The FCC Wireline Bureau further revised its broadband cost model for rural telcos that could choose to rely on model-based USF support under possible revamping of rate-of-return carrier subsidy mechanisms (see 1510050062). The latest Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM v2.0) incorporates various changes, including to rural carrier "study area" (service territory) boundary lines and node locations, based on updated data collection, said a public notice released Thursday. The bureau said because of the boundary line changes, "it will be difficult to draw meaningful comparisons" between results from ACAM v2.0 and prior versions, the most recent of which was released on Aug. 31 (see 1508310060). The model-based approach is one part of an overhaul envisioned by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who recently said the reform effort was close to bearing fruit but could also still fall apart (see 1509210029).

The FCC should take "immediate action" on a draft item on "functional equivalency and rate stabilization for video relay services (VRS)," said a filing posted Thursday by Convo in docket 03-123. Convo said rate reductions have caused a financial struggle the company can't sustain much longer without a reprieve. Convo noted that some consumer groups have followed VRS providers in filing for a waiver of a requirement that the last four digits of VRS registrants' Social Security numbers be collected.

Securus said the FCC's draft inmate calling service order could put it out business (see 1509300067). In a meeting with agency officials, "Securus explained that, if adopted, the rates and rules in [an FCC] Fact Sheet could be 'a business ending event' for the company," said a filing posted Thursday in docket 12-375. "Under the rate caps listed in the Fact Sheet, there being no rules in the draft order that address site commissions, Securus may be forced to continue paying site commissions on all existing contracts, even though the draft rate caps are significantly below Securus’s cost to provide service. Securus currently pays approximately $140 million of site commissions on local and intrastate ICS." Pay-Tel Communications also made filings expressing concerns about the FCC's proposed treatment of site commissions, which ICS providers often pay to correctional authorities to win contracts. The commission plans to vote on the draft order and a further NPRM at its Oct. 22 meeting.

The FCC should deny a petition to reduce telecom pole attachment rates that was filed by NCTA, Comptel and TW Telecom in docket No. 09-51, said Ameren, AEP, Duke Energy and Tampa Electric in an ex parte filed Wednesday. A 2011 commission order has already reduced telecom pole attachment rates by one-third, they said. The rate formula the companies use now doesn't discourage broadband deployment because the FCC's recent reclassification of broadband as a telecom service would change prices only for cable companies, which have already deployed their networks, their filing said. The petition's proposed definition of cost assumes that the exact same pole decreases in cost each time an attachment is added, which is not the case, the ex parte said. A draft FCC order would approve the cable/telco petition, agency and industry sources told us recently (see 1510020043).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau dismissed another pole-attachment complaint, this one filed by Fiber Technologies Networks against three Duke Energy companies. In its dismissal order posted Monday in proceeding 14-227, the bureau noted the companies had settled their dispute.

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved a Consolidated Communications petition seeking a waiver of the "all-or-nothing rule" for price-cap telcos. In an order posted Tuesday in docket 15-74, the bureau said Consolidated, an ILEC holding company with price-cap subsidiaries, had gained control of three rate-of-return companies, and sought the waiver so it can continue to operate the companies under rate-of-return regulation. "The public interest would be served by granting the requested waiver while the Commission is considering a number of regulatory reform proposals that could impact these subsidiaries," the bureau said. The all-or-nothing rule is designed to ensure that all of a carrier’s territories and affiliates are subject to a single form of pricing regulation, either price-cap or rate-of-return regulation.

CenturyLink became the latest ILEC entity to attack CLEC special access arguments about FCC discretion to regulate incumbent telco business market services. In a filing posted Monday in docket 05-25, CenturyLink said Birch Communications, BT Americas and Level 3 effectively had asserted the FCC has "virtually limitless authority to impose every conceivable type of wholesale regulation of ILEC business data services," including by reversing enterprise broadband forbearance relief, scrapping DS1 and DS3 pricing flexibility, reimposing price-cap regulations and reducing price-cap rates. The CLECs believe the FCC can "adopt whatever special access regulation it wants -- regardless of the evidence, or lack thereof -- as long as it mouths the necessary findings, based on its status as an expert agency," said CenturyLink. "In other words, the Joint CLECs suggest, the results of the special access data collection are secondary: the Commission can and should decide now (before even receiving public comment on the special access data) to impose utility-style regulation on ILEC special access and enterprise broadband services, knowing that it can later construct the justifications necessary to have that decision upheld by a reviewing court. The Commission should reject the Joint CLECs’ cynical arguments, which are both wrong and flatly inconsistent with the Commission’s stated intention of employing a data-driven review of its special access regulations." The CLEC proposals would lead to the FCC being reversed in court and "years of investment-choking regulatory uncertainty," CenturyLink said. USTelecom and AT&T previously made similar filings (see 1509250043 and 1509290036).

The FCC should reform USF subsidy mechanisms for rate-of-return telcos this year, two rural LEC representatives and their consultants said in a filing in docket 10-90 Thursday by Cheryl Parrino of Parrino Strategic Consulting Group. Officials of Great Plains Communications and Consolidated Cos., Parrino and former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth met with Wireline Bureau officials and commissioner aides Tuesday and Wednesday, Parrino wrote. "We also informed the offices that a model option is very critical for many rural companies like Great Plains and Consolidated and that without that option many rural customers will not receive the benefits of broadband deployment," Parrino said. "We indicated that the work on the model is well fleshed out and that the industry has made good progress on legacy reform." Rural telco groups proposed a framework for revising FCC (legacy) rate-of-return high-cost USF mechanisms to facilitate broadband support while also giving carriers the option of receiving support based on a revised broadband cost model (see 1506030052 and 1506040028). Rural telco representatives have continued to discuss specific reform ideas with the agency. Asked if the FCC would seek public comment on any proposed new rules, Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero said Wednesday at an FCBA event that the agency would look to whether the proposals "are within the four corners" of a 2014 NPRM to make a determination.

The FCC dismissed the pole attachment complaint of Cox Communications Hampton Roads against Dominion Virginia Power. In an order Thursday, the Enforcement Bureau granted the dismissal motion of the companies after they settled their dispute (see 1509280043).

Broadband privacy, a USTelecom forbearance petition and transaction reviews were also on the FCC Wireline Bureau's agenda outlined Wednesday by bureau chief Matt DelNero at an FCBA event (see 1509300068). He said broadband privacy, which flows from the FCC's decision to reclassify broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, is in the "pre-NPRM stage" and involves various bureaus, but his bureau is taking the organizational lead. He noted the USTelecom petition asking the FCC to forbear from applying various regulations to ILECs is due for a commission decision by Jan. 4 (see 1509250046 and 1509160028). DelNero said the bureau was also devoting "a lot of resources" to reviewing pending transactions, including Charter Communications' proposed buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable.