The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) formally requested the FCC’s opinion Tuesday on telcos’ legal ability to implement call-blocking technology. Thirty-nine AGs asked the FCC in the NAAG letter whether legal prohibitions against software like Call Control, NoMoRobo and Telemarketing Guard are “subject to change” if customers specifically request the use of the software. USTelecom had said last year that legal restrictions against those technologies prevented telcos from implementing the technologies, NAAG said. The group asked the FCC if carriers can legally block a call if technology identifies a call as coming from a telemarketer, provided the telco wants to block at a customer’s request. NAAG also asked the FCC to clarify the accuracy of USTelecom’s description of the FCC’s position as a “strict oversight” of the delivery of telecom traffic and that call blocking is an “unjust and unreasonable practice” under Communications Act Section 201(b). The telcos’ resistance to implementing call-blocking technology “raises important questions. If a solution to the nation’s illegal telemarketing problem is possible, it will require the private sector -- including telephone carriers -- to get involved,” NAAG said in the letter (http://bit.ly/Zg5uKS). USTelecom is “reviewing the letter” and continues “to work on this issue,” a spokeswoman said.

A number of redactions in Neustar’s reply comments about the selection of the next local number portability administrator should be removed, Venable’s James Barnett and McKenna Long’s Jason Carey and Erin Sheppard, all representing Telcordia, told officials of the FCC Public Safety Bureau Thursday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1Ar4H5i) posted in docket 09-109 Friday.

The Justice Department cleared Level 3’s proposed acquisition of tw telecom (CD June 17 p7), said the buyer in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1uGrbh5). This completes the process under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, it said. The deal also needs approvals from the SEC and the FCC, a Level 3 spokeswoman said. Some had asked the FCC to condition the approximately $7 billion deal (CD Sept 4 p5).

The FCC should enforce requirements mandating telecom relay service equipment be compatible with other such equipment, ASL/Global VRS Managing Partner Angela Valcarcel-Roth and Vice President Gabrielle Joseph told officials with the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and the Office of the Managing Director, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1q7PHcq) posted Friday in docket 10-51. Joseph and Valcarcel-Roth discussed last week’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision putting on hold stricter standards for how quickly VRS calls must be answered (CD Sept 4 p7), the filing said. The executives also provided information about expanding capabilities for deaf/blind users through video relay services. They also raised concerns about compensation rates under a competitive bidding process and the disproportionate financial impact of commission penalties on smaller companies, said ASL/Global, a provider of interpreting services.

The FCC should bar paid prioritization that degrades service if a company won’t pay extra, but should allow the option of “fast lanes,” said Progressive Policy Institute Senior Fellow Hal Singer during a teleconference Friday. Singer co-authored a policy report (http://bit.ly/WpI1Fy) released Thursday that advocated the FCC avoid Title II regulation in the net neutrality debate, and rely on its Section 706 authority to deal with abuses by Internet service providers on a case-by-case basis. Title II would “zap” broadband investment, while not encouraging investment by edge providers, Singer said during the call.

The Henrico County School District’s application for review of its denial for E-rate funding was denied by the FCC, in an order (http://bit.ly/1pya507) released Thursday. The Wireline Bureau had upheld the Universal Service Administrative Company’s denial of the Richmond, Virginia-area school district’s funding requests for funding year 2008, said the order, which was adopted Wednesday. The bureau said Henrico violated the commission’s competitive bidding rules by failing to use price as the primary factor in selecting vendors for telecommunications and high-speed Internet access, the order said. Commissioner Ajit Pail concurred with the decision but criticized the bidding process. The bidding rule doesn’t require the lowest-priced bid to be selected, Pai said in a statement. It requires only that cost must be given “more weight” than any other factor -- “so if an applicant considers ten factors, price could be weighted as little as 11 percent,” said Pai, who called the rule “nothing more than a paperwork exercise” that “elevates form over substance."

