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.

The FCC should consider an overhaul for USF support in high-cost areas served by rural, rate of return-regulated local exchange carriers proposed by NTCA, Senior Vice President-Policy Michael Romano told Wireline Bureau officials Tuesday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1nEbYbU) posted in docket 10-90 Wednesday. The reforms would create a “well-constructed transition over time away from legacy support mechanisms to a simple and straightforward new mechanism focused on supporting broadband-capable networks in high-cost areas served by smaller carriers,” the filing recounted he said.

The FCC seeks comment on a Sprint petition for a limited waiver of a commission rule restricting access to the Internet-based telecom relay services numbering directory to only the TRS Numbering Administrator and Internet-based TRS providers, a public notice (http://bit.ly/1opN8fi) said Wednesday. Sprint wants the waiver to let it, as a provider of federal relay services, populate its federal video relay service (VRS) toll-free “front door” phone numbers and 10-digit numbers into the iTRS Numbering Directory, the PN said. Sprint asserts that federal employees who are deaf or hard of hearing and have been assigned a Federal VRS number are unable to make point-to-point video calls, it said. Comments are due in docket 05-196 15 days after Federal Register publication, replies 25 days after publication.

Adtran is offering Gigabit services for hard-to-reach, high-density dwellings. Adtran’s portfolio will include an expanded offering of optical network terminals for multiple-dwelling units (MDUs), like apartment buildings, it said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1tDRrKk). The company is helping operators maximize the MDU market opportunity “by addressing key cost issues and deployment complications associated with delivering Gigabit services to these locations,” it said.

FirstLight Fiber bought G4 Communications. G4’s assets include a customer base and data center in Manchester, New Hampshire, FirstLight said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1tKYIar). FirstLight’s fiber network has 190,000 “fiber miles” throughout New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York, it said. FirstLight’s resources and facilities in Nashua, New Hampshire, “will serve to enhance support and services offered to G4’s customers,” it said.

The FCC should grant petitions from Wilson, North Carolina, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to pre-empt state anti-muni broadband laws, said Davidson, North Carolina, and the SouthEast Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (SEATOA) in separate comments posted in dockets 14-115 and 14-116 Wednesday. “Numerous plans” were in the works by North Carolina communities to build fiber networks for retail business and residential use, Davidson said (http://bit.ly/1rAlVhS). It said they “ground to a halt” with the passage of a North Carolina law that created “numerous and varied restrictions” that “effectively prohibit local communities from deploying modern broadband networks and services to their citizens.” The law was a “major reason a collaborative effort by the towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Mooresville and Troutman and Mecklenburg County” ended with three of the entities dropping out, Davidson said. Calling the two laws “artificial state barriers to broadband infrastructure investment, deployment, competition, and innovation,” SEATOA, a chapter of NATOA, said (http://bit.ly/1AUAihQ) that pre-emption would “enable more communities to be self-reliant, and better enable America to maximize all resources so that no one is left behind and unable to participate in knowledge-based global opportunities for business, education, healthcare, security and quality of life."

Eligible telecom carriers have until Dec. 23 to obtain a valid household worksheet from Lifeline subscribers identified by the Universal Service Administrative Co. as an inter-company household duplicate, said an FCC public notice (http://bit.ly/1lu2x3F) posted Monday in docket 11-42. Detailing a process to resolve inter-company duplicates identified during the National Lifeline Accountability Database loading process, the agency said USAC will give each ETC a list of its subscribers with inter-company household duplicates. ETCs must communicate with their subscribers, informing them only one person per household is eligible and obtaining a household worksheet, said the PN. It said subscribers who don’t complete a household worksheet must be de-enrolled from the Lifeline program by the ETC by Dec. 30. The ETC must update the NLAD about subscribers’ status by Dec. 31.

The FCC should deny petitions seeking a waiver of Connect America Fund Phase II requirements to provide proof of a current or past customer to have a census block be deemed served, said Century Link (http://bit.ly/1tQylin) and USTelecom (http://bit.ly/1wwY2db) in comments posted in docket 10-90 Tuesday. The agency previously ruled against waiving the requirement and the petitioners have not shown “special circumstances warranting deviation from the evidentiary standard,” a requirement for granting the waivers, CenturyLink said. The waivers would not be in the public interest, CenturyLink said, because “the only thing that can be definitively concluded from these waiver petitions is that these petitioners are not providing service to any consumers in these census blocks. In short, the consumers in these census blocks are already being left behind.” The petitions rehash arguments that by the FCC, USTelecom said. By seeking to have the census blocks deemed served and ineligible for CAF, the petitioners “are seeking to deny the benefits of CAF Phase II funding to rural, high cost households that incontrovertibly do not have broadband today,” USTelecom said. The petitions were filed by Allen’s TV Cable Service, Armstrong Utilities, Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Shenandoah Cable Television, Shentel Communications, Suddenlink, Vyve Broadband and WaveDivision Holdings, CenturyLink and USTelecom. There were nearly 200 challenges total against all CAF Phase II funding requests (CD Aug 21 p2).

The FCC should ensure that tools and applications for the timely and economical management of 911 data currently in use remain available to 911 providers at no cost, and that any transition to a new LNPA (see separate report above) must not be allowed to adversely affect 911 data management, the National Emergency Number Association, also known as NENA: The 9-1-1 Association, said in reply comments (http://bit.ly/1AEYa96) Friday, posted to docket 09-109. To the extent LNPA candidates have not been asked about their ability to maintain number portability services 911 providers rely on, the FCC should consider amending the request for proposals to require confirmation that these critical services will continue to be available, the association said.

Responding to “questions” about the status of inmate calling service (ICS) provider commission payments to jails and local governments, the FCC Wireline Bureau issued a public notice (http://bit.ly/1qtYdgD) Wednesday reminding interested parties that a partial stay by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in January (CD Jan. 14 p3) does not affect aspects of the 2013 inmate calling order related to the commissions. That order found that the commissions “are a significant factor contributing to high rates,” and are not costs associated with providing the calling service and not compensable in ICS rates, the notice said. Based on a complaint, the commission is adjudicating whether interstate inmate calling rates exceed the cost of providing the service, and will factor in commission payments to correctional facilities, the notice said. Should inmate calling rates be considered unjust and unreasonable, the commission may lower interstate ICS rates, even below rate caps, as well as refunds to users, the notice said.