket 14-01 are due April 9, replies April 24.

Neustar initiated a “formal dispute” Friday before the North American Numbering Council (NANC) regarding the Local Number Portability Administrator request for proposal and selection process (http://bit.ly/PkXEen). Neustar challenged the acceptance of “at least one untimely initial proposal” and the “failure to call for an additional round of proposals,” said the letter sent to NANC Chairman Betty Ann Kane. The parties that failed to submit proposals in compliance with applicable deadlines “should be disqualified” and another round of proposals should be solicited, Neustar said. “Failure to seek additional proposals in response to Neustar’s request is contrary to the interests of consumers and the industry at large. Such a decision deprives the Commission of a complete record and full evaluation of all qualified proposals.”

The FCC International Bureau granted AT&T’s unopposed petition requesting enforcement of the benchmark rate of 19 cents per minute for international traffic on the U.S.-Fiji route terminated with Fiji’s ILEC Fintel. A Friday bureau order found AT&T had been unable to negotiate benchmark-compliant rates with Fintel on the route since November 2011.

"Functional equivalency should be the filter” through which all telecom relay service program actions are assessed, several deaf and hard-of-hearing associations told FCC officials Tuesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1cIAfIP). Workshops and summits on topics such as deaf-blind and deaf and mobile-disabled matters could help increase functional equivalency, said the groups including Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, American Association of the Deaf-Blind and the Hearing Loss Association of America. Review panels on technology and service issues could also help, they said.

Verizon Business is seeking permission to “grandfather DS0 private line service” so that no new customers can purchase the service, it told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Tuesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1g6Kpaz). DS0 service offers speeds of 64 kbps or less. Pan Am Railways and National Fuel Gas Co., which have raised concerns about the loss of that service, “would be able to retain their DS0 private line service in accordance with their contractual terms and conditions,” Verizon said. “Granting Verizon Business’s application to grandfather DS0 private line service is in the public interest,” it said. “Existing customers can continue to purchase the service, but no new customers for this outdated legacy service will be accepted."

Cisco WebEx made a “good faith effort to report the revenue derived from WebEx sessions conducted entirely by phone as telecommunications revenue,” Cisco told FCC Wireline Bureau officials, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/MUPw27). Cisco has challenged a Universal Service Administrative Co. ruling that audio communication portions of the WebEx conferencing service should be considered a telecom service (CD May 20 p6). Because WebEx is a “tightly integrated information service,” Cisco could not “simply identify audio-only WebEx usage” and therefore “could only devise an over-inclusive proxy” that reported minutes from WebEx sessions initiated by telephone, and minutes from “call legs that joined a WebEx session before an online meeting has started,” it said. “This proxy illustrates the tightly-integrated nature of WebEx service."

The public notice Thursday seeking “focused comment” on E-rate modernization (CD Mar 7 p16) “bodes poorly for real reform,” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a statement Friday: “Reform should mean eliminating the priority system that arbitrarily favors some technologies over others. Yet the Public Notice doubles down on it. Reform should mean abolishing the discount matrix that encourages wasteful spending by well-funded districts and consistently underfunds small, rural schools and libraries. Yet the Public Notice builds on it. And although the Public Notice mentions streamlining the administrative process, the proposals to do so (such as making ’simple changes’ to the existing forms or changing ‘invoicing deadlines') are overwhelmed by proposals that would saddle our nation’s teachers and librarians with more paperwork.” Pai suggested the FCC advance a “concrete proposal” in a further notice of proposed rulemaking. “If the Commission needs to focus comment on an issue,” it should do so in a way that complies with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, he said: “The Wireline Competition Bureau cannot propose new rules."

Several CLECs are “concerned” that NCTA is “urging the Commission to approach the data collection and the special access proceeding in a manner that would undermine Chairman Wheeler’s objective of establishing a technology-neutral framework for the preservation of competition in an IP, packet-based environment,” they said in a filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1igCt9P). Contrary to NCTA’s assertions, the proposed data collection on the state of the special access market should not be used solely to revise the pricing flexibility triggers for legacy DS1 and DS3 special access services, said the CLECs, including Cbeyond, EarthLink, Integra Telecom, Level 3 and tw telecom. Also, “despite its complaints, the estimated burden of the proposed information collection on NCTA members is manageable given the size of the companies at issue,” they said. Further, “the FCC has the experience and expertise to collect and timely process and analyze the information requested in the proposed collection,” they said.

Comments are due March 11 on inmate calling service provider Securus’s petition to expand the Pay-Tel waiver, and its request to be able to add a fee for voice biometrics technology to the per-minute prison calling rate, the FCC said in a public notice Tuesday (http://fcc.us/NsQcfY). Securus has asked that the relief granted to Pay-Tel be granted to all ICS providers operating in the 13 states that Pay-Tel services.