Proper testing and data collection of the functionality of home security alarms should be incorporated into the IP transition trials, Paul Plofchan, ADT vice president-government and regulatory affairs, told an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai July 9, according to an ex parte notice (http://bit.ly/1zBPAs0) posted in docket 12-353 Friday. Communications services intended to replace plain old telephone service must meet certain technical criteria, the filing said. It is critical to safety for the telecommunications provider to test alarm functionality and line seizure, ADT said. Representatives of ML Strategies also participated in the meeting, the filing said.

A 30-day extension for data from inmate calling service providers was granted by the FCC Wireline Bureau in an order (http://bit.ly/1tIT6R9) posted in docket 12-375 and released in Monday’s Daily Digest. Petitions by CenturyLink, Global*Tel Link, Inmate Calling Solutions, Network Communications International Corp. and Telmate for 60- or 90-day extensions were denied because they would delay commission action, the order said. A shorter extension was granted, because of “the scope of the data request and our interest in obtaining accurate and complete responses,” the order said. The data now are due Aug. 18, the order said.

Optic Internet Protocol faces a potential $7.62 million FCC fine for allegedly switching consumers’ long-distance phone services without authorization, billing customers for unauthorized charges and submitting falsified evidence to regulatory officials as “proof” of consumers’ authorizations, said an agency news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1oY2jhC). “Cheating and lying to consumers are unacceptable, predatory business practices,” said Travis LeBlanc, Enforcement Bureau acting chief. The FCC issued a notice of apparent liability to the company (http://bit.ly/1js1pfv). Optic provides 1+ dialing long-distance service, the release said. Consumers’ long-distance service was switched to Optic so long-distance calls are carried over Optic’s network and billed by Optic, the FCC said. Optic allegedly switched complainants’ preferred long-distance carriers and billed the consumers for long-distance service by placing charges for its set-up fee and recurring monthly fee on their local phone bills, the agency said. Optic typically charged customers a $3.95 or $4.95 one-time set-up fee and a monthly service fee of $4.95, $8.95 or $29.95, said the FCC. It said the agency reviewed more than 150 complaints against Optic that consumers filed with the agency, the FTC, state regulatory agencies and the Better Business Bureau. Optic wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Vonage and other VoIP interests lobbied the FCC last week. The agency’s proposal for direct access to numbers for interconnected VoIP (iVoIP) providers should be finalized, the company said in-house and external lawyers told FCC officials including General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and Wireline Bureau officials. Such direct access would let iVoIP providers “dramatically expand voluntary IP interconnection arrangements, creating a critical IP interconnection test bed as the Commission considers how to advance the IP transition while protecting the public interest,” said a Vonage filing posted Friday to docket 13-97 (http://bit.ly/1qAUuQc). “Based on its experience seeking IP interconnection with other parties, Vonage expects that a wide array of potential IP interconnection partners would be willing to enter into voluntary IP interconnection agreements with iVoIP providers if the Commission grants those providers direct access to numbers.” With no direct access, iVoIP provider numbers appear to belong to numbering partners, preventing direct routing for IP interconnection, said Vonage. “Direct access will also lower costs, enable innovative and advanced services such as HD voice” and have other positive effects, said the company. It’s among the backers of a petition by the Voice Communication Exchange Committee (also using the VCEX acronym) for the FCC to start an inquiry on HD voice. No filing in the comment cycle on the VCEX petition opposed such an inquiry (CD June 25 p15; June 26 p17; July 10 p5). VCXC founder Dan Berninger and VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver, both Vonage co-founders, warned the FCC of the consequences of imposing Communications Act Title II rules on broadband Internet access to achieve net neutrality, as an NPRM asks about. (See separate report above in this issue.) “Abandoning” the regulated Title II distinction for telecom and the nonregulated Title I approach for information services for net neutrality authority merits a much closer look and more “extensive evidence of market failure” than exists in the record, said Berninger and Pulver. A VCXC filing on their separate meetings with Commissioner Ajit Pai, an official in the Wireline Bureau and an officials the General Counsel’s office was posted Friday in docket 14-28 (http://bit.ly/1wmOPPb). The role state, telco and VoIP officials see for Title II rules in a transition from circuit-switched to IP phone service depends on how stakeholders would be affected by the IP transition and interconnection, our survey of stakeholders found (CD July 11 p7).

