Gigabit broadband expanding in three cities that get the service from CenturyLink, which added it in 13 other cities, the company said Tuesday. The high-speed fiber network, using fiber-to-the-premises technology, is being expanded in Las Vegas, Omaha and Salt Lake City, said the telco in a news release (http://bit.ly/1sqvkWd). The 13 additional cities include Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where the service is being made available for residential customers. It’s being added for business customers in six cities, including Albuquerque, Phoenix and Tucson, said CenturyLink. The expansion began Monday, a company spokeswoman said.
The Wireline Bureau sought comment on CenturyLink’s petition for a limited waiver from the recordkeeping, retention and reporting requirements in the rural call completion order, said a public notice (http://bit.ly/WX7qqV) released Friday. CenturyLink seeks a limited waiver of the call attempt recording, retention and reporting requirements for calls that use multi-frequency signaling and intraLATA toll calls handed directly from the originating provider to the terminating provider, said the PN. Comments are due in docket 13-39 Aug. 11, replies Aug. 18.
The FCC should withhold approval of Communications Act Section 214 applications by an incumbent LEC for the discontinuance of legacy DS1 and DS3 special access charges until certain conditions are met, officials with Level 3, Sprint and other organizations told Office of General Counsel and Wireline Bureau officials July 30, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1ltkFVH) posted Monday in docket 05-25. The conditions include removal of barriers like unreasonable lock-up arrangements for special access services, the filing said. The meeting included representatives from Comptel, Integra Telecom, Sprint, tw telecom and XO.
The petition for reconsideration filed by the American Cable Association and NCTA about protesting eligibility for Connect America Fund Phase II support should be denied, USTelecom said in comments posted to docket 10-90 Friday. ACA and NCTA had protested the Wireline 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 (http://bit.ly/WX2Dpu). “The reasonable evidentiary standard adopted by the Bureau will help ensure that residents of rural areas are not denied the opportunity to have broadband available to them based upon the type of thin assertions” made during the challenge process, USTelecom said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on a draft eligible services list for schools and libraries under the E-rate program, said a public notice Monday (http://fcc.us/1o7auMh). Commenters should highlight whether the draft manifests the E-rate modernization order, and the extent to which additional changes are necessary, said the PN. Comments are due in docket 13-184 Sept. 3, replies Sept. 18. The FCC recently approved changes to E-rate.
FairPoint Communications’ contract with 1,700 of its 2,550 workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont expired Saturday amid continued negotiations over a new deal. The two unions representing the 1,700 workers -- the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) chapters in the three states -- had “dug in on almost all of their current benefits under contracts from a bygone era,” a FairPoint spokeswoman said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1sn1ceh). Points of contention include pensions, retiree medical benefits or changes in union involvement in subcontracting, FairPoint said. CWA and the local IBEW contractors said in a joint statement that they would continue to negotiate “until we reach a fair and equitable contract.” The 1,700 workers will continue to work under most terms of the expired contract. FairPoint said it has a plan in place to maintain its infrastructure in the three states if the workers strike.
The FCC should grant Public Knowledge and the National Consumer Law Center’s request to require AT&T to make public the timeline of its IP transition trials, PK Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin and Government Affairs and Outreach Associate Clarissa Ramon told FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of General Counsel officials in a phone call July 30, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1pUcaUR) posted in docket 12-353 Friday. That AT&T voluntarily disclosed that it will not seek approval to stop offering traditional TDM-based services until at least the second half of 2015 does not address all of the concerns raised by NCLC and PK, the filing said. “AT&T’s disclosure reveals the general timeframe for its proposed trials but does not allow the public to understand or comment on the proposed timing between various steps in AT&T’s trial proposal.” AT&T in its ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1s68C4K) about a May 27 meeting with a bureau official said it would be “inappropriate to identify a specific date” for starting the approval process to retire TDM service, because of the “competitive sensitivity” of the information.
A Michigan county contract awarded to ICSolutions to provide inmate calling services appears to exceed the interim rate caps set by the commission, Securus said in a July 30 letter (http://bit.ly/1oWkR4G) to the FCC Wireline Bureau posted in docket 12-375 Friday. Another competitor, Praeses, is telling correctional facilities to cancel their contracts with Securus unless Securus immediately begins paying commissions to the facilities, the filing said. “Securus is suffering significant harm by maintaining its position” that the FCC inmate calling order prohibits companies from paying facilities commissions, the filing said. ICSolutions and Praeses were not immediately available for comment.
Despite the FCC’s decision to delay implementing the $20.46 rate floor, problems remain, including that rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) in some states are caught in conflicts with state law and procedures, representatives of several rural telcos and the WTA Regulatory Counsel Gerry Duffy told aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler Wednesday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1pvGIPl) posted Friday in docket 10-90. A 1995 Colorado statute that has frozen monthly local exchange service rates between $14 and $17.05 “will soon run afoul of the scheduled rate floor increases,” the telcos said. WTA supports the commission’s pending proposal to increase the minimum broadband speed that it seeks to achieve with USF from 4 Mbps to 10 Mbps downstream, the filing said. Sufficient and predictable high-cost support should be available to enable RLEC members to obtain and repay the loans necessary for the required infrastructure upgrades and extensions, the filing said. Involved in the meeting were representatives from Brad 3 Rivers Communications of Fairfield, Montana; Direct Communications of Eagle Mountain, Utah; Idaho Telecom Alliance; MTE Communications of Midvale, Idaho; New Florence Telephone Co. of New Florence, Missouri; and Pine Drive Telephone of Beulah, Colorado, the filing said.
An item to refer USF contribution methodology to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service was put on circulation (http://bit.ly/1rT3IIe) by the FCC Wireline Bureau July 29.