The FCC authorized $16.1 million to four entities to do rural broadband experiments to bring high-speed service to 2,451 census blocks in five states. Skybeam was authorized to receive $11.8 million for five experiments in Iowa, Nebraska and Texas, said a Wireline Bureau public notice issued Thursday in docket 14-259. The bureau also authorized Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative to receive $2 million for two experiments in Minnesota; Federated Telephone Cooperative to receive $1.4 million for one experiment in Minnesota; and Daktel Communications to receive $875,000 for one experiment in North Dakota.

Securus Technologies said it's contacting law enforcement authorities about media reports that inmate calling records were leaked online. In a statement Friday, the inmate calling service provider said it has "seen no evidence that records were shared as a result of a technology breach or hack into our systems." Instead, it said, the preliminary evidence "suggests that an individual or individuals with authorized access to a limited set of records may have used that access to inappropriately share those records." Securus said it will support law enforcement in prosecution of individuals found to have illegally shared information. "Data security is critically important to the law enforcement and criminal justice organizations that we serve, and we implement extensive measures to help ensure that all data is protected from both digital and physical breaches," Securus said. "It is very important to note that we have found absolutely no evidence of attorney-client calls that were recorded without the knowledge and consent of those parties. Our calling systems include multiple safeguards to prevent this from occurring. Attorneys are able to register their numbers to exempt them from the recording that is standard for other inmate calls. Those attorneys who did not register their numbers would also hear a warning about recording prior to the beginning of each call, requiring active acceptance." The Intercept Wednesday ran a story headlined "Not So Securus: Massive Hack of 70 Million Phone Calls Indicates Violations of Attorney-Client Privilege."

USTelecom believes the FCC and industry are "close to the finish line" in the effort to overhaul rural USF voice subsidy mechanisms to support both broadband and voice service by rate-of-return carriers. USTelecom is "committed to reaching agreement on the few remaining points that need to be resolved," said a filing posted Thursday by Robert Mayer, USTelecom vice president-industry and state affairs, after a meeting with FCC and state officials. "I noted that USTelecom had been working closely with a group of associations and our members on the plan and that we had members who were leaning towards the proposed Model option and others who were interested in the Non-Model option. I indicated that it was in our mutual interest to reach agreement among the participating associations," Mayer's filing said. NTCA earlier this week warned there wasn't enough time to adopt a broad rural USF overhaul this year, though more targeted reforms to fix the "standalone broadband problem" were more doable (see 1511100064). Other groups posted short filings Thursday in docket 10-90 noting FCC meetings on USF issues.

Commissioner Mike O'Rielly wants the FCC to "see market realities and eliminate the requirements associated with this supposedly 'dominant' status" of incumbent phone companies, he wrote on the agency's blog Thursday. He said a USTelecom petition seeking a review on the matter that has been pending since December 2012 should be OK'd. "While it is true that incumbents still account for most of the remaining switched access lines, that’s no longer a useful or relevant way of looking at the voice market," as options abound for consumer phone calls, he said. "In 2013, less than one-third of American households purchased an incumbent switched access service, and that figure is projected to drop to under 20 percent by the end of this year." O'Rielly said such trends are shown in the commission's local phone competition reports. "Dust off" USTelecom's "petition and grant some relief," O'Rielly wrote of the association's request for a declaratory ruling to give ILECs relief from dominant-carrier regulation. A commission spokesman declined to comment. USTelecom thinks "the blog is accurate," emailed an association spokeswoman.

NTCA said more time is needed for a comprehensive rural carrier USF overhaul than is currently anticipated under the FCC's timetable for action this year. Citing the "complexity of proposals and the currently fluctuating and unclear state of the record on them," the FCC processes "necessarily require more time than permitted before a year-end Commission vote," NTCA said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. NTCA said the FCC could by year-end adopt a fix to solve some targeted issues, including the "standalone broadband problem" under which rate-of-return rural carriers currently lose high-cost USF support when customers switch voice service to other providers.

The FCC dismissed three Frontier Communications pole-attachment complaints against Duke Energy after the companies settled their disputes, the Enforcement Bureau said in orders released Tuesday in dockets 14-213, 14-214 and 14-215 (here, here and here).

