The FCC sought input on CenturyLink plans to offer broadband in 9,703 census blocks using Connect America Fund Phase 1, Round 2 subsidy support. Other providers have until Nov. 7 to tell CenturyLink if they already offer internet access service of at least 3 Mbps (down) and 768 kbps (up) or higher in the newly identified areas, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 10-90 Friday. It said CenturyLink will have to then certify before beginning construction that, to the best of its knowledge, the locations it plans to serve are in fact unserved.

CenturyLink asked to withdraw its appeal of an FCC tariff investigation order that barred prospectively the "all-or-nothing" business data service discount plans of it, AT&T, Frontier Communications and Verizon, among other actions (see 1605030001). In an unopposed dismissal motion (in Pacer) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday, CenturyLink said it isn't withdrawing a separate motion to intervene and will continue to support petitioner AT&T in its challenge to the order (AT&T v. FCC, No. 16-1145, et al.).

WTA and rural telcos said certain evidentiary burdens should be placed on competitors challenging broadband-oriented Connect America Fund subsidy support for rate-of-return carriers. Home Telephone and LICT officials "indicated that there are substantial differences between the theoretical and actual service areas and broadband speeds of many fixed wireless service providers," including wireless ISPs, said a WTA filing posted in docket 10-90 Thursday on discussions with an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Wireline Bureau staffers in which TDS Telecom and Totah Communications officials also participated. "Factors such as technology, tower heights, frequency bands, antennas and antenna patterns, terrain, foliage, weather and backhaul facilities can significantly affect fixed wireless coverage, broadband capacity and signal quality." WTA, which has filed a petition for reconsideration of a March order, said fixed wireless providers seeking classification as "unsubsidized competitors" (the presence of which negates incumbent funding) should be required to submit a list of towers serving specific census blocks with various details. It said all fixed wireless and wireline providers seeking such status "should be required to substantiate their ability to provide quality and reliable service" through certain steps. WTA filings on meetings with other commissioner aides were posted here.

The FCC is launching its urban rate survey of fixed voice and broadband services with queries to selected providers, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 10-90. The collected rate information will be used to set "reasonable comparability benchmarks" (for rural, high-cost USF subsidy mechanisms) in 2017, among other things, the PN said. "Notifications that a provider is required to complete a survey will be sent via email to each selected provider’s FCC Form 477 contact person and certifying official on or around September 22." Survey responses are due Oct. 25.

The FCC denied three waiver requests by telcos on new rate-of-return USF rules for support carriers can receive based on an Alternative Connect America Fund broadband cost model (A-CAM). A Wireline Bureau order Wednesday in docket 10-90 denied a petition from Shawnee Telephone and Moultrie Independent Telephone to waive commission decisions "to exclude census blocks served by fiber to the premises (FTTP) from the support calculations; and (2) not to make an offer of model-based support to any rate-of-return carrier that has deployed 10/1 Mbps broadband to 90 percent or more of its eligible locations in the relevant state." The bureau also denied a Baraga Telephone request to waive a March 30, 2016, deadline for submitting Form 477 data used to determine a rural carrier’s percentage of broadband deployment for purposes of making an A-CAM support offer, and it denied a Clarity Telecom request to waive a deadline for submitting Form 477 data used to identify census blocks served by FTTP or cable technologies.

The FCC made inflation adjustments to revenue thresholds for classifying telecom carriers for various accounting and reporting purposes. The annual revenue threshold for 2015 between Class A carriers and Class B carriers was increased to $155 million, and the threshold between larger Class A carriers and midsize carriers was increased to $9.18 billion, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest.

