The FCC Wireline Bureau cleared GTT Communications' takeover of Hibernia Atlantic conditioned on commitments sought by DOJ and other executive branch departments (Team Telecom) in their review of national security, law enforcement and public safety matters. The departments sought GTT compliance with two letters of assurance Hibernia provided -- in 2010 about its Atlantic cable system connecting the U.S., Ireland and the U.K., and in 2014 about its Project Express system -- both of which GTT agreed to in filings Wednesday (here and here). The bureau approved Hibernia license transfers from Hibernia's corporate parents to GTT subject to its compliance with those letters, said a public notice in docket 16-388 listed in Monday's Daily Digest. The PN said the approval didn't prejudice related commission actions; the parties also filed applications on the transfer of affected international authorizations. GTT, a cloud network provider, agreed in November to pay $590 million to buy Hibernia (see 1611090048) from majority owner Murosa Development -- a Luxembourg company owned by KCK Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company -- and others.

Sandwich Isles Communications asked the FCC to set aside and reconsider its order imposing $27 million in repayment duties on the company for violations of the USF high-cost program in Hawaii (see 1612060032). The Dec. 5 order should be set aside so parties can address its potential effects on end users at the same time as parties consider a $49.6 million fine the commission proposed for the company in an accompanying notice of apparent liability, said an SIC petition for reconsideration posted Thursday in docket 10-90. "Because of the interrelationship of this Order with the [NAL] issued on the same day, considerations of fundamental due process require that the Commission allow interested parties to comment on the issues and implications of this Petition for Reconsideration in the context of, and at the same time as, the comments due under the NAL." The order also should be set aside because it's "directly contrary to the unrebutted factual evidence submitted by SIC and constitutes administrative action that is arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law," it said. "The lone 'support' for the Commission’s [main] finding is a final audit report prepared by the Universal Service Administrative Company ('USAC'). This report, however, entirely ignored the unrebutted factual evidence submitted by SIC that demonstrates that the $26,320,270 in alleged ['Category 1'] overpayments is wildly overblown." SIC said the FCC never addressed the carrier's findings, confirmed by an independent telecom consulting firm, that the maximum amount of alleged Category 1 overpayments was only $4.1 million. "By ignoring this evidence, the Commission acted arbitrarily and capriciously," SIC said. FCC officials had no comment, including aides to Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mignon Clyburn, who issued a joint statement Dec. 5 endorsing the order.

Comments are due at the FCC Feb. 3 on AT&T's request to discontinue some services in its Southwestern Bell Telephone region, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 16-423 listed in Thursday's Daily Digest. The legacy services include telegraph bridging four-wire capability, channel-termination capabilities for digital WATS (wide-area telephone services) and other voice-grade transmission, telephotographic and "transfer arrangement" capabilities, AT&T said in its Dec. 15 application. "AT&T is discontinuing these services because there is no market demand for these service options. AT&T currently has no customers that subscribe to these service options and has not had any requests seeking these service options in the previous two years." The PN said the application would be deemed granted on March 5 absent further FCC action. The affected states are Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas.

Windstream rejected as "unfounded" the objections to its request to discontinue CLEC local exchange and DSL services to a total of about 300 customers in 23 states. The discontinuance "is intended to address a small number of locations served by end-of-life equipment where upgrades are cost-prohibitive and customers have alternative wireline service providers from which to choose," the telco replied Wednesday in docket 16-399. The FCC received more than 160 comments on Windstream's discontinuance application, with many saying consumers would be forced to rely on wireless services (see Ref:1612280029]). Windstream said the vast majority of commenters weren't its customers and wouldn't be affected by the discontinuance of services over equipment no longer supported by vendors. It also said the discontinuance won't result in the elimination of wireline services, as most commenters allege: "As a CLEC, Windstream is one of many providers offering wireline service in these areas. In fact, Windstream leases last-mile facilities from the underlying incumbent local exchange carrier (‘ILEC’) to provide the Services it is seeking to discontinue. The ILECs are providing and will continue to provide wireline service to affected customers. Windstream’s proposed discontinuance is not intended and does not result in customers having to rely solely on wireless services." A Wireline Bureau public notice said the discontinuance would be deemed granted in some states on Monday and others on Jan. 19 and Feb. 20 absent further commission action. A recent CenturyLink discontinuance application faced similar concerns about wireless service and radio frequency emissions (see 1611280031). The concerns "are based on the false premise that the proposed discontinuance will somehow affect CenturyLink’s provision of traditional telephone service or other landline-based consumer services. It will not," said a Dec. 6 CenturyLink filing, which noted the frame relay and ATM services to be discontinued were data services provided to enterprise customers. The FCC took no further action in docket 16-383 to block CenturyLink's application.