A federal appellate court upheld a lower court ruling dismissing Spectra Communications' claims that a Missouri city violated federal and state law by forcing the company to comply with a local ordinance on public rights of way, including pole attachments. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision by a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri that sided with the city of Cameron, Missouri, against Spectra, which is owned by CenturyLink. "The district court dismissed one of Spectra's federal claims for failure to state a claim and, in light of parallel state court proceedings, later dismissed Spectra's remaining claims on the basis of res judicata or, alternatively, abstention. The district court also denied the City's motion for attorney fees. Spectra and the City filed cross appeals. We affirm," said the panel in its ruling Tuesday in Spectra Communications Group v. City of Cameron, No. 14-2808. Section 253 of the federal Communications Act "does not create an individual private right of action and the district court therefore did not err in dismissing Spectra's § 1983 claim. In addition, the district court did not abuse its discretion in abstaining under the Colorado River case or in denying the City's motion for attorney fees," the panel said.

Global Tel*Link urged the FCC to reject a motion against its letter that cited threats against company executives arising out of the FCC's inmate calling service actions and statements. In a response posted Friday in docket 12-375, GTL said the motion of the Martha Wright Petitioners to strike its Oct. 27 letter from the record and sanction the company for allegedly violating Sunshine Act rules should be rejected because the letter "is not part of the record for the inmate calling service ('ICS') proceeding" and thus "is not ripe." GTL offered various arguments for why the letter was not an official "presentation" covered by the rules or an attempt to influence the ICS rulemaking. GTL said it simply considered the threats a "safety of life" issue. Referring to both the GTL letter and similar Securus filings, the Martha Wright Petitioners said Friday, “It is our understanding that the FCC has determined that the ex parte notices apparently violated the FCC’s rules. We are confident that the FCC will take the appropriate action to address the matter.”

Great Lakes Comnet criticized the FCC defense of an order that sided with AT&T in finding certain GLC access-charge tariffs exceeded a CLEC benchmark rule. The FCC justification (see 1510060033) of its interpretation of Rule 61.26 “is inconsistent with the Rule’s plain language, contravenes the FCC’s past pronouncements as to its meaning, and involves mutually inconsistent interpretations of different subparts of Rule 61.26,” said GLC and subsidiary Westphalia Telephone in their reply brief Wednesday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Great Lakes Comnet v. FCC, No. 15-1064). GLC said the FCC order “retroactively changed the plain meaning of Rule 61.26 in an adjudicatory proceeding. The agency found the intermediate carrier was a CLEC -- and thus couldn’t have access tariffs above an ILEC competitor’s rates -- even though its tandem-switch and transport services didn’t directly serve retail end users. GLC said that finding “nullifies the carve-out" from unpaid bill-and-keep traffic exchanges the FCC created for intermediate carriers in a 2011 intercarrier-compensation overhaul. GLC said the FCC also erred in (1) not giving it a rural exemption, (2) finding AT&T Michigan was the competing ILEC, (3) engaging in an unconstitutional taking by forcing it to offer services for free through bill-and-keep, (4) applying the decision retroactively, and (5) making certain statute-of-limitations findings, which GLC said the commission had conceded. The company said the FCC brief made various misstatements of facts, including suggesting long-distance carriers such as AT&T have “no choice” of intermediate carriage to reach local networks, which GLC said it did. GLC also disputed FCC claims that the company (1) “inserted itself in the traffic stream," when instead it had responded to an AT&T service request, (2) “stipulated that it serves urban areas,” when it noted only that it had transport facilities in both urban and rural areas, not that it "served" (originated/terminated traffic from/to) end users in urban areas, and (3) engaged in improper billing to “disguise” traffic, when it made a “simple billing mistake” that was quickly fixed.

The FCC proposed to freeze video relay service rates for smaller VRS providers, which along with larger providers have been subject to regular compensation rate cuts. The commission proposed to partially modify ongoing rate cuts in a four-year VRS compensation plan adopted in 2013 "by adopting a limited-duration compensation rate freeze applicable to VRS providers with 500,000 or fewer monthly minutes," said a Further NPRM released Tuesday in docket 10-51. "Under this proposed modification, such providers will receive compensation at a rate of $5.29 per minute for a maximum of 16 months beginning July 1, 2015. We also seek comment on whether to adopt a number of measures that could enhance the functional equivalence of VRS." As expected (see 1510220067), the notice didn't include an order, as a draft VRS item originally contemplated (see 1510160026). Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, who said he supports seeking comment on freezing the rates for the three smallest VRS providers, partially dissented from the FNPRM. He cited concerns about potentially unjustified expenses.