The FCC Wireline Bureau will take comments through Aug. 26 on eight Section 214 applications to discontinue domestic nondominant carrier telecommunications and/or interconnected VoIP services, said a notice posted Friday. The applicants include TelCove Operations (docket 19-171), Level 3 Telecom of North Carolina (19-200), Level 3 Telecom of New Mexico (19-201), XO Communications and XO Virginia (19-203), Talk America Services (19-210), Peoples Telephone (19-223), Utelco (19-224), and State Long Distance Telephone (19-225).

MontanaSky Networks and MontanaSky West asked the FCC to ensure competitive LECs get a fair shake if the agency allows transfer of assets from Frontier Communications to Northwest Fiber, in comments posted Thursday to docket 19-188 (see 1907260044). The FCC should "recognize the scale of dysfunction that Montana Sky has endured to this point" and "ensure that pro-consumer practices guide us all in the future," they said in joint comments. The CLECs asked that as Northwest Fiber seeks control of the Frontier properties in Montana, it commit "up front to pro-competitive practices so as to avoid the prior and well documented anti-consumer, dysfunctional practices of the company it seeks to acquire." MontanaSky said Frontier provided poor service to its residential customers in Montana and "it also provided poor service to Montana Sky." MontanaSky recommended the FCC take three steps in evaluating the transfer of assets. It said "Northwest should commit to commercially reasonable practices in its interconnection and resale negotiations" with CLECs in the Montana markets. MontanaSky said Frontier has made negotiating for unbundled network elements or resale "virtually impossible." When MontanaSky tried to buy copper feeds to service a Connect America Fund auction block, it said, it was "frustrated at every turn by Frontier's refusal to return calls or set reasonable UNE rates." It asked FCC to get a commitment from Northwest "that these pricing and business practices will cease immediately upon transfer of control." It said the FCC should also require a "dig once" notification process for upgrades promised by Northwest. The Montana access lines "are located in low-population communities that are hard to reach and serve," MontanaSky said. "It would be efficient for all concerned if Northwest would give notice to Montana Sky or other interested CLECs when it intends to open a trench to upgrade its networks in these territories." Doing so would help "long underserved consumers" and increase the "likelihood of much-needed new infrastructure deployment from multiple providers." MontanaSky also wants reasonable access "on commercially reasonable terms" to backbone and middle mile fiber lines running through Libby, Montana, that Frontier has refused to discuss with the CLEC. "The Commission should urge Northwest to engage in these discussions, particularly since Montana is such a small and underserved market," it said. Montana State Rep. Steve Gunderson (R) told the FCC in a letter that Frontier service has been "spotty and lacking in speed performance and quality of service provided" in his district, but MontanaSky "has worked diligently" to provide high-quality service to customers in his hometown of Libby and nearby communities.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau granted two new spamming complaints against Telplex Communications, in orders posted Thursday in the Daily Digest, finding that each was "credible due to the specificity and consistency with other complaints we have received." The agency granted a separate spamming complaint against Telplex Tuesday (see 1908060063). The bureau's Consumer Policy Division also granted a spamming complaint against Tele Circuit Network for changing a subscriber's provider without authorization from the complainant, it said Thursday.

ITTA Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Michael Jacobs raised concerns about how future broadband performance tests will be conducted. His comments came in a meeting with officials from FCC's Wireline Bureau Friday, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday to docket 10-90. The broadband providers "urged the Commission to afford providers maximum flexibility to use randomization tools and conventions to generate their own lists of test samples" and they expressed apprehensions over "delays and costs associated with having to work with selected test subjects who have modems incompatible with testing systems to replace such modems," the filing said. Representatives of Great Plains Communications, CenturyLink, Consolidated Communications and TDS Telecom participated by phone.

