The FCC Wireline Bureau gave Alaska Communications Systems a limited extension of its July 24 deadline to complete broadband deployment using Connect America Fund Phase I incremental support, a bureau order said Monday. The bureau granted ACS until Oct. 31 to complete the broadband deployment due to "unique circumstances beyond its control." ACS expects to meet the original broadband deployment deadline for the vast majority of its required locations. "However, the nesting of a pair of bald eagles, which have produced one egg, on one of ACS’s microwave towers affects the deployment of broadband service to 138 of ACS’s 2,291 locations," the order said. "ACS states that this tower is included in the only middle mile transport route providing access to these locations; ACS has no alternative way of working around the tower. Federal law makes it unlawful to 'pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb' a bald eagle. As a result, ACS states that it will be unable to meet the deployment deadline of July 24, 2015 without disturbing the eagles in violation of federal law."

CenturyLink and ITTA urged the FCC to resolve the intraMTA (major trading area) intercarrier compensation dispute as soon as possible, according to an ex parte filing on a meeting they had with agency officials posted in docket 14-228. The LEC officials said the commission shouldn't wait for a U.S. District Court in Dallas to resolve litigation arising from the dispute, which is "creating massive and unnecessary uncertainty for the entire industry," the filing said. LECs say interexchange carriers (IXCs) should pay long-distance access charges for intraMTA traffic, but Sprint and Verizon say they're liable only for local reciprocal compensation, which involves lower costs (see 1505190056). The court won't hear oral arguments on LEC motions to dismiss IXC lawsuits making financial claims until September or October, with "no assurance of a prompt ruling" this year, the filing said. "With IXC withholdings continuing month after month, time is of the essence," the filing said. Meanwhile, Verizon officials told FCC officials recently there was no exception to an FCC intraMTA wireless traffic rule requiring reciprocal compensation payments when that traffic is carried by an intermediary carrier, such as an IXC, according to an ex parte filing on phone conversations they had. "The intraMTA rule says reciprocal compensation applies to wireless intraMTA traffic, and the Commission rejected the argument that access charges apply if intraMTA wireless traffic is routed through an intermediary interexchange carrier," the Verizon filing said. "We also said that it would have made no sense for the Commission to set a separate, higher, intercarrier compensation rate for some — but not all — intraMTA traffic at the same time the Commission put in a place a new intercarrier compensation system expressly designed to harmonize and reduce rates."

Frontier's recent compliance plan for taking advantage of cost-assignment deregulation under an FCC forbearance order drew no opposition or other responses in FCC docket 12-61 by the May 28 deadline for initial comments. "The fact that no comments in opposition were filed to Frontier's proposal perhaps is a sign that there is beginning to emerge a consensus that elimination of certain legacy regulations is so common-sensical that it is illogical to oppose them," Free State Foundation President Randolph May told us Monday in an email. Frontier on March 17 filed its plan for complying with continuing accounting requirements under the law and FCC regulations, which is a necessary step for gaining the partial cost-assignment forbearance relief granted to incumbent LECs. Frontier noted various actions it was taking to ensure it could provide certain accounting information to the commission in a timely manner, if requested, and that it was certifying its compliance with Section 254(k) of the Communications Act. In a blog Wednesday, Free State Foundation Research Fellow Seth Cooper said Frontier was seeking partial relief from Part 32 rules in particular, which include "nearly 70 pages of complex accounting requirements mandating maintenance of a separate accounting system" beyond its system using generally accepted accounting principles. "Yes, the FCC should certainly approve Frontier's compliance plan and grant partial forbearance relief from Part 32," Cooper said. "But in light of today's dynamic and competitive market conditions, no compliance plan should be required. Instead, the Commission should relieve carriers from costly duplicate accounting systems requirements altogether. The Commission has authority under Section 10 to act now and grant across-the-board forbearance relief from all cost accounting rules." Reply comments are due June 12.

