Consumer Watchdog petitioned the FCC Monday to enact rules requiring edge provider Internet companies like Facebook and Google to honor Do Not Track requests sent from a consumer’s Web browser, a Consumer Watchdog news release said. “New rules protecting net neutrality and reclassifying broadband Internet access providers as common carriers that went into effect last Friday do not extend privacy protections to edge providers,” CW said. “Because the FCC has found that concerns about Internet privacy can hinder broadband deployment, rules to protect privacy, such as requiring companies to honor DNT requests, are necessary to promote improved broadband use.” All four major Web browsers, Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, have the capability to send a DNT request, but edge providers are under no obligation to honor it and most don't, said CW's release. “Ensuring that ISPs respect their customers’ privacy is important, but privacy rules covering companies like Google and Facebook are also necessary if people are going to trust the Internet,” said Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson. “The FCC clearly has the authority it needs and must do everything it can to build that trust if it is to succeed in promoting timely broadband deployment.” Consumer Watchdog has proposed that edge providers’ offering a first-party online service that received a DNT request be prohibited from selling, sharing or otherwise transferring the personal information of the consumer to any other entity, including a third-party online service. Edge providers offering a third-party online service would also be required under the proposed rule to honor DNT requests and not collect or store consumers' personal data, it said. The FCC didn't comment.

The FCC is seeking comment by July 27 on proposed rules to make permanent its program distributing communications equipment to low-income deaf-blind individuals, a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice said Wednesday. A summary of the NPRM with the proposed rules was published in that day's Federal Register, triggering the 45- and 60-day comment deadlines, with replies due Aug. 10. The iCanConnect program, which operates with up to $10 million from the Telecom Relay Service Fund, provides individuals who have combined hearing and vision loss with equipment -- such as Braille-enabled devices, magnifiers and vibrating alerts -- giving them communications access. The NPRM was adopted May 21 (see 1505210056).

The FCC Wireline Bureau denied American Teleconferencing Services' request for review of a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision and a waiver. "USAC acted properly when it rejected ATS’ late-filed second revised 2012 FCC Form 499-A," said an order released Tuesday. "ATS has failed to demonstrate that good cause exists to justify waiver of the revision filing deadline for its second revised 2012 Form 499-A." Industry contributors to USF mechanisms are required to file Form 499-A by April 1 each year reporting their prior year's revenue, among other things. Parties that make mistakes in their forms have until March 31 of the subsequent year to file a revision, but ATS didn't realize a mistake in a revision to its 2012 filing until past the deadline in 2013, filing a second revision in August 2013 that was rejected by USAC. The bureau said it found that the ATS claim of financial hardship didn't warrant waiver of the deadline because it "does not rise to the order of magnitude" that petitioners in precedent cited by ATS would have faced without a waiver.

Level 3 and Telefonica Business Solutions said they reached an interconnection agreement for "their public IP networks." Both companies "will add capacity and establish new interconnection locations between the two networks to stay ahead of growing traffic demands, thus offering flexibility for each network while improving performance and reliability for their respective customers," a joint release said Monday.

The FCC suspended Oscar Enrique Perez-Zumaeta from participating in Lifeline activities, after he was convicted of money laundering in connection with fraudulent claims against the Lifeline USF program, said an Enforcement Bureau letter released Monday. Perez-Zumaeta owned and managed PSPS Sales, a California entity that recruited low-income people to apply for Lifeline-supported phone service through Icon Telecom, the bureau said. Icon pleaded guilty to knowingly making a false statement to the Universal Service Administrative Co. about fraudulent Lifeline claims, the letter said. "According to court records, you were charged with directing PSPS workers to enroll fictitious customers and falsify Lifeline recertification forms for use in Icon’s fraudulent scheme," the letter said to Perez-Zumaeta. "On November 7, 2014, you pled guilty to one count of money laundering for depositing a $52,390.00 check from Icon into a PSPS bank account, despite knowing that more than $10,000.00 of those funds was the result of criminal fraud against the Commission." Under FCC rules, the conviction requires the bureau to suspend Perez-Zumaeta from participating in any activities involving Lifeline, the letter said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau gave Alaska Communications Systems a limited extension of its July 24 deadline to complete broadband deployment using Connect America Fund Phase I incremental support, a bureau order said Monday. The bureau granted ACS until Oct. 31 to complete the broadband deployment due to "unique circumstances beyond its control." ACS expects to meet the original broadband deployment deadline for the vast majority of its required locations. "However, the nesting of a pair of bald eagles, which have produced one egg, on one of ACS’s microwave towers affects the deployment of broadband service to 138 of ACS’s 2,291 locations," the order said. "ACS states that this tower is included in the only middle mile transport route providing access to these locations; ACS has no alternative way of working around the tower. Federal law makes it unlawful to 'pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb' a bald eagle. As a result, ACS states that it will be unable to meet the deployment deadline of July 24, 2015 without disturbing the eagles in violation of federal law."

