Groups asked the FCC to extend comment deadlines to Sept. 27 in two proceedings, on fixed broadband competition and advanced telecom capability (ATC) deployment under Telecom Act Section 706, currently due Friday and Sept. 10, respectively (see 1807300019 and 1808100040). Granting an extension, including of the ATC Sept. 24 reply deadline to Oct. 27, "is warranted in light of the importance and complexity of the proceeding(s), the brief time allotted by the Commission in the initial notices, and conflict with the major Jewish Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot," said the motion posted Thursday in dockets 18-231 and 18-238 of Public Knowledge, Incompas, Common Cause, The Greenlining Institute, Communications Workers of America, Benton Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Texaltel, Federation of ISPs of America and Northwest Telecommunications Association. The agency plans to issue its next 706 report as part of a communications market report required in Q4 under the Ray Baum Act. The FCC declined comment

FCC Connect America Phase II auction reporting requirements were approved by the Office of Management and Budget for three years, said an agency rule in docket 10-90 for Wednesday's Federal Register. The commission, which estimated the annual industry work burden at 5,600 hours with "no cost," plans to use the collected information to determine whether CAF II auction winning bidders are eligible to receive broadband-oriented subsidies for fixed service of up to $1.98 billion over 10 years. Round 13 of the auction was Tuesday.

There's "no basis" for the FCC to treat model-based rate-of-return telcos differently than price-cap carriers on "TDM transport," as an NPRM on rural carrier business data services proposed, said a filing on a meeting ITTA, USTelecom, TDS Telecom, Great Plains Communications, Hargray Communications and Consolidated Communications executives had with Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and aides, posted Monday in docket 17-144. The telcos said "competitive disparity" with unregulated competing transport networks "hamstrings model-based rate-of-return carriers' ability to price transport appropriately" in markets. Eliminate ex-ante regulation of such RoR carriers' TDM transport, just as the FCC did for price-cap carriers, they asked. They also met with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai to seek BDS relief. Some pressed for "fully funding" model-based and legacy RoR USF mechanisms in meetings with the Pai aide, Monteith and staffers (here, here).

USTelecom and NTCA urged the FCC to grant their requests to revisit certain rural call completion (RCC) rules adopted in an April order (see 1804170025). USTelecom noted NCTA and ITTA backed, and only NTCA opposed, its petition to reconsider rules on intermediate carrier monitoring obligations of "covered" (originating) providers not subject to a safe harbor. The rules take effect Oct. 17, though USTelecom sought a related stay. NTCA "glosses over the valid concerns" and "mischaracterizes key aspects" of the order, USTelecom replied, posted Tuesday in docket 13-39. NTCA responded to opponents of its petition asking the FCC to require covered providers to file their RCC monitoring procedures (see 1808060027). "It is difficult, if not impossible, to see how the task of submitting procedures already required to be documented by the Commission could possibly be 'burdensome,'" replied NTCA: "The benefit is certain and clear," giving covered providers "better incentives both to develop effective procedures and then to hold fast to those procedures" and allowing the FCC to forego "potentially time consuming recordkeeping requests" in future investigations. Verizon backed FCC efforts to implement the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act (RCC Act), the subject of an accompanying April Further NPRM. "Limit application of the RCC Act to rural areas," adopt "flexible service quality standards for intermediate providers" and "establish compliance deadlines," recommended the telco on a discussion with Wireline Bureau officials. HD Tandem "explained the cost-shifting techniques of different carriers in handling" rural call traffic and backed "registration for all intermediate carriers," said a filing on a discussion with some of those staffers.

Local telcos asked the FCC not to undercut court decisions helpful to their 2014 petition for a declaratory ruling on a wireless intraMTA (major trading area) rule interpretation. In consolidated multidistrict litigation, "the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has resolved key questions of law ... in a manner that upholds the positions advanced by the LEC Coalition," said the filing of representatives CenturyLink, Cox Communications, Frontier Communications and Windstream on a meeting with FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson and aides, posted in docket 01-92 Friday. "Refrain from any action inconsistent with the court’s findings," they recommended. They said the FCC should pursue a rulemaking if it seeks to develop mechanisms that might be used prospectively for "interexchange carriers to route commingled traffic through Feature Group D trunks, while treating intraMTA wireless traffic as exempt from access charges." The LEC Coalition petition asked the FCC “to confirm” that the intraMTA rule -- under which calls exchanged by LECs and mobile carriers within an MTA are subject to reciprocal compensation -- doesn't apply to LEC access charges to IXCs under switched access tariffs. The FCC is driving access charges down, but traditionally they have been higher than reciprocal compensation fees.