The FCC shouldn’t regulate intrastate inmate call rates, said the Virginia Association of Counties in a letter (http://bit.ly/1psMNZC) to the agency, posted in docket 12-375 Wednesday. The association opposes a “one-size fits all federal policy,” (CD July 10 p4 and believes state and local correctional systems should be allowed to decide inmate intrastate rates based on “the circumstances and policy priorities facing their localities, region and state,” the letter said. Banning inmate service providers from paying commissions to correctional institutions would cost Virginia local and regional jails about $13.5 million annually that the jails use to offset the cost of providing phone and other services to inmates, the letter said.

The FCC should grant Smith Bagley Inc.’s petition for a partial waiver, in which the independent Lifeline auditor would examine only one of the company’s two largest states, Lukas Nace lawyers David LaFuria and Robert Koppel told Wireline Bureau officials at an Aug. 27 meeting, said an ex parte notice (http://bit.ly/WfJCxh) posted in docket 11-42 Wednesday. SBI operates in only three states and would be the only multiservice operator required to have 100 percent of its operations audited, the Smith Bagley representatives said.

The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment by Sept. 12, replies by Sept. 19, in dockets including 02-278 on a Unique Vacations petition seeking a declaratory ruling and/or a waiver from FCC rules on fax ads, in a public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/1sR19GM). The company said Section 64.1200(a)(4)(iv) shouldn’t apply to faxes sent with the “'prior express invitation or permission'” of the recipient, the PN said. The petition also sought a declaratory ruling that providing opt-out instructions on the first page of faxes “'complies substantially'” with the rule, or short of that, clarification that the opt-out requirements were not promulgated under Communications Act Section 227(b), the PN said. Other companies have filed similar petitions (CD Aug 4 p8).

The FCC lacks “legal or constitutional authority” to pre-empt state municipal broadband laws, said American Commitment, a Washington-based free market organization, in comments (http://bit.ly/1tZPAhe) posted Thursday in dockets 14-115 and 14-116, in advance of the end of the comment period Friday night. The Wireline Bureau declined to extend the deadline. (See separate report above in this issue.) Under the 2004 case Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League, the FCC would need express statutory authority from Congress to pre-empt the laws, because the commission would “interpose ‘federal authority between a State and its municipal subdivisions’ and alter ‘a State’s distribution of its own power,'” the organization said. Communications Act Section 706 does not mention pre-emption authority, the filing said. NetCompetition also cited Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League in comments, said the organization’s blog (http://bit.ly/YYKiZP). The Supreme Court rejected the use of Title II as authority to pre-empt state prohibitions of localities offering telecom services, so “it is hard to see how the FCC’s new-found, ...Section 706 authority would be sufficient to trump the Supreme Court’s defense of state’s rights in the Constitution,” the post said. NetCompetition also said that municipal broadband networks are anti-competitive, arguing “when governments try and offer a similar service that private companies have long provided consumers, these governments effectively are opposing and undermining private companies in the marketplace -- not ‘competing’ with them.” The FCC does have authority to pre-empt the laws, said Momentum Telecom (http://bit.ly/1plUrL5). Section 706 gives the commission and the states “broad authority and discretion to determine when, where, and how to ensure that ‘all Americans have access to advanced telecommunications capabilities on a reasonable and timely basis.'” The FCC should grant the petitions by Wilson, North Carolina, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to pre-empt municipal broadband laws in their respective states, said Holly Springs, North Carolina (http://bit.ly/1q8aFH1). The town council in 2013 authorized building a municipal network, and it was completed earlier this year, the town said. “Already, the network has succeeded in providing stronger, more reliable connectivity between public buildings and community anchor institutions.” Holly Springs said the network supports a public Wi-Fi network, and a private provider leases space on the network “to facilitate potential economic development by providing services to businesses.” The town “is an example of a community where private sector entities like Google and AT&T have expressed no interest or willingness at this time to build fiber infrastructure,” it said. “Because of our robust fiber network, the Town is palatable for new businesses and attractive to researchers.” Despite those gains, the North Carolina law limits the public-private partnerships the town is able to explore “due to the stymieing effect of North Carolina anti-municipal broadband legislation,” Holly Springs said.