The FCC urged the Supreme Court to deny a petition for writ of certiorari to a plaintiff who alleged that Clear Channel violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit “correctly determined that the FCC’s use and explication of its TCPA exemption authority is entitled to deference,” the commission said in a brief in opposition (http://bit.ly/1szMaVW). “Further review is not warranted.” The FCC said a phone call from a TV or radio station whose purpose “is merely to invite a consumer to listen to or view a broadcast is not a telephone solicitation within the TCPA restrictions.” The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the complaint, and plaintiff Mark Leyse challenged the FCC rule in his petition, said the agency.

Data from a “preliminary” study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) shows interconnection is only one of “numerous reasons a broadband user could have a frustrating experience with their broadband,” said Doug Brake, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation telecom policy analyst, in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1ijT3X7). The MIT/UCSD study, released last week, showed congestion on the Internet doesn’t appear to be widespread and is mostly confined to issues like Netflix’s streaming latency (CD June 19 p9). Blaming network congestion on ISPs, as Netflix has, “is not at all supported by recent data collected by the FCC that shows ISPs deliver, on average, 101 percent of advertised speeds,” Brake said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau Connect America Cost Model order provides too much support to price-cap LEC territories, said the American Cable Association in an application for review (http://bit.ly/1jJQCI3) posted Monday in docket 10-90. The order is “erroneous” because it presumes too high a cost and too low of a “take-rate” -- revenue from users -- in calculating the funding, ACA said. The commission should have instead used figures suggested by ACA, the group said. It said that would let support be provided “more efficiently, enabling many more unserved locations to be supported in the Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II."

The FCC Wireline Bureau made some changes on local number portability (LNP), as recommended by the North American Numbering Council, while declining to approve a NANC preference involving states and changes to area codes. The bureau didn’t make any changes related to LNP administrator, which is the subject of a separate public notice after the NANC recommended a unit of Ericsson be the next LNP administrator, a job now held by Neustar. (See separate report in this issue.) LNP “provisioning flows” to improve the phone number porting process will be improved via changes to canceling a number port request, stopping new service providers from prematurely activating ports and other clarifications, said a bureau order released in Monday’s FCC Daily Digest (http://bit.ly/V6bFQ4). “Notwithstanding” the NANC’s “preference for area code overlays over area code splits,” the order said it clarified that “states still have the option to choose the best means of implementing area code relief for their citizens.”

The Ericsson unit that an FCC advisory group recommended be the local number portability administrator (LNPA) wants some changes to a commission protective order on bid documents. Telcordia Technologies, doing business as iconectiv, said some such documents can be made available without a protective order, some need a level 1 confidentiality finding -- requiring such an order to be issued -- while still others should be deemed as a current order calls for as highly confidential, or level 2. In a filing posted Monday in docket 09-109, John Nakahata of Harris Wiltshire, a lawyer for iconectiv, reported having told FCC Office of General Counsel staffers that a level 1 protective order “would supplement the current protective order.” Categories of those able to view highly confidential documents should be expanded to include some in-house lawyers and subject matter experts at some companies, associations, public interest groups and local, state and federal agencies, wrote the lawyer for iconectiv (http://bit.ly/1lkpyUi). The North American Numbering Council recommended that firm, rather than current administrator Neustar, be the next LNPA (CD June 11 p16). A Wireline Bureau order Monday made other changes to local number portability processes as recommended by the council. (See separate report in this issue.)

Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said the FCC must provide more clarity on its Communications Act Section 214 discontinuance of service rules as the IP transition moves forward. His comments came in a meeting with Daniel Alvarez, an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The agency could pursue several approaches, from an enforcement letter of inquiry to a general inquiry into industry practices to an information request or some combination “as long as the Commission actually does something,” Feld said. “Continued failure of the agency to act undermines the confidence of the public in the agency’s ability to manage the transition and protect consumers.” The FCC posted Feld’s filing Monday in docket 12-353 (http://bit.ly/T3yW3b). Feld said he did not specifically discuss AT&T’s IP transition pilots, but said there remains “considerable confusion over the relationship between the pilot projects and Section 214(a).”

The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) annual reports, it said in a public notice in docket 02-60 Thursday about increasing broadband use for providing such medical care (http://bit.ly/1qyAZus). In an accompanying order, the bureau waived the annual reporting requirements for rural healthcare pilot program and HCF consortium leads for funding year 2013. The bureau asked how it should structure those reports for funding year 2014 and beyond. Comments will be due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Net neutrality rules won’t be effective if broadband ISPs “can simply shift blocking, degradation and discrimination upstream to where the broadband access providers interconnect with the rest of the networks that constitute the global Internet,” Netflix executives told FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and other agency officials Monday, said an ex parte filing in docket 14-28 (http://bit.ly/1pjLDS8). Netflix said it supports FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s initiative to bring greater transparency to the issue of interconnection congestion (CD June 16 p1). “Strong net neutrality” will ensure broadband ISPs don’t use their “gatekeeper power” to prevent consumers from “using the online services they want and have paid for,” Netflix said.

U.S. schools need 100 Mbps or more of Internet access today, and 1 Gbps by 2017, dozens of CEOs and heads of educational technology companies said in a letter sent to the FCC chairman and every commissioner posted Thursday in docket 13-184 (http://bit.ly/1uH5gVG). A revamped E-rate program would focus on broadband connectivity and infrastructure, invest in more upgrades to connect every school to fiber and every classroom to Wi-Fi, and improve broadband affordability by maximizing competition, the letter said. A revamp should also increase transparency and accountability to reduce costs by releasing more data on existing network infrastructure and the price paid by schools for E-rate services, the letter said. “Nowhere is the opportunity so vast, the need so urgent, and the policy so vital for advancing a brighter, more connected educational future.” Commissioner Ajit Pai said Wednesday he won’t vote to approve any E-rate revamp that increases its budget (CD June 19 p1). The CEOs writing the FCC were from Channel One, Girls Who Code, Kickboard and other entities.

Neustar objects to an FCC “second level protection order” in the Local Number Portability Administrator vendor context, it told Wireline Bureau and Office of General Counsel officials Monday, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 09-109 Thursday (http://bit.ly/1qwx3dG). That order assumes the “most important documents and information in the record” are “highly confidential,” and places the burden of proof on parties who wish the information to be made public, said the company. “Full transparency is required to produce the kind of record that will support notice and comment rulemaking, which is required in this proceeding.” The FCC is seeking comment on an advisory group’s recommendation that Telcordia get the LNPA vendor job, a contract Neustar has that’s up for renewal (CD June 11 p16).