Alaska Communications knocked an Alaska Telephone Association wireless USF proposal to the FCC, saying it provides a windfall for competitors -- and General Communications (GCI) in particular -- without clearly addressing middle-mile connectivity needs in rural Alaska. ATA's proposal for keeping annual USF support for rate-of-return wireline telcos in the state at $55 million for 10 years, subject to reasonable broadband deployment expectations, was appropriate, said an Alaska Communications (ACS) filing in docket 10-90. The price-cap telco said the rate-of-return plan is consistent with its own Connect America Fund Phase II proposal for the state's price-cap areas. But ACS objected to ATA's "extraordinary" proposal to expand annual USF support for wireless competitive eligible telecommunications carriers in the state to $100 million for 10 years. The telco called the billion-dollar proposal a "CETC enrichment plan" that would not ensure connectivity to remote areas, including 188 Alaskan Bush communities. "ATA does not endorse a specific proposal for closing Alaska’s middle mile gap, with defined deployment milestones and enforceable performance standards for capacity, speed, latency, and -- most important of all -- service affordability (as the Commission adopted for the rest of the nation)," ACS said. It said much of the $1 billion would "underwrite GCI's unregulated middle-mile monopoly," thus harming competition. The telco said the FCC should address ATA's proposals for wireless and rate-of-return carriers separately. If the CETC support is increased, ACS said, the FCC should attach safeguards, including "reasonable non-discriminatory access obligations, affiliate transaction rules, and cost-based pricing requirements, to ensure adequate and quality broadband service sufficient to meet current and project demand." GCI Senior Counsel Chris Nierman emailed in response Tuesday: “All of the providers supporting the Alaska Plan have demonstrated its need and benefits to consumers. Alaska’s unique circumstances require an integrated plan to address the challenges for Alaska. Just as the FCC saw fit to provide stability for non-contiguous price cap carriers like ACS, a similar approach is appropriate for Alaska’s other providers.” ATA didn't comment, but its representatives last week discussed its planned "Alaska Infrastructure Fund" with Wireline Bureau officials, said a Monday filing that included detailed proposed revisions to the FCC's recently updated rate-of-return USF rules (see 1603300065).

Mitel agreed to acquire Polycom in a $1.96 billion deal, they said in a news release Friday. The cash-and-stock acquisition is expected to close in Q3, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals from the DOJ, FTC, Russia and Germany. The combined company will be located at Mitel’s headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, operating as Mitel under CEO Richard McBee but keeping the Polycom brand. The combined company will have a global workforce of about 7,700.

An educational alliance asked the FCC to extend an April 29 E-rate application deadline for FY 2017 funding requests. The Education and Libraries Networks Coalition (EdLiNC) said an extension is needed because recent FCC changes to the E-rate program -- and its application portal in particular -- created complications for parties seeking to apply for school and library broadband/telecom discounts. "With the E-rate application deadline of April 29, 2016 fast approaching, additional time to complete the application process would greatly benefit potential beneficiaries," said an EdLiNC letter posted Friday in docket 10-90. It didn't specify the length of a possible extension.

AT&T, CTIA and T-Mobile representatives met with FCC officials to urge the agency to build flexibility into proposed rules on the transition from text technology (TTY) to real-time text (RTT) technology. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated an NPRM on the transition April 7 for a vote at the FCC’s April 28 open meeting (see 1604070067). “As deaf, hard of hearing, and speech-impaired consumers increasingly adopt innovative wireless services, including Text-to-911, CTIA supports the Commission affirming the wireless industry’s ability to transition beyond yesterday’s wireless TTY obligations and toward solutions like real-time text that will better meet the needs of today’s consumers,” the wireless industry officials said. But the FCC should “provide flexibility for wireless providers and equipment manufacturers to develop and implement the necessary network and handset standards and capabilities to support RTT,” they said. The wireless officials met with Diane Cornell, special counsel to Wheeler, and Karen Peltz Strauss, deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said a filing posted Friday in docket 15-178.

The FCC Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture will start phase II of its work during a May 6 meeting at the FCC, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. “The Task Force will hear overview presentations of 2016 tasks from the Task Force’s three working groups; specifically Working Group 1 -- Optimal Approach to Cybersecurity, Working Group 2 -- Optimal Approach to NG911 Architecture Implementation, and Working 3 -- Optimal Approach to NG911 Resource Allocation.” The group completed a report last year, which it formally approved Jan. 29 (see 1601290051). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at the Jan. 29 meeting that he would make advocacy of more funding for next-generation 911 his top priority every time he appears before Congress in his remaining time as chairman. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. EDT in the Commission Meeting Room.

