Frontier Florida and Florida Power & Light asked for an FCC stay through Jan. 30 to facilitate a final settlement of their pole-attachment dispute. "Frontier and FPL have been engaged in settlement discussions, including mediation facilitated by the Enforcement Bureau," the companies said in a joint motion Wednesday in docket 15-73. "The parties have reached an agreement in principle and require the stay to prepare settlement documents. Under these circumstances, and in light of the Commission’s encouragement of voluntary dispute resolution, a stay would serve the public interest." Frontier Florida, a unit of Frontier Communications, inherited the dispute from Verizon (see 1605100036 and 1603140049)

Global VRS asked the FCC for urgent relief from video relay service compensation cuts, without which it said it and others would "likely" have to exit the VRS business. The commission should "expeditiously approve a refreshing of the VRS reimbursement methodology to encourage Telecommunications Relay Service Fund (‘Fund’) sustainability, meaningful competition and most importantly, to ensure that the Deaf Community does not fall victim to a monopoly VRS provider by default," said a filing Tuesday in docket 10-51 from Global VRS, which called itself the sole VRS provider to the "Spanish language and Deaf-Blind Deaf Community." Global VRS in August unsuccessfully asked the FCC to keep its VRS compensation stable after Oct. 31, by extending relief from a scheduled rate cut (see 1608150044). "Time is running out for Global VRS and indeed for all smaller VRS providers; Commission action is imperative. We have done everything possible to work with the Commission in seeking a reimbursement structure that will enable the Commission to meet its statutory obligations to compensate VRS providers for their allowable costs and support meaningful competition for the benefit of the Deaf community without avail," the provider said. "It is unclear what more we can do; it is time for the Commission to act on VRS reimbursement or accept the reality that the Commission -- by its seeming inaction in this arena -- will quickly exacerbate the very monopoly-based VRS program it and the Deaf Community have sought to prevent." Purple Communications, Convo Communications and Global VRS recently asked the FCC to consider an alternative VRS rate structure, according to a Purple filing. The FCC didn't comment.

A CenturyLink telecom service discontinuance request is drawing concerns about the dangers, availability, cost and service quality of wireless alternatives to wireline service. The FCC Wireline Bureau recently solicited input on CenturyLink's application to discontinue "QCC Frame Relay Service and QCC Asynchronous Transfer Mode [ATM] Service" nationally starting as early as Dec. 16, with existing customers to have some temporary rights to grandfathered service (see 1611160025). Comments due at the FCC Wednesday started to come in last week and continued to be posted Monday in docket 16-383. "We absolutely protest the defunding or destruction of our landlines," said Felicia Trujillo, who said she represented 97 healthcare professionals in Santa Fe, New Mexico, concerned about the health dangers of cellphones and cell towers. Cellphones are tied to elevated cancer rates in young people -- “the cellphone generation” -- and wireless service is less reliable in emergencies, she said. Kevin Mottus, who said he belonged to the California Brain Tumor Association, was the most prolific opponent of the CenturyLink application, attaching numerous reports about wireless radio-frequency emission risks to a letter (see here, for example). CenturyLink didn't comment. Mottus also submitted his filings in four other dockets on discontinuance requests of rural telcos (16-380, 16-381, 16-382 and 16-384).

Comments are due Dec. 6, replies Dec. 13, on Midcontinent Communications' planned takeover of the Lawrence, Kansas-area operations of WideOpenWest subsidiary Knology of Kansas, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest.

An FCC order setting broadband USF duties for Alaska Communications takes effect Dec. 22, after a summary was published in Tuesday's Federal Register. A certification mandate won't take effect until approved by the Office of Management and Budget because it involves a new information collection requirement, the summary said. The commission issued the order Oct. 31 establishing "tailored service obligations" to accompany almost $20 million in annual Connect America Phase II price-cap "frozen" USF subsidy support that Alaska Communications elected to receive instead of model-based support (see 1610310056).

