CompTel urged the FCC to “act on or initiate a new proceeding” to stop premature copper retirement by incumbent local exchange carriers. CompTel CEO Jerry James met with members of the FCC broadband team and the Wireline Bureau Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing. Two competitive local exchange company petitions on copper retirement have been pending since January 2007; the FCC sought comment but never took action. Competitors are now enhancing existing copper plant to support broadband services, so FCC action on the subject could take the form of a recommendation in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, said a competitive industry official. The Wireline Bureau could also take independent action, the official said. It’s likely the FCC would refresh the record or open a new rulemaking before making any new rules, the official said.
A federal appeals court found that an arbitration clause in AT&T wireless contracts is unenforceable under California law. The arbitration clause requires customers with disputes to seek arbitration, and bars class actions. In an order Tuesday by a three-judge panel, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a district court decision denying an AT&T motion to compel arbitration in a class- action lawsuit. The lawsuit in the lower court challenged the company’s practice of assessing taxes for cellphones based on their retail prices even when they come “free” with a contract.
FairPoint filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, the company said Monday. Though experts saw the move as bad news for Verizon-Frontier review, Verizon and Frontier executives expressed confidence about closing the deal as scheduled.
The FCC Communication Systems Analysis Division called in cybersecurity experts from USTelecom, AT&T, Qwest and Verizon for a meeting Oct. 22, a USTelecom ex parte filing said. They discussed cybersecurity and the commission’s “broader goals of collecting information on the resiliency of networks to withstand cyber attacks,” USTelecom said. The FCC is looking to “broaden its role” in cybersecurity, and it called the industry providers in to get their opinions, a USTelecom spokesman said.
Supercomm organizers hoped to bring “stability” to the annual trade show this year, Managing Director Jan Maciejewski said in an interview. Supercomm has had a complicated history -- “owned by one association, owned by another, joined together, split,” he acknowledged. “We wanted to give it a clear direction,” including by ending the annual guessing game on what the name and location of the show will be, he said. The management has already announced that next year’s show will be back in Chicago, Oct. 26-28. Final numbers on 2009 attendance and exhibit rentals haven’t been released, Maciejewski said. “Before we opened we were tracking ahead of our expectations,” he said. If the trend held up, “we should all be satisfied with what we've done.” Maciejewski said “some people have challenged me about which companies are here and which are not, and my response is very straightforward: The industry changes and therefore people choose to be in or not depending on how we drive the show and what’s in vogue and where developments are.” He predicted that a growing number of applications and services companies will participate “as we develop the show.” Supercomm staff held focus groups throughout the three days, but the results have yet to be released. “Every piece of feedback that I've had has been outstanding” on the keynote speakers and other show content, Maciejewski said. A meeting after the show is planned with exhibitors to get their comments about the show, he said: “We will listen to them and develop it from there.”
U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra called for a “commonwealth” approach in which government and businesses come together on friendly terms to advance the “common good.” Under this approach, laws aren’t always needed to effect positive change, he said in a keynote at Supercomm. In another keynote, Cox President Patrick Esser advocated a public-private approach to spur broadband adoption. Meanwhile, an AT&T executive warned that regulatory uncertainty could undermine investment by the telecom industry.
CHICAGO -- The need for a long-term and “holistic” commitment to spurring broadband is the most important lesson to be learned from international broadband comparisons, FCC broadband plan coordinator Blair Levin said at Supercomm Wednesday afternoon. “If this is just kind of a one-shot deal, five years from now it will just be like an infinite number of other things” that people talked a lot about but never accomplished, he said.
CHICAGO -- The FCC’s National Broadband Plan presents an opportunity to take on long-awaited revamps for the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation, said industry executives on a panel Thursday at Supercomm. But analysts said they were skeptical. “The realist in me doesn’t think it’s going to happen,” said Moody’s analyst Gerald Granovsky.
Several telephone companies that serve prisons are facing a lawsuit by Millicorp, parent company of ConsCallHome.com, a controversial call routing service that reduces the cost of prisoner phone calls. Securus Technologies, one of the prison telcos named in the suit, has petitioned the FCC to ban such call routing services, which the company said threaten security and public safety (CD Sept 2 p5). The Millicorp suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sought $75,000 in damages, plus declaratory and injunctive relief. Millicorp alleged that Securus, Global Tel Link, T-Netix and Evercom Systems committed common law tortious interference and civil conspiracy to commit tortious interference when they blocked calls to ConsCallHome. The telcos’ actions violate the 1934 Communications Act and 1996 Telecom Act, as well as various state unfair and deceptive trade practices acts and consumer protection laws, Millicorp said. “What we are trying to do is provide a cost effective solution for family members whose loved ones are incarcerated,” President Timothy Meade said. “Paying upwards of $20 for a 15 minute phone call is a burden that our customers just cannot afford. The prison telephone providers are, as our lawsuit explains, simply put, not only inappropriately blocking these calls but they are also taking outrageous advantage of this targeted group of people with their monopolistic practices.” Stephanie Joyce, an Arent Fox attorney representing Securus, said the lawsuit is “wholly without merit.”
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he has grown increasingly convinced that disabilities access must be a critical part of the National Broadband Plan. He said the FCC commissioners have been invited to a commission hearing Nov. 6 at Gallaudet University on disability issues. Copps spoke at a daylong broadband staff workshop Tuesday on the topic, the second the commission has held on disability matters as it develops the plan.