A proposal to impose an overall cap on the USF and a subcap on the E-rate and rural healthcare programs "will hurt schools and libraries and those who depend on them for high-speed broadband access," said the Education and Library Networks Coalition and 19 other education groups Friday in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, in docket 06-122. The groups asked the FCC to not act on its proceeding. Capping funding would lead to some students losing access to the internet if E-rate support goes away, they said, and service providers in rural communities could lose business if the local schools and libraries could no longer afford broadband without the E-rate discounts (see 1906030059).

Prices for residential voice services "will be constrained by fierce competition" even if the FCC grants an industry petition for forbearance from a requirement that ILECs unbundle and resell DS0 loops to competitive carriers, USTelecom said, posted to docket 18-141 Friday. USTelecom continues to push for nationwide forbearance on the broadband side, too, but said the agency should at least forbear from unbundling requirements from DS0 loops in census blocks with competition from a cable provider offering broadband service at speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. The group also asked for forbearance from unbundling requirements for DS1 and DS3 loops in both census blocks with competition from a cable provider offering service at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps upstream, and in counties deemed competitive by the FCC in the broadband data services proceeding. A draft order on the forbearance petition is set for a vote on at commissioners' July 10 meeting (see 1906190044).

The Telecom Act "commands the [FCC] to forbear from regulation that is no longer necessary as a result of competition," said former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth in a filing Friday in docket 18-141. He wrote about the USTelecom forbearance petition seeking relief from a 2-decades-old regulation of transport services and facilities for ILECs. He said sections 10 and 11 of the 1996 act were designed to force removal of regulation as industry competition advances. The forbearance petition is up for a vote by the agency at commissioners' July 10 meeting. Now president of Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprises, he received underwriting from USTelecom for part of his declaration.

NTCA said models used to develop buildout obligations for high-cost universal service funds often render counts of locations that don't resemble “facts on the ground” in rural areas, talking with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. That gap is particularly pronounced when measured on a more granular basis for compliance with deployment duties under the Connect America Fund Phase II auction and the alternative cost America model, it said. NTCA said that mismatch could turn providers off from ACAM support. It said the agency should do a "forensic investigation" into the models and direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to give a more reasonable interpretation of what's a home-based business. The group said for improved broadband mapping, there needs to be more detailed standardization of availability reporting requirements upfront, including a definition of assumed network capabilities and propagation characteristics. Without those details, more granular reporting would still be of marginal value when establishing more accurate maps, it said. There's need for a validation and challenge process to ensure accuracy, it said, per a docket 10-90 posting Thursday.

Move "expeditiously" to conclude a rural health care rulemaking so rules are in place in time for FY 2020, Alaska Communications asked FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday. CEO Anand Vadapalli and others said rural healthcare rules are outdated. They sought a budget large enough to meet anticipated needs of rural healthcare providers, plus more clarity, transparency and speed of processing for funding requests, it recounted, posted Friday in docket 17-310. The company met with Pai earlier this year (see 1902050065).

Frontier Communications “will act in good faith to comply fully” with the West Virginia Public Service Commission, a spokesperson emailed us Wednesday after the agency a day earlier rejected the company’s choice of auditor for a copper probe (see 1906180066). “Frontier engaged in an objective bid award process weighing all factors, however, the PSC felt pricing was overemphasized in the evaluation,” he said. “One key problem we must resolve together is that while Frontier only serves about ten percent of the 2.26 million telephone lines in West Virginia, Frontier has 100 percent of the obligation to provide universal telephone service to customers in the most rural, remote, and high-cost areas.”

The national Lifeline eligibility verifier adds soft launches June 25 in Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Eligible telecom carriers get access to the national verifier during the soft launch. Universal Service Administrative Co. will do training, and additional resources are available on the USAC website. The NV program launched last year in six states (see 1811020058) and has continued to roll out in increments. Lifeline advocates are concerned subscribership is decreasing under the current administration, and they want USAC to ensure the verifier can interface with other government databases to confirm eligibility for the low-income USF subsidy program (see 1901230036). Comments on a computer matching program the commission is testing with USAC, Georgia and Iowa are due Monday (see 1905230041).

The FCC accepted a USTelecom request to withdraw one aspect of its 2018 forbearance petition, the agency said Tuesday. USTelecom filed a request Monday to narrowly withdraw the "dark fiber transport unbundling requirements" portion of a larger forbearance petition, in docket 18-141, which sought relief from three categories of requirements for competitive LECs (see 1807160058). The Wireline Bureau granted the group's request to withdraw "without prejudice as to further action, including re-filing claims relating to dark fiber." FCC commissioners are expected to vote on an order at the July 10 meeting on the other elements of the USTelecom forbearance petition on making unbundled network elements (such as DS1 and DS2 transport loops) available to CLECs at nonmarket rates (see 1906180053).

Oral argument is scheduled for Aug. 27 in Greenlining Institute v. FCC, which challenges a 2017 wireline order to speed the transition from copper to fiber. The 20-minute hearing, announced Sunday, will begin at 9 a.m. at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle. The court said filings should be submitted early. Last year, the Greenlining Institute and several consumer groups asked the court to vacate the 2017 order and restore wireline safeguards to protect consumers from losing vital services. The FCC challenged the consumer groups' standing last year (see 1812030047).

AT&T and Verizon proposals to deny local switching charges for carriers completing VoIP calls "appear to draw arbitrary, unjustifiable distinctions between calling arrangements in which LECs may assess end office switching charges and arrangements in which LECs may not," CenturyLink said, posted Thursday in FCC docket 10-90, responding to AT&T last month seeking a declaratory ruling. CenturyLink said the agency may not "side-step this issue as AT&T suggests," but must provide a reasoned basis if it rules in favor of AT&T. CenturyLink wants its own declaratory ruling on end-office VoIP switching compensation (see 1905240005).