The FCC Wireline Bureau is withholding streamlined review of ownership transfer from Jaguar Communications to MetroNet Holdings at the request of DOJ, the Department of Homeland Security and DOD, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 20-37.

S&P lowered the credit rating of Frontier Communications Tuesday to SD, or selective default, after the company announced Monday it "elected to defer making the interest payments due on March 16" on certain senior unsecured notes and entered a 60-day grace period to discuss its capital structure with bondholders. The company had no further comment Tuesday beyond its statement. The telecom vowed to "continue to provide quality service to our customers without interruption and work with our business partners as usual."

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly urged the Rural Utilities Service Tuesday to reconsider several of its proposed changes to the rules for the second round of applications for the $550 million ReConnect rural broadband infrastructure loan and grant program. They are “likely to result in potentially wasteful or problematic spending,” he said. The application deadline is March 31 (see 2003120024). The “more troubling aspects of the second round’s framework” include RUS’ decision to “lower the threshold” from 100 percent unserved to 90 percent for an area to be considered unserved to qualify for a 100 percent grant, O’Rielly said in a letter to RUS Administrator Chad Rupe. This “will likely result in upgrading service in lower cost areas that are not in need of broadband subsidies and leaving the hardest to reach areas without service.” It will “also likely result in a much more burdensome and less transparent challenge process,” O’Rielly said. He criticized “a lack of consistent and transparent practices governing the challenge process.” O’Rielly noted “certain RUS field agents had taken an idiosyncratic approach” to evaluating whether an area was unserved based on “the absence of a subscriber at the location” during the first ReConnect round, rather than “based on the existence of broadband infrastructure.” That “likely did not make much of a difference in the case of challenges to the first round of grants” but “could prove to have major consequences in the second round, given the challenging party’s much higher burden of proof,” he said. O’Rielly suggested “more comprehensive measures are needed to exclude areas subject to enforceable deployment obligations.” RUS restricts grant eligibility for areas that received Connect America Fund Phase II funding, but it's “puzzling and potentially harmful” that there aren’t similar blocks for other federal broadband funding programs, he said. O’Rielly urged RUS to ensure ReConnect funding “be distributed in a more technology neutral way” in the second round. USDA “is committed to being a strong partner in deploying high-speed broadband internet connectivity to families, farmers, businesses, and communities across rural America,” a spokesperson emailed. It coordinates with the FCC, NTIA, state governments and “local partners to ensure we are investing as responsibly and effectively as possible.” NCTA praised O’Rielly for “highlighting the need, particularly at this time, for the RUS to ensure that scarce taxpayer dollars be awarded where they are most needed -- in unserved areas that need connectivity.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comments through April 13, replies April 28, on two petitions for a study area waiver filed by West River Telecommunications Cooperative and CenturyLink that the companies say will serve the public interest, said a public notice in docket 96-45 and Monday's Daily Digest.

Cincinnati Bell is selling to Macquarie in a deal worth $2.9 billion, or $15.50 a share, they said Friday. Earlier bidder Brookfield Infrastructure declined to propose a new takeover (see 2003060005). The telco paid $24.8 million to Brookfield in breakup fees.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed Irregulators v. FCC, case no. 19-1085 (in Pacer), Friday for lack of standing (see 1909130005). It dealt with an FCC order that extended a freeze on rules allocating most telecom costs to intrastate rather than interstate services. The D.C. Circuit also ordered the clerk to withhold the mandate "until seven days after disposition of any timely petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc." Scott McCollough, attorney for the petitioner, doesn't anticipate a rehearing, he told us. "We are declaring victory," he said, quoting the court order that states have jurisdiction to "assert their jurisdiction" in cost assignment rules. "We had one goal in mind because we realize the FCC is a lost cause when it comes to getting reasonable rates, especially for price cap carriers," McCollough said. He said "states can now go in and do the kind of cost accounting necessary." At a hearing in January, McCollough said the Irregulators were prepared to lose the case on its merits as long as the FCC spelled out that they are free to determine their own interstate price formulas (see 2001170022). "We are pleased with the D.C. Circuit's decision not to disturb the jurisdictional separations freeze," an FCC spokesperson emailed. The three judges signed onto the ruling, including Senior Circuit Judge Stephen Williams writing the opinion, and Circuit Judges Judith Rogers and Gregory Katsas.

A reassigned numbers database in development to help mitigate unwanted robocalls should be free to access by nonprofits, the Credit Union National Association told the FCC. Comments were posted through Thursday in docket 17-59. The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions also urged exempting credit unions from payment of fees for use of the database, or rejecting structure recommended by the FCC North American Numbering Council and adopting one "that does not unfairly burden credit unions." It said the proposal disadvantages smaller users: "Requiring a single, up-front expenditure may bar smaller and less sophisticated credit unions from access to the database." It disagreed with a recommendation to offer volume discounts to large users. The American Bankers Association agreed with NANC that charging high per-query rates would suppress the volume of numbers that callers check against the database. Its members expect to "query millions of customer phone numbers each month," ABA said. The FCC should offer additional review and comment opportunities after NANC produces a more-detailed cost funding and fee structure for a new reassigned numbers database, NAFCU said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau opened docket 20-67 on Traced Act section 6(a), on "knowledge of customers by entities with access to numbering resources," said a public notice Wednesday. A draft order and Further NPRM for the March 31 commissioners' meeting deals with the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (see 2003100065).

The FCC Wireline Bureau will investigate by April 1, and hear oppositions to the direct case by April 15, on "lawfulness of tariff revisions filed by Northern Valley Communications," a self-identified access-stimulating LEC, said Wednesday's order designating issues for investigation. The bureau wants to know in docket 20-11 whether charges involving James Valley Cooperative Telephone reflect an access arbitrage order.

The CAF II Coalition Fund asked the FCC modify letter of credit requirements for Connect America Fund Phase II broadband support program recipients "to make them consistent with the recent reforms it adopted for the similar, but much larger, Rural Digital Opportunity Fund" (see 2001300001), it petitioned for rulemaking, posted Wednesday. "It is only reasonable and equitable for the updated rules to apply to the funding provided in both the RDOF and CAF II programs."