The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Tuesday on a petition from eight rural LECs seeking a limited waiver of the commission’s rule requiring that 2011 Rate-of-Return Carrier Base Period Revenue consist of Fiscal Year 2011 revenue from Transitional Intrastate Access Service received by March 31, 2012. The eight LECs -- Alenco Communications, Five Area Telephone Cooperative, Nortex Communications, North Texas Telephone Company, Peoples Telephone Cooperative, Totelcom Communications, West Plains Telecommunications and XIT Rural Telephone Cooperative -- want the rule waived so they can include outstanding bills to Halo Wireless for services rendered during FY 2011 that can’t be collected because of Halo’s bankruptcy. Interested parties can comment until Sept. 11 on the petition, filed under dockets 01-92, 07-135 and 10-90. Reply comments are due Sept. 26 (http://bit.ly/1ovgq1C).
The FCC Wireline Bureau reversed a Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) decision rejecting Peak Communications’ revised November 2013 FCC Form 499-Q because it was filed outside the 45-day deadline. USAC had instead calculated Peak’s universal service contribution obligation based on inaccurate revenue Peak had reported on its original November 2013 form, resulting in a monthly contribution assessment that was “greatly exceeding” what the telco would have contributed had USAC accepted the revised form, the Wireline Bureau said Tuesday. The bureau granted Peak’s appeal of the USAC decision and directed USAC to accept the revised form and reverse any related fees, interest and penalties (http://bit.ly/1p77Epz).
The FCC Wireline Bureau instructed the Universal Service Administrative Co. to take another look at its decision to deny Spokane School District 81’s request for E-rate funding for funding year 2010 on the grounds that the district had violated FCC competitive bidding requirements. USAC said the district had incorrectly relied on the “price of eligible and ineligible items as the primary factor in its vendor selection process,” said a bureau notice released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/Vklmtu). The FCC upheld that decision. Spokane sought reconsideration as it provided evidence that it had “segregated E-rate eligible and ineligible costs” in the selection process. Based on a review of the new evidence the district offered that it did use “price of eligible services as the primary factor” in choosing a vendor, the bureau said in granting reconsideration, “we conclude that Spokane’s vendor selection did not violate the Commission’s competitive bidding requirements.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a request Monday from CLEC Aventure Communication Technology to review a Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) decision that Aventure incorrectly reported lines associated with calls to conference operators on its network as being eligible for high-cost support. USAC found Aventure needed to reimburse the high-cost support it received between 2007 and 2011 for several free service conference carrier (FCSC) lines. Aventure argued in its appeal that USAC had acted outside the scope of its authority and that USAC couldn’t recover support because its action occurred after the one-year statute of limitations. The FCC said in its decision Monday that USAC’s ruling was correct, saying Aventure’s FCSC lines were ineligible to receive high-cost support because they weren’t used for telecom services. Aventure can receive high-cost support only for services it provides “for a fee,” meaning FCSCs aren’t eligible, the FCC said. The commission also said Aventure’s claim that USAC’s action occurred past the statute of limitations was “unfounded.” The statute of limitations applies only to forfeitures or penalties, not to the support recovery USAC is seeking in this case, the FCC said (http://bit.ly/1mDi8IW).
The FCC Wireline Bureau dismissed a petition Monday from the American Cable Association (ACA) and NCTA requesting reconsideration of the bureau’s Connect America Fund Phase II challenge process guidance public notice, saying the petition was untimely (http://bit.ly/1vz8jFa). ACA and NCTA had been opposed to the bureau’s decision to require that parties present evidence of current or former customers in a census block in order to challenge the determination that the block is unserved (CD Aug 5 p5). ACA and NCTA filed the petition July 22, one day after the 30-day window for filing a petition had elapsed, the bureau said. Had the groups filed the petition on time, the arguments they presented still don’t warrant reconsideration, the bureau said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau should amend the FCC’s new Connect America Fund requirement that a provider show it has current or past customers in a census block to certify it serves the block, said NCTA in a reply comment (http://bit.ly/1skgUJF) posted Thursday in docket 10-90. NCTA had filed a petition for reconsideration (CD Aug 5 p6) saying cable operators in some cases can’t come up with a customer record in areas they serve. A company may be serving a new subdivision, for instance, where no one has yet moved in, it has said. The requirement would mean “areas where unsubsidized providers already offer broadband services will be erroneously treated as if they are unserved -- an outcome that is flatly inconsistent with the Commission’s determination that broadband subsidies should be precluded in areas where unsubsidized competitors offer service,” NCTA said in Thursday’s reply. Incumbent LECs that opposed the petition to reconsider are wrong to argue that the agency had discretion to authorize subsidized overbuilding with CAF Phase II funding and that overbuilding is a necessary outgrowth of the FCC’s goal of expanding broadband availability in price cap territories, NCTA said. The American Cable Association also petitioned for reconsideration of the requirement.
The FCC should clarify that the elimination of support in areas covered 100 percent by an unsubsidized competitor does not apply to price cap areas, USTelecom said in a petition (http://bit.ly/1oqU2pk) for reconsideration or clarification posted Friday in docket 10-90. If the elimination is intended to apply to price cap carriers, the agency should reconsider the provision, the petition said. Price cap carriers received no notice of the potential application of this rule to them, the petition said. The discussion in the USF/ICC Transformation Order was eliminating support in those situations to rate-of-return carriers, the petition said.
The reply deadline for the North American Numbering Council’s recommendation of Telcordia as the next local number portability administrator was extended until Aug. 22, said a public notice (http://bit.ly/1yehR4t) Friday, hours before the comment period was to have ended. The deadline is extended to allow parties to address issues “more thoroughly,” the notice said.
USF contribution reform “should not be seen as a backdoor way of increasing the size of the universal service fund or imposing new fees on the Internet,” FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said in a statement. The agency asked the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service Thursday to recommend how to modify contribution methodology (CD Aug. 7 p5). The commission approved the referral (http://bit.ly/1oh17cQ) unanimously. It referred the joint board to the commission’s 2012 Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the issue, and asked for recommendations “with a particular focus on how any modifications to the contribution system would impact achievement of the statutory principle that there be state as well as federal mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service.” Network convergence and technological innovation “have transformed the telecommunications industry, and the contribution system has become increasingly complex and difficult to administer,” said the order, which asked for the recommendations by April 7. “The Joint Board process ensures that the agency will receive expert recommendations from the States officials closest to the consumers affected by changes to the Universal Service program,” said NARUC Telecommunications Chairman Chris Nelson in a statement. Nelson, vice chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, is on the state board.
The FCC’s Notice of Inquiry on increasing the benchmarks to assess broadband deployment could enhance the FCC’s case for new regulations on cable broadband speeds, Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant said in a Wednesday research note. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in April implied cable operators could potentially face broadband regulation if they failed to continue increasing speeds (CD May 1 p1), Gallant said. But new regulations of cable broadband are unlikely given announcements by companies about providing gigabit speeds, he said. Broadband redefinition could potentially be a concern for CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream if it dissuades them from accepting the FCC’s future Connect America Fund (CAF) payments, the note said, but Gallant believes the agency is “sensitive to this risk and is likely to explore adjustments to other buildout factors that should make it economically attractive for telcos to accept the CAF amounts offered.” Redefining broadband as 10 Mbps or higher could increase the percentage of homes where Comcast/Time Warner Cable would be the sole provider of “true ‘broadband,'” Gallant said, adding it’s unlikely to affect the deal because it would affect only a small percentage of the Comcast/TWC footprint and likely wouldn’t occur until January, after the FCC has already gathered much of the key data for assessing the deal.