Representatives from a group of LECs met with FCC officials to make their case on an intercarrier compensation fight (see 1505190056) between LECs and interexchange carriers (IXCs) over “intraMTA” (major trading area) wireline-wireless traffic. The meeting focused on the petition for declaratory ruling and reply comments filed by the LEC coalition in the proceeding, said a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90. The FCC’s intraMTA rule “entitles wireless carriers to enter into reciprocal compensation arrangements for the exchange of LEC-CMRS [Commercial Mobile Radio Services] traffic but has no application to traffic exchanged between LECs and interexchange carriers over switched access trunks,” the LECs said. “We emphasized that the ‘intraMTA’ nature of traffic is not -- and never has been -- the sole factor in determining the type of compensation owed when it is exchanged by carriers.” The LECs said the relief they seek “would be consistent with longstanding industry practice, Commission and judicial precedent, and the public interest.” The LECs included Bright House Networks, CenturyLink, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Windstream; BHN and TWC are being bought by Charter Communications.

FCC staff told Securus a final order on inmate calling service rules is imminent, said a filing reporting on meetings CEO Dennis Reinhold and others from the company had at the commission. “Securus noted particularly that it met with the three largest law enforcement organizations to seek their active participation in this proceeding,” said the filing in docket 12-375. Securus also said it responded to a recent filing by Pay-Tel on specific proposals for overhauling FCC rules for inmate calls (see 1507140065). Securus “stated its commitment to serving correctional facilities of any size” if the FCC adopts a rate cap that it, Pay-Tel and Global Tel*Link have proposed of 20 cents per minute for prepaid calls and 24 cents per minute for collect calls, the filing said. “Securus will file a more detailed, written response to Pay Tel’s filing very soon,” it said. CenturyLink, meanwhile, "understands the Commission’s interest in inmate calling service reform,” the telco said. “Given legitimate questions about the limits of the Commission’s statutory authority, if reform is to be lasting, it must be reasonable, comprehensive, and sensitive to the interests of all parties -- including inmate families, correctional authorities, and service providers.” CenturyLink said rules should include a uniform rate cap, limits on ancillary fees and commissions, and a transition plan for current service providers. Separate treatment for uniquely high-cost facilities also is important, the company said. “Juvenile detention centers, secure mental health facilities, and small jails are uniquely expensive to serve due to factors like exceptionally low call volume,” CenturyLink said. “While these facilities house vulnerable populations of inmates/residents that deserve the benefit of any regulatory protections the Commission adopts for other inmates, these facilities are particularly costly to serve due primarily to low call volumes.”

Any objections to Sprint's plan to discontinue long distance service to wireline consumers should be filed by Sept. 3, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday in docket 15-186. Sprint announced its plan June 19 to stop providing the service Sept. 19 (see 1506190036), and the FCC said it would be allowed to do so, absent further commission action. "The Commission normally will authorize proposed discontinuances of service unless it is shown that customers or other end users would be unable to receive service or a reasonable substitute from another carrier, or that the public convenience and necessity would be otherwise adversely affected," the bureau said.

Hawaiian Telcom was awarded more than $4 million annually in Connect America Fund Phase II support from the FCC for six years -- a total of more than $26 million -- to expand rural broadband, the company said Wednesday in a news release. This follows recent announcements by FairPoint Communications (see 1508190014) and CenturyLink (see 1508140052), which said they also planned to accept CAF funds. Hawaiian Telcom said it plans to use the CAF Phase II support to deploy 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload broadband to more than 11,000 unserved locations primarily on the neighbor islands. The company previously used CAF Phase 1 support to deploy broadband to more than 500 locations on Hawaii Island and is working to deploy high-speed broadband to 1,300 additional locations, it said.

FairPoint Communications will accept $37.4 million of annual USF subsidies under Phase II of the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF II), a company release said Tuesday. The support for 2015-2020 will help FairPoint provide 10/1 Mbps broadband to about 105,000 homes and businesses with over 200,000 rural customers in 14 states, an FCC release said Wednesday. The Wireline Bureau in a Wednesday public notice authorized the CAF II distributions, the biggest chunks of which will go to upgrading high-cost networks bought from Verizon in three New England states: $13.3 million for Maine, $8.8 million for Vermont and $4.4 million for New Hampshire. "We are committing hundreds-of-millions of dollars in capital to build and upgrade infrastructure in our service territories to extend affordable broadband services to remote areas which will help businesses and residents alike stay connected to the world,” said CEO Paul Sunu in the company release. FairPoint was eligible for $38.2 million in 16 states but declined support for Colorado and Kansas. It said it would evaluate the competitive bidding process the FCC plans for areas where price-cap telcos decline CAF II money. FairPoint expects it will no longer receive $39.3 million in current high-cost "CAF frozen support" but will receive $7.4 million in transitional support. Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said the transitional support will wind down in stages by 2018. "Like the other RLEC peers, we believe FRP will be able to use this CAF support to its advantage," she said in a note to investors. "While there is of course a [capital expenditure] element to this build, the additional revenue it receives from the buildout of these additional households should help it longer term. We view the recitation of the prior guide for both [free cash flow] and capex as a positive and continue to believe FRP has greater cost cutting opportunities which could further drive EBITDA higher." Price-cap telcos have until Aug. 27 to make their CAF II decisions, but some others have already make announcements: Frontier will accept its full $283.4 million (see 1506160039); Windstream will accept $174.9 million of the $178.8 million it's eligible for (see 1508050072); and CenturyLink expects to accept at least $300 million of the $514.3 million it's eligible for, though it's still reviewing whether to take support in 11 of its states (see 1508140052).