Frontier Communications stock received a rating of underperform Wednesday in an equity research note from analysts at Wells Fargo Securities after Frontier's Q2 2019 earnings report Tuesday. Frontier reported $2.07 billion revenue for the quarter, down from the Q1's $2.1 billion (see 1904300217). The company's net loss for the Q2 was $5.32 billion, for a net loss of $51.07 per common share. It reported a net loss of 71,000 broadband subscribers. On an earnings call Tuesday, Frontier CEO Dan McCarthy called the increased customer churn to 2.14 percent on the consumer side "disappointing," blaming it partly on seasonality, competitive pressures and customer roll-off as promotional bill credits ended. McCarthy said it's premature to speculate how the company's federal broadband subsidies will fare under an upcoming USF transition from the Connect America Fund to the proposed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund still at the NPRM stage. He suggested the terms of the RDOF reverse auctions may be less favorable to Frontier than they were under CAF Phase II auctions. Frontier plans to participate in the RDOF auctions and is pleased that latency will be a consideration in how the bids will be weighted, McCarthy said. The company said it expects to close on the sale of its operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, announced in late May, sometime in the first half of 2020 (see 1905290042). "The focus is clearly on liquidity, with plans of divesting its northwest operations to bring $1.3 billion in cash to the balance sheet," said Wells Fargo, "but the incremental investment required to meet the terms of the deal coupled with lower than expected benefit from FTR's transformation program and higher payments due in 2H 2019 that weren't initially considered with 2019 guide, all leave us firmly on the outside looking in." Frontier's share price dipped under a dollar early Wednesday and closed at 94 cents, down 23.59 percent.

The FCC is eliminating ex ante regulation for lower-speed TDM transport services rates offered by price cap regulated carriers, having found widespread competition in the marketplace for business data service TDM transport (see 1902110027), says a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register and in docket 16-143. The rule is effective Sept. 6, it says. The ruling was sought as part of a larger USTelecom petition for forbearance from regulations related to price protections to competitive LECs (see 1908050009).

The FCC Wireline Bureau, along with its Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and the Office of Economics and Analytics, said in an order Tuesday it's granting a Sunset Digital Communications petition to "make a major modification" in the long-form application for its winning bid in the Connect America Fund Phase II auction.

The FCC found Telplex Communications changed a consumer's telecommunications provider without obtaining authorization and verification from the complainant, it said in an order in Tuesday's Daily Digest (see 1709140023). The agency said the complainant is "entitled to absolution for the charges incurred during the first thirty days after the unauthorized change occurred and that Telplex Communications may not pursue any collection against Complainant for those charges."

The FCC issued an NPRM for its $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and posted it Friday in docket 19-126 (see 1907110031). Comments are due to the Wireline Bureau 30 days after publication in the Federal Register and replies 30 days later. Incompas CEO Chip Pickering on Monday commended FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for moving the rulemaking forward. "We were the first organization to call for USF funding to be tied to 1 Gigabit speed," he said, adding speeds of 25 Mbps downstream, 3 up, are "antiquated, out of date and insufficient." In its proposed reverse auction for bidders who want to participate in the RDOF USF program, the agency seeks comments on how much weight a broadband service's speed and latency should be given in a bid (see 1907230061). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also supports aiming high on performance measures for the RDOF program. In comments at the FCC meeting Thursday, she said the NPRM takes today's performance standards and assumes they make sense "10 years hence." She said the FCC should "think bigger and bolder." Mintz communications attorney Angela Kung issued a report on the RDOF program Monday.

Two new podcasts highlight bipartisan support for deploying broadband infrastructure to reach all parts of rural America. In a "Broadband Conversations" podcast from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel posted Friday, Rep. Abby Finkenauer, D-Iowa, said reliable broadband connectivity could play a role in keeping residents from leaving places like her state and encouraging those who had left home to return to "start small businesses in the small communities where they grew up and be able to thrive." Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., said broadband Internet access is no longer considered a luxury even in small towns: "It is part of our infrastructure and should be thought of as such." On Thursday, "ACA Connects" posted a podcast conversation between America's Communications Association CEO Matt Polka and Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio. Johnson said he hopes his Democratic colleagues will agree to roll up their sleeves to help move infrastructure legislation that includes a focus on rural broadband.