Embattled wireline telco stocks jumped as several companies reported Q2 earnings late Wednesday and Thursday. In Thursday trading Windstream's stock closed up 25.5 percent at $4.88 per share after it reported "strong second-quarter results, including net growth in broadband subscribers for the first time in three years." The results were "solid" as "revenue beat our estimates," said Wells Fargo analysts. Cincinnati Bell's share price jumped over 21 percent to $12.10 after reporting Q2 revenue increased $37 million year over year, "driven by strong demand for fiber-based products and the contribution from the OnX Enterprise Solutions acquisition." It said, "Fioptics internet subscribers totaled 235,300 at the end of the second quarter, up 21,200 compared to a year ago." CenturyLink's stock price finished up 13 percent at $20.97 after reporting results and raising its "full year 2018 outlook for Adjusted EBITDA to $9.00 to $9.15 billion from $8.75 to $8.95 billion, and Free Cash Flow to $3.60 to $3.80 [billion] from $3.15 to $3.35 billion."

Microsoft said it's "supportive" of the FCC's Form 477 attempt to find a balance between collecting more granular and accurate information, and preventing filing duties from being too burdensome. "To improve data accuracy and make the resulting maps more useful to policymakers, Microsoft recommends limiting the broadband deployment dataset only to those census blocks where broadband has been actually deployed," said its filing posted Friday in docket 11-10 on meetings with aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel. Microsoft said current guidance -- allowing fixed broadband providers to report serving a census block if deployment could occur within a typical service interval -- lacks specificity, causing "potentially systematic overstatement" of broadband availability. It also urged the FCC to "consider online visualization and analytics tools to improve data accuracy," maintaining annual data collections and not completing its rulemaking until after NTIA completes its related comments (see 1807190047). The Ohio Information Technology Center opposed an FCC request to the Office of Management and Budget to extend approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act of forms Forms 470 and 471 related to E-rate applications (see 1805020038), as sought in a notice and request for comment in the May 22 Federal Register. The FCC request is deficient "because: (i) it is not properly seeking an extension of prior authorized Forms; (ii) the changes already made by the Universal Service Administrative Company ('USAC') to the Forms were not properly authorized and (iii) the FCC has not properly justified the changes to the Forms," said an OITC filing posted Friday in FCC docket 02-6 from OMB No. 3060-0806.

The FCC Wireline Bureau granted CenturyLink six-month extension of a waiver of number portability rules. "Due to the extensive damage in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) caused by Hurricane Maria," it's "in the public interest to extend the waiver to allow CenturyLink additional time to restore services," said an order in docket 95-116 and Friday's Daily Digest. The bureau Sept. 21 "issued a waiver for carriers related to porting numbers to locations outside hurricane-affected rate centers in the USVI until June 20." The waiver is extended to Feb. 1. The bureau previously gave Sprint a six-month extension.

The FCC largely denied an Aureon Network Services petition to reconsider a November order, on an AT&T complaint, that ruled Aureon violated agency rate-cap and rate-parity rules by raising its "centralized equal access" tariffed rate in 2013. The commission this week disagreed with Aureon's request that it apply any relief only prospectively for lack of notice. "The plain text of the Commission’s rules and orders in existence at the time Aureon filed its tariff provided Aureon ample notice of its regulatory status and obligations," said the unanimous order in proceeding No. 17-56 and Thursday's Daily Digest. The November order "enforced rate cap and rate parity rules and policies that the Commission adopted in 2011, well before Aureon’s 2013 tariff filing." The FCC also denied an Aureon request to revise a decision that the 2013 tariff was "void ab initio [from the beginning] and thus not 'deemed lawful.'" But the agency did grant Aureon's petition in one respect, clarifying that the company's "2012 tariff remains in effect unless and until AT&T establishes in the damages phase that Aureon furtively employed improper accounting practices to conceal potential rate of return violations." AT&T said it's assessing the order's impact to determine if further review is warranted. "We will continue to combat these traffic pumping schemes and advocate for reforms in this area to eliminate illicit behavior," emailed a spokesperson. Aureon didn't comment.

CenturyLink reported more than 1.36 million locations in the legacy Qwest region lacked access to 1.5 Mbps from the company as of April 1. "Nearly all of these locations, however, are in census blocks with multiple other broadband providers offering service at much higher speeds," said the telco filing, posted Tuesday in FCC docket 10-110, following up on meeting Wireline Bureau staffers on commitments in the takeover. It said Form 477 data show 57 percent of the locations are in blocks served by cable, 73 percent by fixed wireless, and nearly all are by national wireless and satellite providers. It concluded that "at least 65% [of the locations] are in census blocks with at least three other providers" and "at least 25%, and probably as much as 50%, are in census blocks with 4-8 providers of broadband offering speeds at least 3 times as fast, and frequently 40 times faster."