CenturyLink and ITTA urged the FCC to resolve the intraMTA (major trading area) intercarrier compensation dispute as soon as possible, according to an ex parte filing on a meeting they had with agency officials posted in docket 14-228. The LEC officials said the commission shouldn't wait for a U.S. District Court in Dallas to resolve litigation arising from the dispute, which is "creating massive and unnecessary uncertainty for the entire industry," the filing said. LECs say interexchange carriers (IXCs) should pay long-distance access charges for intraMTA traffic, but Sprint and Verizon say they're liable only for local reciprocal compensation, which involves lower costs (see 1505190056). The court won't hear oral arguments on LEC motions to dismiss IXC lawsuits making financial claims until September or October, with "no assurance of a prompt ruling" this year, the filing said. "With IXC withholdings continuing month after month, time is of the essence," the filing said. Meanwhile, Verizon officials told FCC officials recently there was no exception to an FCC intraMTA wireless traffic rule requiring reciprocal compensation payments when that traffic is carried by an intermediary carrier, such as an IXC, according to an ex parte filing on phone conversations they had. "The intraMTA rule says reciprocal compensation applies to wireless intraMTA traffic, and the Commission rejected the argument that access charges apply if intraMTA wireless traffic is routed through an intermediary interexchange carrier," the Verizon filing said. "We also said that it would have made no sense for the Commission to set a separate, higher, intercarrier compensation rate for some — but not all — intraMTA traffic at the same time the Commission put in a place a new intercarrier compensation system expressly designed to harmonize and reduce rates."

Frontier's recent compliance plan for taking advantage of cost-assignment deregulation under an FCC forbearance order drew no opposition or other responses in FCC docket 12-61 by the May 28 deadline for initial comments. "The fact that no comments in opposition were filed to Frontier's proposal perhaps is a sign that there is beginning to emerge a consensus that elimination of certain legacy regulations is so common-sensical that it is illogical to oppose them," Free State Foundation President Randolph May told us Monday in an email. Frontier on March 17 filed its plan for complying with continuing accounting requirements under the law and FCC regulations, which is a necessary step for gaining the partial cost-assignment forbearance relief granted to incumbent LECs. Frontier noted various actions it was taking to ensure it could provide certain accounting information to the commission in a timely manner, if requested, and that it was certifying its compliance with Section 254(k) of the Communications Act. In a blog Wednesday, Free State Foundation Research Fellow Seth Cooper said Frontier was seeking partial relief from Part 32 rules in particular, which include "nearly 70 pages of complex accounting requirements mandating maintenance of a separate accounting system" beyond its system using generally accepted accounting principles. "Yes, the FCC should certainly approve Frontier's compliance plan and grant partial forbearance relief from Part 32," Cooper said. "But in light of today's dynamic and competitive market conditions, no compliance plan should be required. Instead, the Commission should relieve carriers from costly duplicate accounting systems requirements altogether. The Commission has authority under Section 10 to act now and grant across-the-board forbearance relief from all cost accounting rules." Reply comments are due June 12.

Netflix continues to slowly increase its domination of North American fixed networks, generating 38.5 percent of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours, said a Sandvine report Thursday on North America and Latin America. In Latin America, Facebook and Google control more than 60 percent of total mobile traffic, said the provider of broadband monitoring services to ISPs. The release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare -- Ascendance DLC caused a significant spike in bandwidth usage, and generated 12 percent of traffic on one North American fixed network on its release date, said the report, based on data from a selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus communications service provider customers.

The FCC plans to vote June 18 on a draft order to authorize VoIP providers to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering administrators, rather than from intermediaries, said the agency's tentative agenda released Thursday. Under FCC rules and precedent, generally only telecom carriers can obtain phone numbers from numbering authorities for assignment to end users. That means interconnected VoIP providers such as Vonage must use carriers, such as CLECs and affiliates, to obtain numbers. The draft order would establish a streamlined process that would allow interconnected VoIP providers to request and obtain numbers directly from administrators, an FCC official said.