Fiber networking provider Integra agreed to buy fiber connectivity company opticAccess, Integra said in a news release Tuesday. The 3,500-mile opticAccess network is along the West Coast and primarily serves the San Francisco and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, Integra said. The company said the acquisition will increase its near-net demand by nearly 40 percent and will provide an enhanced low-latency, long-haul fiber route between Seattle and Los Angeles. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 pending regulatory approval, Integra said.

The FCC gave Dominion Virginia Power until Oct. 19 to respond to Verizon's complaint against the utility's pole attachment rates, which the telco believes are excessive (see 1508040029), said an Enforcement Bureau letter posted Tuesday in docket 15-190. Noting its response was due in early September, Dominion (also known as Virginia Electric and Power Co.) had asked for a 60-day extension until Nov. 2 to respond to Verizon's 700-page complaint (see 1508130033). The bureau letter said Verizon would have until Nov. 9 to reply to Dominion's response unless commission staff rules otherwise.

The FCC teed up Odyssey Acquisition's proposed takeover of ExteNet Holdings units, with comments due Aug. 31 and replies Sept. 7, the Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Monday in docket 15-189. The ExteNet subsidiaries provide telecom services in 19 states and Washington, D.C., and have authorizations to provide service in 14 other states. "The ExteNet Companies design, build, own and operate distributed networks providing connectivity to distributed antenna systems and small cells for use by national and regional wireless service providers (WSPs)," the bureau said. "The ExteNet Companies are 'carrier’s carriers' providing point-to-point telecommunications services to their WSP customers over fiber optic cables and other transport media connecting remote communication nodes to hub facilities and other signal traffic aggregation points, and do not provide services directly to retail customers." Odyssey owns and operates distributed network systems and other wireless infrastructure assets, the bureau said. The parties can transfer control of the assets after 31 days unless blocked by the commission.

The parties to litigation over the FCC's interim inmate calling service (ICS) rules, which regulated interstate rates, briefly updated the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on the commission's current rulemaking to adopt permanent ICS rules. In a joint status report filed Tuesday in the case of Securus v. FCC, No. 13-1280, the Department of Justice, FCC, Securus Technologies and other petitioners said the commission received "voluminous" comments and was now considering those submissions and holding ex parte meetings with interested parties on final rules. The parties said the court in January partially stayed the FCC's 2013 interim interstate ICS rules while leaving other parts intact (included rate caps). They also noted the commission in October issued an NPRM aimed at overhauling its ICS rules and then asked the D.C. Circuit to hold in abeyance its review of the interim interstate rules on the merits, a request which the court granted last December. The court asked the parties to file status reports every 60 days; Tuesday's report was the fourth such report. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who as acting chairwoman oversaw the 2013 order, recently vowed to cut calling costs for inmate families (see 1507300067), and CenturyLink this week suggested capping all ICS rates "at or very near" interstate levels (see 1508170054). Some parties have told us the commission could issue an order this fall.

CenturyLink plans to cut its workforce by about 1,000, the company confirmed Friday in an emailed statement. "After careful consideration, CenturyLink has made the difficult decision to reduce its workforce," the statement said. "This includes current positions as well as not backfilling open positions." Affected employees will receive severance packages and assistance to find new jobs, including within the company. "Additional steps will include minimizing the number of contractors we work with, reducing travel expenditures and further reductions of non-employee-related expenses." CEO Glen Post said on an Aug. 5 analyst call that CenturyLink was planning a "reduction in the number of employees" to cut costs, according to a transcript of the call. On that call, Chief Financial Officer Stewart Ewing said CenturyLink estimates it will take at least $300 million of the $514 million in annual USF support it's eligible for under the FCC's Connect America Fund Phase II. CenturyLink is continuing to evaluate whether to take more than that and expects to notify the FCC of its final decision on or before an Aug. 27 deadline for price-cap telcos, the company said in a separate emailed statement. Ewing said the $300 million would go to about two dozen states where CenturyLink serves high-cost areas and it's studying whether to take the CAF II subsidies in another 11 states. If the telco doesn't accept the CAF II support there, Ewing said the company could continue to receive about $100 million in USF "frozen support." He said the FCC is unlikely to write rules before late 2016 or maybe 2017 for a reverse auction in areas where price-cap carriers don't accept CAF II money.