The FCC said it will probe Iowa Network Access Division (Aureon's) revisions to an interstate access tariff that has been the subject of a protracted dispute. "Because we conclude that substantial questions of lawfulness exist regarding how Aureon revised the switched transport rate contained in its proposed tariff revisions, we suspend the revisions for one day and set for investigation the question of whether Aureon complied with the Aureon Tariff Order," said a Wireline Bureau order Friday in docket 18-60. AT&T and Sprint challenged the tariff in petitions Thursday (here, here).

The FCC resolved challenges to 4,762 locations Alaska Communications Systems proposed for high-cost Connect America Fund support to meet ACS duties to extend service to unserved areas. The Wireline Bureau "finds that 1,713 of these locations will be eligible for high-cost support," said an order Friday in docket 10-90. "The Bureau also grants ACS’s request for a short extension of the deadline for submitting its deployment plan
for meeting its CAF Phase II deployment obligations."

A CenturyLink/Level 3 complaint against Birch Communications was dismissed after they settled their access-charge dispute, said an FCC Enforcement Bureau order Wednesday granting a joint motion in proceeding 18-73.

The FCC suspended its 180-day review clock of Securus Technologies' planned buy of Inmate Calling Solutions from TKC Holdings. Despite responses, applicants haven't yet "satisfied" Wireline Bureau "requests for information, documents, and data," said a letter from bureau Chief Kris Monteith in docket 18-193, posted in Thursday's Daily Digest. The informal clock "will remain stopped until the Applicants have provided us with a full response to our requests, and Commission staff has had a reasonable time to review the documents." The clock is on Day 86, an FCC spokesperson emailed us Thursday. Securus and ICS/TKS didn't comment Thursday.

Consumer groups said the FCC "arbitrarily eliminated critical safeguards developed over nearly five years" to protect consumers and competition as telcos transition from traditional copper lines to fiber and other systems. "The Commission failed to explain why it reversed its longstanding determination that Congress intended to prioritize protecting consumers from loss of vital services rather than prioritize broadband deployment at all costs," said a brief Wednesday of petitioners challenging parts of a November wireline infrastructure order in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Greenlining Institute v. FCC, No. 17-73283. The order streamlined copper retirement notifications and telecom service discontinuance processes (see 1711160032). The Greenlining Institute, Public Knowledge, The Utility Reform Network and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates said the FCC engaged in an "abrupt about-face" and "deliberately obscured its intentions by characterizing a key portion of its public notice as a 'Request for Comment' (a term undefined in the Commission's regulations)" attached to an April 2017 NPRM and notice of inquiry (see 1704200046). The groups said the request "sought comment on a wide range of issues relating to [a] Functional Test, with no mention" it might be reversed absent further proceedings. "Apparently in response to the obscurity of the notice and the impression cultivated by designating the questions relating to the Functional Test as not even a 'Notice of Inquiry' but a mere 'Request for Comment,' the bulk of the comments" focused on NPRM questions, they said. It wasn't until the FCC issued an Oct. 26 draft order "that it became clear" the FCC intended to use the proceeding "as a vehicle for reversing" its Functional Test ruling, the brief said. The Communications Act "unambiguously defines 'service' by function," and "Congress clearly intended to empower the [FCC] to protect consumers from disruption or loss of service, meaning that a functional definition of 'service' is the only permissible interpretation," said the brief. It asked the 9th Circuit to vacate the 2017 order and restore the Functional Test, notification duties and "de facto" copper retirement rules.

“We cannot afford to fixate on infrastructure builds alone,” ex-FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Wednesday in livestreamed remarks at the Great Lakes Connect event in Fairlawn, Ohio. USF should continue to support affordability through the Lifeline program in addition to infrastructure, “for ‘if you build it, they will come’ only happens when a person can afford the service,” she said. Connecting fiber alone won’t bridge the digital divide; adoption issues like affordability and relevance must also be addressed, Clyburn said. “But strangling the Lifeline program, the nation’s only means-tested universal service program that addresses the cost of voice and broadband service, and allowing only facilities-based providers to offer Lifeline service … will leave an estimated 70 percent of subscribers who cannot afford communications service today without a viable option tomorrow.” As Clyburn spoke, Lifeline advocates held a small rally outside FCC headquarters opposing the agency's proposal to ban resellers from the program (see 1809260029).