CenturyLink opposed Warm Springs Telecom's bid to become the incumbent telco for part of the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon on the same day the FCC put WST's petition out for comment. CenturyLink said it's the ILEC for the Warm Springs wire center and generally denied the factual allegations and legal conclusions in WST's request, which also sought ILEC status for the reservation's Wanapine exchange. CenturyLink disputes "allegations regarding the nature of CenturyLink’s service on the Warm Springs Reservation, market share information, the history of the relationship between the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and CenturyLink, and WST’s ability to function as the ILEC on the reservation," said its opposition Tuesday in docket 16-284. The FCC sought comments by Oct. 20, replies by Nov. 4 on WST's Aug. 29 ILEC petition in a Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday. CenturyLink said WST hadn't shown that it substantially replaced CenturyLink in the Warm Springs wire center despite WST's claim it had overbuilt most of the network and served more than 90 percent of local customers. If WST, a CLEC, wants to be the ILEC for the Warm Springs wire center, it should show it substantially has replaced CenturyLink in the entirety of the wire center and not just the portion within the reservation, said the opposition. CenturyLink said WST hadn't made necessary ILEC commitments or demonstrated it received necessary state authorizations for the area. It appears WST simply tacked on its request for ILEC status in the Warm Springs wire center to a request for ILEC status in the Wanapine exchange that had received Oregon Public Utility Commission backing, CenturyLink said.

Rate-of-return telcos are expected to file by Oct. 1 forecasted cost and revenue data for the first six months of 2017, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice in docket 10-90 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The information collection, subject to approval by Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act, is needed for the Universal Service Administrative Co. to implement the Connect America Fund-Broadband Loop Support (CAF BLS) high-cost mechanism that's replacing Interstate Common Line Support, the PN said. It said carriers are expected to use a revised Form 508 that was proposed to include data on consumer broadband-only loops in addition to the previously collected common line data. The bureau expects USAC to publish by Nov. 1 its budgetary control analysis for the first half of 2017, which will include the amount of forecasted CAF BLS each carrier will receive during that period, enabling carriers to file any needed tariff revisions. Another PN announced the weighted average broadband deployment for all rate-of-return carriers is 74 percent, along with the relevant deployment figures for individual carriers. "These broadband deployment percentages will be used to calculate the capital investment allowance for 2017 and the broadband deployment obligations that rate-of-return carriers that receive support based on legacy mechanisms will be required to fulfill over a five-year period (i.e. 2017 through 2021)," the PN said.

Union Electric (Ameren Missouri) asked to withdraw a pole-attachment petition for an FCC declaratory ruling and to terminate the proceeding after resolving its related dispute with Cable One, in a motion posted Monday in docket 13-307. Union Electric had asked the FCC to find Cable One pole attachments used to provide VoIP service must be subject to a telecom rate, which the commission separately has ordered be driven down to cable rate levels.

The National Tribal Telecommunications Association gave the FCC more details on two proposals to promote tribal broadband deployment. NTTA has asked the FCC to waive or modify an operations-expense limitation for rural carriers that predominantly serve tribal locations, and adopt a tribal broadband factor that provides more USF support to carriers serving tribal lands. Fourteen carriers would qualify for the opex relief if a predominantly tribal carrier is defined as having more than 75 percent of its served locations on tribal lands, and 19 carriers would be eligible if the FCC required only a majority of locations to be on tribal lands, said an NTTA filing Friday in docket 10-90 that cited analysis Alexicon did for the group. It said the impact on the overall distribution of high-cost rate-of-return USF support would be "negligible," though the impact on the affected carriers would be "significant," allowing them to deploy and maintain their broadband infrastructure. NTTA said 112 carriers would be eligible for a tribal broadband factor (TBF), but it expected the number that would elect to receive the extra support would be lower, given the "very small number" of tribal locations that many serve along with proposed buildout duties and reporting requirements. The filing offered further details on NTTA's proposals, including to cap the tribal broadband factor at $25 million annually, and establish a buildout schedule that would require deployment to at least 50 percent of TBF-targeted locations within five years, increasing by 10 percentage points a year until achieving 100 percent deployment in year 10. Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC would deal with tribal broadband issues "by the end of football season" (see 1609150058).