FCC approval of the E-rate order (CD July 14 p1) is “a big win for students and teachers everywhere,” EducationSuperHighway said in a statement Friday. “By connecting our nation’s students through Wi-Fi, this order offers a whole new world of educational opportunities in the classroom and beyond.” The group of nonprofits, foundations, associations, state education departments and others said it works to ensure U.S. primary and secondary schools have sufficient Internet infrastructure.

The challenges faced by each school or library are different, NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said in a statement after the passage of the FCC E-rate modernization order. (See separate report above in this issue.) “We need to make sure that limited E-Rate program resources are used effectively to address unique problems faced by individual institutions rather than being consumed for any single purpose,” Bloomfield said. The order “takes a step toward ensuring that our young people continue to have access to world-class learning resources -- regardless of where they live or the affluence of their school districts and libraries,” said PCIA CEO Jonathan Adelstein. The action “to use E-Rate funding in a balanced and integrated way to deliver true high speed Internet service to schools and libraries ... represents an important step toward realizing the promise of the Administration’s ConnectED initiative,” Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen wrote (http://bit.ly/1nfAej6) on the cable operator’s blog.

Further lowering inmate calling rates or eliminating commissions paid to governments by phone providers “could have a detrimental impact on both ICS [inmate calling service] providers and the jails and prisons that rely on these revenue sources to provide inmate phone services,” Network Communications International Corp. (NCIC) President William Pope said July 7 during separate meetings with staff for the FCC Wireline Bureau and Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Ajit Pai, according to an ex parte notice (http://bit.ly/1syGYxF) posted Wednesday in docket 12-375. Pope also said the data collection requirement in this proceeding is burdensome because NCIC does not maintain its data on a facility-by-facility basis and he encouraged approval of a 60-day extension sought by NCIC. The FCC should model any change to rates and fees on a recent order approved by the Alabama Public Utilities Commission. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision meanwhile outlined the steps it took in eliminating the commissions in 2007, in a letter (http://bit.ly/1mgWEVR) to the Wireless Bureau posted in the docket on Tuesday. Wednesday, an FCC workshop heard from ICS providers, commissioners and others on inmate call reform, which Chairman Tom Wheeler called a priority (CD July 10 p4).

The FCC should adopt as soon as possible a “carefully constructed” transition from legacy support mechanisms to a new mechanism focused on supporting broadband-capable networks, as it considers updates to the existing high-cost rules for areas served by rural rate-of-return-regulated LECs, NTCA and several other organizations told Wireline Bureau staff Tuesday, according to an ex parte notice (http://bit.ly/1r9iEm3) posted to docket 10-90 Wednesday. Also attending the meeting were representatives from the National Exchange Carrier Association, TDS Telecom, Totah Communications, USTelecom and WTA, as well as Jeff Smith of GVNW and Paul Cooper of Fred Williamson & Associates.

Comments on proposed USF overhauls are due Aug. 8, replies Sept. 8, in FCC dockets including 14-58, said the agency in a Federal Register notice Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1oJT46i). The NPRM seeks to adapt its universal service reforms to ensure those living in high-cost areas have access to services that are reasonably comparable to services offered in urban areas (CD April 24 p2).

A Verizon network operations team review of a Los Angeles customer’s complaint about buffering on Netflix while using a 75 Mbps FiOS connection “confirmed again” Verizon’s contention that Netflix’s buffering issues are occurring because of congestion at Netflix’s interconnection with Verizon’s border router, said David Young, Verizon vice president-federal regulatory affairs, in a blog post Thursday (http://vz.to/1mDnTcy). Netflix and Verizon have repeatedly sparred over the causes of Netflix’s latency issues, most recently due to messages Netflix was displaying in late spring for users on Verizon and some other ISPs blaming congestion on the ISPs’ networks for the problem. Netflix ended those messages June 16 after Verizon sent it a cease-and-desist letter (CD June 18 p7). The network operations team found that Netflix’s links to the Verizon network were congested while links carrying non-Netflix traffic “did not experience congestion and were performing fine,” Young said. Non-Netflix networks were using a maximum of 10-80 percent of capacity on their connections, he said. Verizon is “working aggressively with Netflix to establish new, direct connections from Netflix” that would fix the latency issues, Young said. A Netflix spokeswoman said in an email that “congestion at the interconnection point is controlled by ISPs like Verizon. When Verizon fails to upgrade those interconnections, consumers get a lousy experience despite paying for more than enough bandwidth to enjoy high-quality Netflix video. That’s why Netflix is calling for strong net neutrality that covers the interconnection needed for consumers to get the quality of INTER-net (cq) they pay for.” A Verizon spokesman said the telco had no additional comment.