The FCC will allow a calling party's number to be passed on to local authorities in a New York state community to address threatening calls in a timely manner. The Enlarged City School District of Middletown sought a limited FCC waiver from a rule prohibiting terminating carriers from passing on a calling party's number (CPN) when that party has made a privacy request. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said such a waiver subject to certain safeguards will allow "security and law enforcement personnel to rapidly respond to telephone calls made to Middletown that threaten the safety of school children and employees, without undermining" commission policy objectives. "Middletown will be better able to protect the safety of its 7,500 schoolchildren and 700 employees by reducing the time required to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of threatening phone calls," said an order in docket 91-281 in Thursday's Daily Digest. "Middletown reports that within the last year it has received a dozen 'active shooter and bomb threats' from callers using restricted CPN, triggering lockdown procedures at its schools. Middletown confirms that many of the threatening callers use the CPN restrictions in order to delay authorities from identifying them or their location." Among the safeguards are a prohibition against passing CPNs on to called parties, restrictions on personnel with access to the numbers and a requirement to delete CPN information after a reasonable period of time.

The FCC Technological Advisory Council will meet June 9, the FCC said in a notice in Thursday's Federal Register. The meeting starts at 12:30 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room.

The FCC privacy NPRM is cut-and-paste regulation, said Roslyn Layton, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in a blog post Monday. “There is so much regulation on the books today that federal agencies can essentially copy-paste content from one commission to another, making duplicate regulatory regimes for different industries.” The FCC did exactly that in its “mind-numbing, 147-page-long” privacy NPRM, borrowing rules from the FTC, she said. By copying the FTC rules and applying them to just ISPs, “the FCC effectively insulates established Internet companies from competition by creating new barriers to entry in concentrated advertising markets,” she said. “As is par for the course with this FCC, the commission failed to provide evidence of consumer complaints and did not conduct an investigation to see whether abuse is actually occurring.” The NPRM said the rules were built on authority granted in many sections of the Telecom Act (see 1604040032).

By imposing net neutrality rules on ISPs, but not edge providers like Google and Netflix, the FCC is effectively picking winners in the Internet marketplace, wrote Bronwyn Howell, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in a blog post. “Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was becoming evident that regulators had effectively ‘picked a winner’ in the Internet marketplace by applying the provisions of the 1996 Telecommunications Act asymmetrically between phone companies and cable companies.” Phone companies were required to provide regulated, below-cost, access to selected “unbundled network elements” to their competitors, while cable operators were not. “Predictably, this significantly dampened phone companies’ incentive to invest in new infrastructure, leaving the market for the taking by cable companies,” she said. “Even if the architects of the 1996 Act did not intend to pick a winner in the Internet marketplace contest, the asymmetric application of the provisions nonetheless ensured that the spoils were unevenly shared.” The FCC fixed this “asymmetry” in 2003 by removing Internet unbundling obligations, she said. “Today, we are witnessing history repeat itself, this time with the Open Internet Order.”

Verizon is buying 24.5 percent of DreamWorks Animation's AwesomenessTV and plans to use it to launch a short-form mobile video service to be shown on Verizon's go90 video affiliate, Verizon said in a news release Wednesday. Verizon President-Product and New Business Innovation Marni Walden said, "The content AwesomenessTV has produced for go90 has exceeded all our expectations with shows such as Guidance and Top Five Live. That's why we want to be in the AwesomenessTV business." Verizon said the new content service, which will have an independent though so-far-unnamed brand, initially will be exclusive to its U.S. platforms, though AwesomenessTV will retain the right to sell it elsewhere in the world. Terms of the purchase weren't disclosed. The company said the deal on close will value AwesomenessTV at $650 million, which Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said would put Verizon's investment at close to $159 million. In a note to investors Wednesday, Fritzsche said the deal points to advertising-supported video service as among Verizon's top strategic focuses, if not paramount, and future tuck-in acquisitions and investments are likely. Macquarie Capital Analyst Amy Yong, in a note to investors, said, "Embracing the mobile ecosystem with Verizon will likely drive [AwesomenessTV's] Gen Z audience to become even larger. This transaction will redefine mobile video content for the millennial audience and positions AwesomenessTV as a top content leader." DreamWorks will remain the majority shareholder, with 51 percent, and Hearst will own the remaining 24.5 percent, Verizon said.