The FCC said six companies switched consumers' telecom service providers without their authorization, violating rules against "slamming." The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau issued nine orders Tuesday granting consumer slamming complaints against America Net (here), CenturyLink (here), GPSPS (here, here and here), Long Distance Consolidated Billing (here), TeleDias Communications (here and here) and TeleUno (here). None of the companies was fined, but in cases where consumers had not already paid unauthorized service fees, the unauthorized carriers were ordered to remove all charges incurred for service provided to complainants for the first 30 days after the service change. In those cases where consumers had already paid unauthorized service fees, the FCC ordered the unauthorized carriers to forward to the consumers' authorized carriers (which in at least two cases was also CenturyLink) an amount equal to 150 percent of all charges and copies of their bills; the authorized carriers were then ordered to credit or refund to consumers 50 percent of what they had paid the unauthorized carriers, among other actions. The bureau Friday issued similar orders finding four companies had engaged in slamming (see 1512180043).

Global Tel*Link asked the FCC to stay inmate calling service (ICS) rate caps in a commission order, pending further judicial review of those caps and other aspects of the order (see 1510220059). The stay is warranted because Global Tel*Link is likely to succeed in its legal challenge to the order on its merits, the company would otherwise suffer irreparable harm, and the balance of equities favors a stay, GTL said in a petition filed Tuesday at the commission in docket 12-375. "The reviewing court will likely set aside the rate caps, first of all, because -- as the Commission itself acknowledged -- they do not allow ICS providers to recover the legitimate costs of providing service in correctional institutions," GTL said. "To obtain permission to place their equipment inside prisons and jails, ICS providers must pay state and local authorities location rents or site commissions. The Commission recognized that the rate caps it set do not allow ICS providers to recover those location rents," the company said. The caps thus violate (1) Section 276(b)(1)(A) of the Communications Act requiring the FCC to ensure ICS providers are fairly compensated for all calls from their payphones, (2) Section 201 requiring "just and reasonable" rates, and (3) the U.S. Constitution, which bars "confiscatory rates," GTL said. It said the FCC "expressed its distaste" for site-commission payments to correctional authorities but declined to prohibit them. "The Commission cannot endorse site commissions -- however reluctantly -- yet prevent ICS providers from recovering that real cost of providing service," said GTL. The company said it would suffer irreparable harm without a stay because it wouldn't be able to recover the revenue lost due to the "unlawful, confiscatory rates." The FCC had no comment, a spokeswoman said. Securus Technologies, which had also said it would seek a stay, also had no comment.

NCTA urged the FCC to reject Level 3 arguments and adopt a broadband consumer disclosure format recommended in an FCC Consumer Advisory Committee proposal (see 1511040030). Level 3 wrongly assumes that broadband providers are solely responsible for interconnection links, "notwithstanding the indisputable fact that the conduct of both parties affects the performance experienced by the customer," NCTA said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-28 responding to a Nov. 25 Level 3 filing (see 1511270035). NCTA said the FCC had recognized that interconnection was "far more complex than suggested by Level 3," and found in its net neutrality order that prescriptive rules would be premature. "Of particular note," the commission considered and rejected additional reporting duties on interconnection link performance, the cable group said, asking the agency to dismiss Level 3's plea for new reporting duties as "untimely and unwarranted." NCTA disputed Level 3 suggestions that, absent further reporting obligations, the FCC's performance measurements in its Measuring Broadband America (MBA) reports are misleading and harmful to consumers: "This allegation is complete nonsense." The charge is "particularly inappropriate given the structure of the program and the significant role Level 3" has played in it in recent years, the group said. "Through the program, broadband providers voluntarily submit to a measurement process that is overseen by a government agency (the Commission), administered by the Commission’s contractor (SamKnows), and run on facilities provided by third-parties whose advocacy is consistently hostile to broadband providers (M-Lab and Level 3)," NCTA said. "Given the rigorous nature of the testing, the Commission appropriately has found that disclosure of MBA results constitutes a safe harbor with respect to the requirement to report the actual performance of broadband service." NCTA also disputed Level 3's proposals for specific reporting requirements. Level 3 called the NCTA filing disappointing. "This isn't, or at least shouldn't be, about Level 3's or NCTA's members' business interests," emailed Joe Cavender, Level 3 vice president-federal affairs. "It should be about consumers. Consumers deserve to know what kind of performance ISPs actually are providing, and any performance disclosure that ignores the importance of interconnection simply fails consumers. Moreover, as we explained in our ex parte, the types of performance disclosures we propose are required by law. NCTA's argument to the contrary is just wrong."

