Cable lobbied the FCC last week on the Universal Service Fund and...
Cable lobbied the FCC last week on the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation, before Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated an order on the topics (CD Oct 7 p1), filings in docket 10-90 show (http://xrl.us/bmfj53). Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable…
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and American Cable Association executives had conversations with Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett and others in the bureau, an Office of General Counsel staffer and/or Zac Katz, aide to Genachowski who helped write the order. GCI and NCTA also wrote the agency about the ILEC-backed ABC plan. “Many incumbent providers are unwilling to interconnect and exchange traffic in IP format, yet also are unwilling to pay the applicable access charges when the traffic is exchanged in traditional Time Division Multiplex (TDM) format, with the cable operator bearing the additional cost of converting the TDM traffic to IP,” NCTA said (http://xrl.us/bmfj6u). “There is broad support for the end result proposed in the ABC Plan -- a unified termination rate of $0.0007 that applies to all traffic exchanged between telecommunications carriers in TDM format, without regard to the format in which it is originated or terminated.” The ACA asked that “any distribution of Connect America Fund” being set up to help pay for broadband be “consistent with the Commission’s objective to deploy broadband to unserved areas in a manner that is effective, efficient, and competitively neutral.” The group cited its “alternative” to the plan that was submitted to the agency with the NCTA (CD Oct 5 p13). Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable want USF reformed “in a manner that brings stability and predictability to ICC arrangements and eliminates on a going-forward basis wasteful ICC disputes between” ILECs and VoIP networks, the three companies said (http://xrl.us/bmfj64). They want “a seamless transition from the current system to a unified transport and termination rate for all voice traffic.” GCI, which seeks a plan for Alaska, where it’s the No. 1 cable operator, that may be different from the USF order for the continental U.S., said (http://xrl.us/bmfj7a) the ABC plan needs some changes “for the rules to achieve the objectives of unified and harmonized intercarrier compensation rates and reduced arbitrage.”