An FCC draft NPRM seeking to improve 911 calling from multiline buildings and complexes, and to provide "dispatchable location" information to first responders looks likely to "sail through" at commissioners' Wednesday meeting, an agency official said Tuesday. Commissioners and staffers are still ironing out the wrinkles in a draft order to begin auctioning toll-free numbers, said the official.

Minnesota asked the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals to review a panel's 2-1 ruling affirming a district court decision that state regulation of interconnected VoIP was pre-empted as an information service, in Charter v. Nancy Lange, No. 17-2290 (see 1809070030). The majority ruling is "inconsistent" with the Telecom Act, and "in conflict" with prior 8th Circuit opinions on USF contributions and Vonage's VoIP service and the Supreme Court's cable modem Brand X ruling, petitioned (in Pacer) the Minnesota Office of Attorney General Friday, on behalf of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, seeking en banc or panel rehearing: "Consideration by the full Court is necessary to ensure uniformity of this Court's decisions." Charter Phone "is a fixed, interconnected VoIP service with the ability to determine whether calls are interstate or intrastate," Minnesota said. "Under the plain terms of this Court's Vonage III ruling and Paragraph 56 of the FCC's USF Order quoted therein, the MPUC has jurisdiction over Charter Phone." It also cited a 2017 8th Circuit ruling upholding a district court decision relying on that USF language as applied in Vonage III "observing that the FCC explicitly said that the Vonage preemption order does not apply to providers with the ability to track the jurisdiction of customer calls and such providers are subject to state regulation." Pillsbury Winthrop's Glenn Richards, representing the Voice on the Net Coalition, which backed Charter, emailed he's "disappointed, but not surprised" by the petition: "I don’t see any issues raised in the petition that are likely to result in a different decision by the full court.” Charter Communications didn't comment Monday.

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved Midwest Fiber Acquisition's proposed takeover of Everstream Holdings' Everstream Solutions and Everstream GLC, said a public notice Friday in docket docket 18-93. Thursday, DOJ, DOD and the Department of Homeland Security (Team Telecom) didn't object and withdrew their request that the FCC defer action, after they completed a national security and law enforcement review. Everstream Holdings, through licensees, "is a super-regional network service provider bringing fiber-based Ethernet, internet and data center solutions to businesses throughout the Midwest," and "has more than 10,000 route miles and comprehensive data center connectivity at 100 Gbps," said a March 23 application to transfer licenses. Everstream GLC directly, and indirectly through Lynx Network Group, provides competitive telecom services in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, while Evergreen Solutions holds domestic Communications Act Section 214 authority but doesn't provide telecom service, said a Wireline Bureau public notice April 10.

TPx Communications pressed the FCC to deny USTelecom's forbearance petition for ILEC relief from wholesale network sharing duties under the Communications Act. "TPx explained the continued importance of unbundled network elements ('UNEs') and resale to competitive markets and the adverse impact forbearance from Section 251(c) obligations would have on its customers," said a filing by U.S. TelePacific, Mpower Communications and Arrival Communications (all "TPx") posted Friday in docket 18-141 on meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel. They also met an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly (here) and Wireline Bureau staff (here). "TPx has made substantial investments in collocations and equipment to provide broadband, voice, plain old telephone service ('POTS') and bundled services to its customers using UNEs," it said. The Computer & Communications Industry Association voiced concern "that, pursuant to [a Further] NPRM on modernizing the Commission’s Form 477 data collection ... the Commission would eliminate its ability to assess the level of competition in the marketplace for Business Data Services," said a filing in docket 11-10 on meetings with aides to Rosenworcel and Carr. "If the Commission were to 'eliminate the separate reporting of available contractual or guaranteed data throughput rates for business/enterprise/government services', it could no longer assess whether competition has developed under its new scheme, and, at worst, it would have to conduct another data collection like the massive undertaking that precipitated the Tariff Investigation Order and FNPRM."