Netflix continues to slowly increase its domination of North American fixed networks, generating 38.5 percent of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours, said a Sandvine report Thursday on North America and Latin America. In Latin America, Facebook and Google control more than 60 percent of total mobile traffic, said the provider of broadband monitoring services to ISPs. The release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare -- Ascendance DLC caused a significant spike in bandwidth usage, and generated 12 percent of traffic on one North American fixed network on its release date, said the report, based on data from a selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus communications service provider customers.

The FCC plans to vote June 18 on a draft order to authorize VoIP providers to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering administrators, rather than from intermediaries, said the agency's tentative agenda released Thursday. Under FCC rules and precedent, generally only telecom carriers can obtain phone numbers from numbering authorities for assignment to end users. That means interconnected VoIP providers such as Vonage must use carriers, such as CLECs and affiliates, to obtain numbers. The draft order would establish a streamlined process that would allow interconnected VoIP providers to request and obtain numbers directly from administrators, an FCC official said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau said it's ready to authorize $12.6 million of provisional support for six bidders to conduct 15 rural broadband experiments targeting 2,091 census blocks in eight states. In a Wednesday public notice, the bureau said the provisional bidders must "submit at least one acceptable irrevocable standby letter of credit and Bankruptcy Code opinion from their legal counsel" by June 10. The provisional bidders are: Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative, Consolidated Communications Networks, Delta Communications, First Step Internet, Northeast Rural Services and Skybeam.

The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on a proposed eligible services list for schools and libraries participating in the USF E-rate program for the funding year starting July 1, 2016, said a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest. Among the changes mandated by the December E-rate order are expanded use of services lighting up dark fiber, the notice said. Comments are due June 22, replies July 6.

Comcast and Level 3 agreed to a multiyear interconnection accord as part of a broader "multi-faceted arrangement that will help both companies meet their customer needs into the next decade and beyond," said a joint news release Thursday. Comcast and Level 3 executives hailed the mutual benefits of the agreement. The companies said the pact will enhance their network capacity, covering their existing networks and any expansion during the term of the agreement, which wasn't specified. Level 3 and other backbone providers have been reaching interconnection agreements recently with major cable and telco ISPs, with some saying the net neutrality order with its complaint process, including for interconnection, may be spurring more cooperation (see 1505010033).

Rural telcos reported progress but asked the FCC Wednesday for a couple more weeks to try to develop consensus proposals for reforming universal service funding for rate-of-return (RoR) carriers, said an ex-parte filing by WTA -- Advocates for Rural Broadband. Under prodding from the FCC to develop common proposals, representatives of WTA, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, the National Exchange Carrier Association, NTCA, USTelecom and others updated commission officials on the status of their efforts since April 16. That's when FCC officials asked the telco associations to develop a broad industry plan within a month, but it became clear recently that they hadn't reached a consensus (see 1505150046). In their filing, the groups said they had reached agreement on a number of issues but others remained unresolved for a variety of reasons, "including disagreements between certain representatives and insufficient time to work out the details of certain proposals and options." The groups asked for a two-week extension, until June 3, "to continue to negotiate a comprehensive plan for future RoR high-cost support," the filing said. FCC officials seemed receptive to the industry efforts, one telco official said. "Things are fluid. Hopefully we'll get a little more time to submit a framework," the official said. "We're trying to make sure the plan is all-encompassing," addressing proposals for carriers wanting to move to model-based support and rural group "data connection service" (DCS) proposals for carriers wanting revisions to the current mechanisms to facilitate stand-alone broadband support. The FCC has asked the groups to modify their DNS proposals by including some additional constraints, the telco official said. "So we're trying to make that happen."

Bandwidth will be provisioning and managing 911 emergency services capabilities for iTalkBB, a VoIP provider, said the vendor in a Wednesday news release. Bandwidth will handle iTalk's call termination process, helping the company manage the entirety of its emergency services process, it said. The vendor said it manages 911 services for the top 5 U.S. VoIP providers.