Lifeline wireless providers plugged their petition for FCC reconsideration and clarification of its order overhauling the USF low-income subsidy program. The commission March 31 approved extending Lifeline funding to broadband service while phasing out stand-alone voice support, shifting the duty to oversee consumer eligibility from carriers to a national verifier, and creating a process for designating national Lifeline broadband providers supplementing the current state-by-state eligible telecom carrier (ETC) process (see 1603310056). The Joint Lifeline ETC Petitioners said they looked forward to offering broadband Lifeline service and working with regulators on ways to improve the enrollment process both before and after a national verifier is implemented, in a filing posted Thursday in docket 11-42 by American Broadband & Telecommunications, Blue Jay Wireless, i-wireless, Telrite, Assist Wireless, Easy Wireless, Prepaid Wireless Group and TruConnect. They said the Joint ETCs also are asking the commission to: "modify a minimum service standard formula and adopt a more graduated phase-in" of broadband requirements; complete a Lifeline market report before ending support for stand-alone voice service, given the "continuing value of voice service"; ensure the national verifier can engage in real-time eligibility determinations; and extend streamlined 60-day consideration to all ETC petitions. It opposed some calls of other petitioners, including to ban in-person handset distribution and incentive-based compensation, and to lift a "12-month benefit port freeze for broadband plans."
FairPoint Communications updated the FCC on its move to private broadband carriage for its rate-of-return telco affiliates, which allows them to stop making USF contributions for associated revenue (see 1606280037). The telco June 23 notified the commission it planned to cease offering broadband internet transmission service as a telecom service and begin offering it as private service for 19 of its rate-of-return LEC affiliates (see 1606230071). That took effect Monday, FairPoint said in a filing Wednesday in docket 14-28. It further notified the FCC of its plans to shift its three remaining "average schedule" rate-of-return LEC affiliates to private broadband carriage on Oct. 23. In a June 15 order, the FCC confirmed that rate-of-return carriers could offer de-tariffed wholesale transmission service only to their affiliated ISPs on a private carriage basis as an input in the provision of mass market retail broadband Internet access service, relieving that service of USF telecom revenue contribution duties. Carriers choosing that option had to give the Wireline Bureau 60 days notice. Trey Judy, Hargray Communications director-regulatory affairs, said in June he expected other rate-of-return carriers to follow FairPoint's example. Home Telephone ILEC told the FCC in an Aug. 12 filing it would move to private broadband carriage. Price-cap telcos, including FairPoint's affiliates, are currently not subject to USF contributions for their broadband revenue, though a USF federal-state joint board that advises the FCC is reviewing contribution issues.
The FCC teed up Global Reconnect's planned buy of TerraCom, a wireless and wireline telecom carrier that serves low-income persons with funding support from the Lifeline USF program. Comments are due Sept. 7 and replies Sept. 14, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 16-268.
The FCC could learn much about process from state utility commissions, said state commissioners in interviews amid their lawsuit against the federal regulator over usurping state powers (see 1606030053). State commissioners from both parties and four states said it should be a priority for the FCC to answer stakeholder concerns about transparency and politicization at the federal agency. NARUC President Travis Kavulla told us his Montana Public Service Commission "and probably most state commissions have much more sunshine than the FCC does." The FCC isn’t dysfunctional, but to maintain public trust it shouldn’t take openness concerns lightly, said Florida PSC Commissioner Ronald Brisé.
Commissioner Mike O'Rielly says the FCC has made strides in resolving his concerns that commissioners faced censorship on pending agency items while Chairman Tom Wheeler and his staff were free to selectively disclose matters. "Thankfully, we've had decent progress toward fixing this one process area," O'Rielly said, responding to our query. However, questions remain about a leak that FCC and congressional Republicans say helped scuttle a bipartisan Lifeline compromise among commissioners March 31, which is being investigated by the agency's inspector general. Responses to a Communications Daily Freedom of Information Act request detail much late congressional lobbying of the FCC on Lifeline.