FirstLight Fiber and Oxford Networks combined their New York and New England operations after FirstLight parent Oak Hill Capital Partners completed acquiring Oxford, FirstLight said in a Wednesday news release. It "more than doubles the size of our business, dramatically increases our scale and network reach, and better positions FirstLight to continue meeting the growing bandwidth infrastructure needs of our customers,” said FirstLight CEO Kurt Van Wagenen. FirstLight also has a pending acquisition of Sovernet Communications, which is expected to close early this year and has needed regulatory OKs (see 1609280044). After it adds Sovernet, the company will have 9,500 route miles in five states and Canada, with 5,000 on-net locations and 11 data centers.

Arvig Enterprises said it's opting to detariff the consumer broadband-only loop service of its incumbent local telcos effective Feb. 1. The telco holding company is making the cost-allocation move under the FCC March rate-of-return USF overhaul order, it told the commission Friday. That order allowed ILECs to choose "permissive detariffing" in recovering a portion of their loops costs when providing broadband-only service, said Arvig's filings in docket 02-33 notifying the commission of the decision covering its 14 incumbents. Arvig said the detariffing affected only its own ISP, which purchases transmission services from the ILEC units as an input for its retail broadband services. "The provision of the Consumer Broadband Only loop service as a detariffed service will have no effect on the end-user services provided by the Company's affiliated ISP," said the filings. Arvig is the third largest local carrier in Minnesota, a company representative told us Tuesday. Other rate-of-return ILECs have also taken advantage of the detariffing option.

The FCC Wireline Bureau said Sweetwater City Schools didn’t violate E-rate rules and its funding should be restored for 2013-2015. The Tennessee school system sought to overturn a decision by the Universal Service Administrative Co. denying funding. The bureau granted requests for review and/or waiver filed by the school system on behalf of members of the Sweetwater Consortium and their service provider, Education Networks of America (ENA), said a Friday order. “We find that the Sweetwater Consortium did not violate the program’s rules requiring selection of the most cost-effective bid for eligible services,” the bureau said. “We also find that the consortium members that purchased E-rate eligible services from ENA had legally binding agreements with ENA prior to filing their E-rate applications. As such, they were in compliance with the funding year 2015 requirement for having legally binding agreements prior to filing their E-rate applications.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau rejected an appeal from the Harrisburg City School District in Pennsylvania of a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision that the district and its service provider, EMO Communications, must repay E-rate funds. The district’s former director of information technology was convicted of taking bribes from an EMO official and falsely certifying that EMO provided the system with E-rate supported services and equipment. Both the former school employee and EMO official were sent to prison and ordered to make restitution, the bureau said in a Friday order. USAC issued a "Notification of Improperly Disbursed Funds Letter to Harrisburg and EMO seeking to recover $2,885,475 (the $5,050,431 that was wrongly disbursed minus the $2,164,956 that was ordered to be paid in restitution),” the order said. The bureau upheld the decision by USAC. “The Commission has a duty to protect” the USF “against waste, fraud, and abuse, and such a duty requires us to seek recovery where, as in this case, the beneficiary bears the responsibility for a rule or statutory violation,” the bureau said. The school district didn't comment.

The FCC Wireline Bureau rejected some complaints asking for review, waiver or reconsideration of E-rate actions by the Universal Service Administrative Co. The bureau dismissed requests for review by Islamic Elementary School C in New York and Nay Ah Shing School in Minnesota, said a bureau Thursday notice. It dismissed as moot a waiver request by St. Ann School, New York, and request for review and waiver by Shiras Chaim in New Jersey. The bureau dismissed on reconsideration complaints by Assumption-All Saints School, Blessed Sacrament School, Holy Trinity Elementary School, Mother Seton Parochial School, Our Lady Help of Christians School, Our Lady of Good Counsel Elementary School, Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, St. Lucy's School, St. Mary’s High School, St. Patrick School and Future Generation, Inc., all in New Jersey.

The FCC reached an agreement with Birch Communications resolving an Enforcement Bureau investigation of whether the carrier had “slammed” consumers by switching their preferred phone carriers without authorization. Birch also allegedly “crammed” unauthorized charges on customers’ bills and engaged in deceptive marketing, the FCC said in a Thursday news release. In the settlement, Birch agreed to pay a $4.2 million penalty, refund at least $1.9 million to consumers who filed complaints within the past two years and adopt a compliance plan, the FCC said. “It is plainly unacceptable for any carrier to misrepresent its identity or purpose in order to mislead consumers into switching their preferred provider and to add unauthorized charges to consumer bills,” said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the Enforcement Bureau. The Atlanta-based carrier didn’t comment.