The Universal Service Administrative Co. projects $1.9 billion will be available from past years to carry forward into funding year 2016 for the Schools and Libraries Support Mechanism, which funds E-Rate USF discounts, USAC CEO Chris Henderson told the FCC in a letter Monday filed in docket 02-6. Of that amount, $1.36 billion is from funding years 2013 and before, $355 million is from funding year 2014 and $188 million is from funding year 2015, Henderson said.

Federal judges denied the motion of William Cunningham to file an amicus brief in the FCC net neutrality and broadband reclassification case (USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063). A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a short order Monday denying the motion without further comment. Cunningham had asked Dec. 7 that his amicus brief be allowed months after a deadline because he isn't a lawyer and didn't have access to the court's "ECF System" for making filings.

The FCC partially granted an incumbent telco request to extend the comment period in the rulemaking on special access business data services. An order issued Monday by the Wireline Bureau in docket 05-25 extended initial and reply comment deadlines to Jan. 22 and Feb. 19, respectively; they had been Jan. 6 and Feb. 5. USTelecom joined by ITTA filed a joint petition asking the deadlines be extended until at least 12 weeks after business market data submitted by industry parties was declared final and all software tools sought by the petitioners to analyze the data were made available (see 1511100068). "Even with the data set subject to refresh, parties have been able to perform significant analysis," the bureau said. "Although we find the Joint Petitioners have not demonstrated the need for a twelve week extension of time, we will extend the comment deadlines by an additional two and a half weeks to account for the upcoming data refresh."

Participants in a real-time text field trial "reported high satisfaction scores on the tested RTT technology," said Gallaudet University's Technology Access Program, Omnitor and the University of Wisconsin's Trace Center, in a report posted Friday in FCC docket 15-178. It covered a 2015 field trial of real-time text and its interoperability performed by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Telecommunications Access across three different calling environments. The report also notes overviews of current deployment and standards for real-time text. Telecom carriers see RTT technology as an IP-based replacement for text telephony services. Cellular South is the latest carrier seeking a TTY waiver to use RTT (see 1511240009).

Two contenders for the GOP presidential nomination blasted net neutrality regulation in videos posted last week by a group called Protect Internet Freedom. The group’s website doesn’t list its funding or details of its formation. “The net neutrality rules promulgated by this administration along with the big businesses that stand to benefit are as good an example of crony capitalism as any,” former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said in one video. “Net neutrality proponents did a masterful job of marketing all this with the help of late night hosts and political spin, arguing it would level the Internet playing field. The truth, however, is that it will insert Washington bureaucracy and control into the 21st century’s greatest success story.” She argued that only big companies can handle the imposition of such regulations. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also criticized the FCC’s February order. “Calling it a utility or getting the government involved is exactly the wrong thing to do,” Paul said in another video. “I’m absolutely opposed to having the Internet considered to be a utility. I would undo every bit of it that’s done through executive order and I would try to keep the government’s tentacles and overreach out of the Internet.” Paul also criticized rival candidate Donald Trump for recently saying he's open to shutting down parts of the Internet for national security reasons. “The Internet’s about speech, and I don’t think we ought to be considering any candidate that wants to put impediments to freedom of speech,” Paul said.

Supporters of an FCC proposal to set aside vacant TV band channels in every market nationwide for unlicensed use after the TV incentive auction “have repeatedly ignored the dramatic policy shift it would represent and the associated harm it would cause,” NAB said in a letter filed at the FCC, reporting on meetings between NAB officials and aides to the commissioners. “The Commission’s proposal would, for the first time, remove channels within the TV band from TV use in favor of unlicensed use, and constrain broadcasters’ ability to meet a central tenet of the Communications Act: robust and ubiquitous service to the American people,” NAB said. The proposal would also be harmful for viewers across the country, “particularly in rural areas, who rely on [low-power] TV and translator service,” NAB said. In June, the FCC proposed to reserve at least one TV channel in every market in the U.S. for white spaces devices and wireless mics after the incentive auction and repacking (see 1506160043). NAB filed in docket 12-268.

Stations participating in the incentive auction and involved in pending transactions will need to take special steps since FCC registration numbers were frozen as of Dec. 8, the Incentive Auction Task Force announced in a public notice Thursday. Since FRNs are used to access the auction system, broadcasters involved in transactions that want to offer up the spectrum of their newly acquired stations have two options, the PN said. First, the purchaser could “contractually designate” the seller -- under whose FRN the sold stations would still be licensed -- as the purchaser’s bidding agent for the stations affected. Or, the parties could agree that the buyer will use the seller’s FRN in the auction, though this could give both parties access to the bidding data associated with that FRN, the PN said. A new FRN can be generated and assigned to the seller’s remaining stations, the PN said. FCC approval of any pending transactions will be conditioned on the parties’ express agreement to one of these options, the PN said. The agency isn’t liable for any information gained through the use of a shared FRN, and the parties are still subject to the quiet period communications prohibitions, the PN said.