Frontier Communications asked the FCC to act expeditiously to approve its plan (see 1609080001) to offer internet access in 3,146 "unserved" census blocks using Connect America Fund Phase I, Round 2 incremental broadband support. The claims of StarTouch Broadband Services that it serves virtually the entire state of Washington "are not credible," the telco said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with Wireline Bureau staffers. Frontier encouraged the commission to allow price-cap telcos -- before a planned CAF Phase II reverse auction of subsidies -- to identify extremely high-cost census blocks where they can guarantee they will deploy broadband/voice service. "The Commission has authorized price cap carriers to build to these census blocks" that Frontier "already built to and plans to continue building to some of these census blocks," and "customers in these census blocks would benefit from receiving service when they could otherwise be left unserved," its filing said. Citing the need for "extensive preparation," the company asked the FCC to give parties at least nine months' lead time from the time the auction's final rules are adopted before proposed broadband speed testing requirements take effect.

The FCC Wireline Bureau made available a list of "operating company numbers" to be used by covered service providers in filing quarterly data on long-distance call completion attempts to rural OCNs and more aggregated data on such attempts to nonrural OCNs. A bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 13-39 contained a link to the OCNs supplied by the National Exchange Carrier Association. The PN reminded covered providers their Form 480 submissions are due Feb. 1, May 1, Aug. 1 and Nov. 1 each year.

NTCA and members pressed the FCC for $260 million in additional annual funding for rate-of-return USF mechanisms distributing model-based and non-model support. Without the additional funding for the non-model mechanisms, standalone broadband loop rates could be $20 to $100 over the $42 broadband-only monthly benchmark the commission specified in its March overhaul order, said an NTCA filing posted Monday in docket 10-90 on meetings with aides to all five commissioners and Wireline Bureau officials. Those rates are not for the actual retail service to consumers, but just the broadband-only loop components of that service, it said. When the component costs are combined "with unavoidable costs" -- access recovery charges, transport and transit costs, other operating costs and USF contribution fees -- "the actual retail broadband prices to consumers (putting aside any prospect of actual return or profit margin) would need to be $90 to $110 per month in some cases, and in some very rural service areas with few standalone broadband consumers to start the rates could approach $200 per month," the group said.

FCC staff sought comment by Nov. 30 on a CenturyLink application to discontinue certain domestic nondominant carrier telecom services. The covered services are "QCC Frame Relay Service and QCC Asynchronous Transfer Mode [ATM] Service" throughout the 50 states, U.S. possessions and territories, said an appendix to a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 16-383 listed in Wednesday's Daily Digest. On or after Dec. 16, the appendix said, "CenturyLink will no longer offer the Affected Services to new customers or accept new orders from existing customers. In addition, the Affected Services will be grandfathered as follows: 1) Existing contracts for these services will not be renewed; 2) Customers with a contract that expires prior to November 30, 2016 may retain the services covered by that contract on a month-to-month basis until December 16, 2016; 3) Customers with a contract that expires after November 30, 2016 may retain the services covered by that contract until the expiration of that contract."

Rural telcos backed trade group calls for the FCC to fully fund rate-of-return USF mechanisms for model-based and nonmodel broadband-oriented subsidy support (see 1611140036). About 50 RLECs, represented by JSI, said the commission should consider allocating enough additional funding to cover the more than $160 million in extra annual support needed to meet demand after 216 companies opted into the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) mechanism (see 1611030046). Reducing A-CAM support amounts to address the excess demand "will dangerously push the FCC toward making a move contrary to the Communications Act mandate to make Universal Service Support 'specific, predictable and sufficient,’” said a JSI filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. If the FCC can't fully meet model-based demand, it should allow carriers to switch to the revised, nonmodel support, it said. Among others calling for fully funding model-based support were nTelos (representing two Lumos telco subsidiaries), three RLECs represented by Fred Williamson & Associates, ENMR Telephone Cooperative, Project Mutual Telephone, Hot Springs Telephone, Accipiter Communications, Adak Eagle Enterprises and Etex Telephone Cooperative. Some also called for fully funding the nonmodel support, which NTCA says needs up to $100 million in further annual funding. If the FCC can't fully fund the A-CAM mechanism, some urged the FCC to take steps to fund as many carriers as possible, tap $50 million from a Connect America Fund reserve, and reduce broadband deployment obligations to account for the reduced support. A few carriers said the FCC should prioritize support for carriers that aren't as far along in their broadband deployment as others.