The FCC should grant petitions from Wilson, North Carolina, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to pre-empt state anti-muni broadband laws, said Davidson, North Carolina, and the SouthEast Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (SEATOA) in separate comments posted in dockets 14-115 and 14-116 Wednesday. “Numerous plans” were in the works by North Carolina communities to build fiber networks for retail business and residential use, Davidson said (http://bit.ly/1rAlVhS). It said they “ground to a halt” with the passage of a North Carolina law that created “numerous and varied restrictions” that “effectively prohibit local communities from deploying modern broadband networks and services to their citizens.” The law was a “major reason a collaborative effort by the towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Mooresville and Troutman and Mecklenburg County” ended with three of the entities dropping out, Davidson said. Calling the two laws “artificial state barriers to broadband infrastructure investment, deployment, competition, and innovation,” SEATOA, a chapter of NATOA, said (http://bit.ly/1AUAihQ) that pre-emption would “enable more communities to be self-reliant, and better enable America to maximize all resources so that no one is left behind and unable to participate in knowledge-based global opportunities for business, education, healthcare, security and quality of life."

Eligible telecom carriers have until Dec. 23 to obtain a valid household worksheet from Lifeline subscribers identified by the Universal Service Administrative Co. as an inter-company household duplicate, said an FCC public notice (http://bit.ly/1lu2x3F) posted Monday in docket 11-42. Detailing a process to resolve inter-company duplicates identified during the National Lifeline Accountability Database loading process, the agency said USAC will give each ETC a list of its subscribers with inter-company household duplicates. ETCs must communicate with their subscribers, informing them only one person per household is eligible and obtaining a household worksheet, said the PN. It said subscribers who don’t complete a household worksheet must be de-enrolled from the Lifeline program by the ETC by Dec. 30. The ETC must update the NLAD about subscribers’ status by Dec. 31.

The FCC should deny petitions seeking a waiver of Connect America Fund Phase II requirements to provide proof of a current or past customer to have a census block be deemed served, said Century Link (http://bit.ly/1tQylin) and USTelecom (http://bit.ly/1wwY2db) in comments posted in docket 10-90 Tuesday. The agency previously ruled against waiving the requirement and the petitioners have not shown “special circumstances warranting deviation from the evidentiary standard,” a requirement for granting the waivers, CenturyLink said. The waivers would not be in the public interest, CenturyLink said, because “the only thing that can be definitively concluded from these waiver petitions is that these petitioners are not providing service to any consumers in these census blocks. In short, the consumers in these census blocks are already being left behind.” The petitions rehash arguments that by the FCC, USTelecom said. By seeking to have the census blocks deemed served and ineligible for CAF, the petitioners “are seeking to deny the benefits of CAF Phase II funding to rural, high cost households that incontrovertibly do not have broadband today,” USTelecom said. The petitions were filed by Allen’s TV Cable Service, Armstrong Utilities, Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Shenandoah Cable Television, Shentel Communications, Suddenlink, Vyve Broadband and WaveDivision Holdings, CenturyLink and USTelecom. There were nearly 200 challenges total against all CAF Phase II funding requests (CD Aug 21 p2).

The FCC should ensure that tools and applications for the timely and economical management of 911 data currently in use remain available to 911 providers at no cost, and that any transition to a new LNPA (see separate report above) must not be allowed to adversely affect 911 data management, the National Emergency Number Association, also known as NENA: The 9-1-1 Association, said in reply comments (http://bit.ly/1AEYa96) Friday, posted to docket 09-109. To the extent LNPA candidates have not been asked about their ability to maintain number portability services 911 providers rely on, the FCC should consider amending the request for proposals to require confirmation that these critical services will continue to be available, the association said.

Responding to “questions” about the status of inmate calling service (ICS) provider commission payments to jails and local governments, the FCC Wireline Bureau issued a public notice (http://bit.ly/1qtYdgD) Wednesday reminding interested parties that a partial stay by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in January (CD Jan. 14 p3) does not affect aspects of the 2013 inmate calling order related to the commissions. That order found that the commissions “are a significant factor contributing to high rates,” and are not costs associated with providing the calling service and not compensable in ICS rates, the notice said. Based on a complaint, the commission is adjudicating whether interstate inmate calling rates exceed the cost of providing the service, and will factor in commission payments to correctional facilities, the notice said. Should inmate calling rates be considered unjust and unreasonable, the commission may lower interstate ICS rates, even below rate caps, as well as refunds to users, the notice said.

The FCC should consider reforming high-cost rules for areas served by rural, rate-of-return-regulated local exchange carriers, Michael Romano, NTCA senior vice president-policy, told aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel during separate meetings Monday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1qqWrwT) posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. NTCA is interested in a “well-constructed transition away from legacy support mechanisms to a simple and straightforward new mechanism focused on supporting broadband-capable networks in high-cost areas served by smaller carriers,” the filing said.

The FCC is reviewing ways to reduce the accounting requirements on carriers while also allowing the agency to get the information it needs to fulfill its regulatory duties, said a proposed rulemaking notice (http://bit.ly/1sVkPwJ) adopted Monday and posted Wednesday in docket 14-130. The NPRM “has been a long time coming,” Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a statement. “These arcane rules were put in place almost three decades ago, when all incumbent carriers were subject to rate-of-return ratemaking and specialized cost data were central to the Commission’s work,” Commissioner Mike O'Rielly’s said in a statement.

Cincinnati Bell said it would begin offering 1 Gbps residential broadband to its customers Sept. 8. The telco said Monday it began offering 1 Gbps broadband service to small-business customers earlier this summer. Cincinnati Bell’s expansion of gigabit service to residential customers is part of its “Light Up Cincinnati” program, which it said is meant to provide fast and more reliable services to residential and business customers (http://bit.ly/1w5EFaZ). Earlier Monday, Alaska Communications said it had begun offering residential broadband services in Anchorage at speeds of 30 Mbps and 50 Mbps. Customers on the 50 Mbps service plan will have upload speeds of 10 Mbps, the telco said Monday. Alaska Communications began offering residential broadband services at 15 Mbps in May (http://bit.ly/1rT3pg9).

The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a joint request from CenturyLink, GTL, ICSolutions, NCIC and Telmate seeking an extension of the Aug. 18 deadline for complying with the commission’s mandatory data collection requirement for all Inmate Calling Service providers. The bureau had already extended the deadline from its original July 17 due date, so any additional extension would be an “undue delay,” the bureau said. The bureau found there was “no good cause” for a further extension, saying CenturyLink and the other ICS providers had repeated arguments in its new extension petition that the bureau had considered when it originally extended the deadline (http://bit.ly/1sZSFiD).

The FCC Wireline Bureau asked Adak Eagle Enterprises (AEE) and subsidiary Windy City Cellular to submit additional information as the agency examines their petition seeking reconsideration of an order denying a waiver of agency caps on USF payments. The bureau denied the waiver sought by the Alaska companies a year ago (CD Aug 16 p5). The two later characterized themselves as “tiny companies that worked tirelessly against the odds” to offer phone service in the Alaskan wilderness “when no one else would” (http://bit.ly/1hcWStf). The bureau asked for “detailed information regarding, among other matters, corporate staffing, lease agreements, corporate operations expenses, and contracts for AEE’s wireline operations,” in a Tuesday letter (http://bit.ly/1ov9IZM).