This Communications Daily Special Report, "Assessing Wheeler's Legacy," shows how the FCC under Chairman Tom Wheeler has operated, controversies, plaudits and all. Subscribers also can now access these seven stories online at www.communicationsdaily.com.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., spoke to telecom officials in his state Monday, citing the precedent that FCC chairs step down at the end of a given administration, an aide told us. Thune’s exchange came at the South Dakota Telecom Association during its annual meeting in Brookings. Thune has pressed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to step down at the end of the Obama administration and said Wheeler's reluctance to make that commitment contributed to the GOP holds on the reconfirmation of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Thune also spoke about net neutrality and how that issue is affecting the landscape and on USF and the status of stand-alone broadband support, the aide said. Thune called such stand-alone support an achieved matter following years of pressure but pledged to monitor the more comprehensive rate of return overhaul the FCC adopted this year.
The Competitive Carriers Association stressed the need for the FCC to get the definitions right for served and underserved as it takes up USF “reform” and potentially a second mobility fund, said a filing about a CCA meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. O’Rielly recently suggested the FCC use “population” as a metric for identifying areas in need of support, CCA said. “CCA encouraged the Commission to include road miles, farm land, and Federal lands as mobility is essential for next generation technology including 5G and the Internet of Things to flourish throughout the country,” said the filing in docket 10-208. “It is imperative that any methodology portray an accurate picture of the rural landscape, measuring which areas are served and which are not.”
ITTA said it backs aspects of an NTCA petition for FCC reconsideration of a USF order in March updating subsidy mechanisms for rate-of-return telcos (see 1605250068). ITTA lauded the commission for working with industry groups on the USF broadband overhaul and said it's "especially gratified" rural carriers were given the option of receiving support based on a broadband cost model. In "this spirit of ongoing partnership and collaboration," the midsize telco group backed "three discrete issues" raised by NTCA. "ITTA agrees with NTCA that the Commission should clarify its order to ensure a better understanding of where an unsubsidized competitor actually purports to serve before eliminating support in a census block," said its comments posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. ITTA also echoed NTCA's request that the FCC confirm that, where there is competitive overlap, rural incumbents can choose freely from among the agency's defined formulas for recovering disaggregated costs. And ITTA supported NTCA's call for commission reconsideration of a requirement to impute access recovery charges where carriers can show they "had a certain number of standalone broadband connections when the Connect America Fund -- Intercarrier Compensation (CAF ICC) support baseline was set."
AT&T alleged Great Lakes Communication violated Communications Act provisions by denying AT&T's long-distance business the benefits of direct connection and lower rates. GLC's refusal to give AT&T a direct connection arrangement "was an unjust and unreasonable practice in violation of section 201(b) of the Act," said an AT&T complaint, part of a 1,407-page FCC filing posted Wednesday in File No. EB-16-MD-001. AT&T said GLC is required under the rules to "benchmark" its rates and offer services that are functionally equivalent to those of another carrier, CenturyLink, which offers direct connection. GLC offered a comparable service but withdrew it in an amended tariff after the 2011 USF and intercarrier compensation overhaul order, said AT&T. It said direct connection "would dramatically reduce the charges assessed to AT&T" and other long-distance carriers and their customers for GLC's "access stimulation traffic." GLC violated Sections 203(c) and 201(b) of the Act "by billing for services that were contrary to the terms set forth" in GLC's revised tariff and the agency's rules, AT&T said. It said GLC may not recover expenses from long-distance carriers for its regulated interstate call termination services except via a valid tariff or an "express, negotiated contract." A U.S. District Court ruled in AT&T's favor, dismissing GLC's state law recovery claims, AT&T said. The company said it was filing the complaint pursuant to FCC staff instructions after the carrier and GLC disputed the significance of two District Court referrals to the agency. GLC outside counsel David Carter of Innovista Law called the complaint "an effort to relitigate some of the FCC policy decisions" from the 2011 order, "where AT&T lost some of these same arguments." He said the company will have more to say when it responds at the FCC.