Several stakeholders complained about and appealed the Colorado Public Utilities Commission’s deregulatory reform, which the PUC ordered and adopted in late December (CD Dec 18 p9). Many voiced concerns in interviews immediately after the PUC adopted the order (CD Dec 26 p8), reflecting loud debate that happened in the months leading up to the order, and filed their concerns formally this week. The PUC initiated its telecom reform in August and ultimately chose to cap its high-cost fund at $54 million, cut retail regulation and reduce high-cost funding in areas deemed effectively competitive, among other changes.
Proposed changes to FCC forms used to report annual and quarterly revenue raise Paperwork Reduction Act concerns, Sprint Nextel said in comments filed Friday. Carriers also questioned whether the new language on reseller certification conflicts with the commission’s 2012 wholesaler-reseller clarification order. Most commenters commended the commission for soliciting suggestions on the instruction changes, but XO cautioned that even with comments the instructions lack the legal significance of an actual rule.
The American Cable Association recommended several capabilities be added to the Connect America Fund cost model (http://xrl.us/boaeu7). It should provide the ability to separate operating and capital expenditures in the reporting model; include or exclude “telco served” locations with a new reporting toggle; and exclude capital expenditures for all locations that are “telco served;” provide for inclusion of existing download and upload speed data for each geographic area from the national broadband map. ACA also sought a toggle to exclude Alaska from the calculations; a new summary report that shows expected annual capital expenditure cash flows by asset category for each year; and new fields in the support model detail report indicating which census blocks were previously eligible for USF support. The additions would facilitate more detailed analysis and better modeling transparency, ACA said. The model helps calculate USF costs for broadband that gets USF funds.
Thousands of census blocks are incorrectly identified as “unserved” by the National Broadband Map (NBM), said cable companies and wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) in comments in FCC docket 10-90 (http://xrl.us/bn99cn). But USTelecom, the Independent Telecommunications and Telephone Alliance (ITTA) and individual ILECs said the map incorrectly overstates the areas listed as served. The map is used to determine where Connect America Fund Phase I money can be distributed. Price-cap carriers get access to the money to help fund broadband buildout in areas the map lists as unserved.
NTCA supports the petition by South Park Telephone Co. for a waiver of the $250-per-line-per-month high cost USF support limit, and of the regression analysis-based caps on high cost loop support (http://xrl.us/bn932b). South Park’s petition sets forth a “compelling” set of circumstances, NTCA said: The telco “offers service to 166 consumers (or 0.28 consumers per square mile) across hundreds of miles of high-cost areas surrounding a town of 900 people that is approximately two hours from Denver and one hour from Colorado Springs.” The telco shows it cannot reasonably anticipate to “make up” lost support through other means, such as new price increases that could result in “unreasonably incomparable rates,” NTCA said. “Strict application” of the rules “would harm consumers in its area and leave the company with little recourse to avoid or minimize that end-user impact.” NTCA has sued the FCC over what it calls its “flawed” regression analysis model, asking the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the rules (CD July 2 p12).
The National Broadband Map, riding on hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and a month shy of two years old, still struggles with the occasional inaccuracy, some contractors who helped assemble it told us. Many stakeholders said the process is becoming more accurate. They said accuracy will become more significant as the FCC ties large USF subsidies to the map’s data. NTIA and the FCC collaboratively run the map, which launched in February 2011 and is updated every six months, said its description (http://xrl.us/bn8xc6).
The FCC must address “statistical and data-related shortcomings” of the regression analysis-based caps on USF support, NTCA told aides to Commissioners Robert McDowell, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel on Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bn9w6k). Broader concerns exist about the “persistent lack of transparency, accuracy, and predictability” of the capping mechanisms, NTCA said. Before applying additional constraints on USF support, the commission must first study the effect of current reforms on end user rates, service quality, broadband adoption, state universal funds, and the advancement of broadband-capable network deployment and sustainable ongoing operations by carriers of last resort, NTCA said.
The Western Telecommunications Alliance (WTA) supports a telco’s petition for waiver of the monthly cap on total federal USF support, and the quantile regression model benchmarks adopted by the FCC Wireline Bureau (http://xrl.us/bn9tci). In comments Monday, WTA said the “unique circumstances” facing the telco, South Park, give its rural Colorado customers a “significant risk of losing access” to its network of broadband and voice services. Because the “very sparsely-populated rural area” has “no comparable service or coverage from alternative providers of voice or broadband,” the FCC should grant South Park’s petition, WTA said.
LAS VEGAS -- USTelecom President Walter McCormick said a quick tour of the massive floor at the Consumer Electronics Show will demonstrate to anyone who pays attention why the FCC should act on the group’s December petition for declaratory ruling asking the agency to determine that ILECs should no longer be considered dominant in providing switched access services. Others on a panel chaired by McCormick expressed hope that the FCC’s Technology Transitions Policy Task Force will mean the FCC becomes better able to keep up with the speed of technological change.
The data roaming decision reaffirms the FCC’s Title III authority to pass net neutrality rules, the commission told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in its surreply brief late Friday (http://xrl.us/bn9sts). That December decision, Cellco Partnership v. FCC, also supports the agency’s position that its net neutrality order doesn’t impose common carriage requirements, it said. Verizon had argued last month that the Cellco decision -- which upheld the rule requiring carriers to offer roaming agreements on “commercially reasonable” terms -- supported its position that net neutrality rules impose “per se common carriage” obligations on broadband providers (CD Dec 26 p1).