NECA Home | USF & ICC Reform | NECA FCC Filings | RegScan | News Room November 6, 2014 Back Issues Contents Open Internet AT&T Supports Using Section 706 to Prohibit Paid Prioritization Google Supports Rules Encouraging Investment in Abundant Bandwidth Free Press Opposes Open Internet Hybrid Approach, Edge Facing Proposals Public Knowledge Discusses Paid Prioritization Forbearance Comments Due December 5 on USTelecom Petition for Forbearance From Certain Wireline ILEC Regulations USF/ICC Transformation Order Verizon Discusses Access Rates for VoIP Traffic Bandwidth.com Discusses VoIP Symmetry Rule Interconnection FCC Responds to Court Request for Amicus Brief in ISP-Bound Traffic Case COMPTEL Discusses Internet Access, OTTV Video Marketplace Special Access FairPoint Seeks Waiver of Special Access Data Collection Deadline Universal Service WTA Discusses Revisions to Urban, Rural Definitions for Determining E-rate Rural Discount Today’s News Clips With Its New Majority, the GOP Turns to Redefining How You Watch TV, Get Online and Call Mom US Net Neutrality Advocates Plan Hungary-Style Protests Colorado Towns Vote Overwhelmingly In Favor Of Better Broadband Open Internet AT&T Supports Using Section 706 to Prohibit Paid Prioritization AT&T spoke with Chairman Wheeler and his Senior Counselor on November 3, 2014, to state the Commission has the authority to protect the open Internet under Section 706 by prohibiting paid prioritization. AT&T also asserted regulating broadband under Title II would be inconsistent with Commission precedent and would negatively impact broadband infrastructure investment. Google Supports Rules Encouraging Investment in Abundant Bandwidth Google spoke with Commissioner Rosenworcel’s Legal Advisors on November 3, 2014, to discuss the importance of crafting FCC rules that encourage investment in abundant bandwidth rather than providing incentives to monetize scarcity. Google said allowing broadband Internet access providers to engage in paid prioritization of particular content would create incentives for providers to maintain scarcity and congestion on their networks to sell services that avoid these artificial conditions. Free Press Opposes Open Internet Hybrid Approach, Edge Facing Proposals Free Press filed a letter on November 5, 2014, to respond to press reports that the Commission is considering a hybrid approach for broadband Internet regulation. Free Press asserted Title II should apply to broadband Internet access service, and the Commission should apply nondiscrimination duties to an ISP’s provision of service to its actual end-users. Free Press claimed so-called sender-side or edge facing proposals, including those put forward by Mozilla, by Tim Wu and Tejas Narechania, and by CDT, are fatally flawed, claiming they would make for bad law, policy and politics, and would almost certainly fail in court. Public Knowledge Discusses Paid Prioritization Public Knowledge spoke with Office of General Counsel staff on November 3, 2014, to suggest the Common Carrier prohibition would prohibit a ban on paid prioritization if limited exclusively to user directed. PK claimed rules based purely on Section 706 would face the overhang that the more meritorious challenges parties bring, the more likely the D.C. Circuit is to overturn the rules because the FCC has granted too many meritorious challenges. PK also asserted that regardless of which Title II theory the Commission employs, the FCC should adopt a ban on paid prioritization rather than a presumption. Forbearance Comments Due December 5 on USTelecom Petition for Forbearance From Certain Wireline ILEC Regulations The Wireline Competition Bureau issued a Public Notice on November 5, 2014, seeking comment on USTelecom’s Petition asking the FCC to forbear from applying what it says are outdated provisions that apply only to wireline ILECs. USTelecom seeks forbearance from: provisions in sections 271 and 272, and the related equal access rules; section 64.1903 structural separation requirements; the requirement that an ILEC provide an unbundled 64 kbps voice channel where it has replaced a copper loop with fiber; section 214(e)(1) ETC requirements where a price cap carrier does not receive high-cost universal service support; the remaining Computer Inquiry rules; the section 224 and 251(b)(4) requirement that ILECs share newly deployed entrance conduit; and rules prohibiting the use of contract tariffs to offer special access and high capacity data services in the absence of pricing flexibility. The Bureau also issued a Protective Order to limit access to proprietary or confidential information that may be filed in this proceeding. Comments or oppositions are due December 5; replies due December 22. USF/ICC Transformation Order Verizon Discusses Access Rates for VoIP Traffic Verizon met with Commissioner Rosenworcel’s Legal Advisor on November 4, 2014, to discuss claims that the FCC can interpret rules it promulgated in the USF/ICC Transformation Order to permit LECs to collect local end office switched access charges when they do not actually perform end office switching. Verizon said while there is no dispute that a LEC can charge switched access on VoIP-PSTN traffic when the LEC provides switched access; a carrier, however, cannot charge for an access function it does not provide. Verizon said the Commission has decided that when LECs route over-the-top VoIP traffic over the public Internet, instead of actually connecting lines and trunks, they do not perform end office switched access and therefore cannot assess local end office switched access charges. Bandwidth.com Discusses VoIP Symmetry Rule Bandwidth.com met with Commissioner Pai’s Legal Advisor on November 3, 2014, to discuss the VoIP Symmetry Rule. It asserted that whether its VoIP partner is loopfacilities-based or over-the-top, together Bandwidth and its VoIP partner perform all of the functions of a local switch and are entitled to end office access charges pursuant to the FCC’s VoIP symmetry rule. Interconnection FCC Responds to Court Request for Amicus Brief in ISP-Bound Traffic Case The FCC filed a letter with the Third Circuit Court on November 4, 2014, in a case addressing appeals filed by Core Communications and the Pennsylvania PUC involving ISPbound traffic compensation. The Court asked the FCC to file an amicus curiae brief on whether the Pennsylvania PUC has jurisdiction to hear a dispute over compensation due one CLEC for the termination of indirectly exchanged ISP-bound traffic originating with another CLEC in the absence of an interconnection agreement. The FCC said it cannot address this question because it is currently addressing the same issue based on a Petition for Declaratory Ruling filed by the PUC, and it would be inappropriate for FCC litigation counsel to prejudge the agency’s ultimate disposition of the question in an amicus brief. COMPTEL Discusses Internet Access, OTTV Video Marketplace COMPTEL filed a letter on November 5, 2014, to inform the FCC of a recent panel discussion on interconnection and the over-the-top video marketplace it held as part of its semi-annual COMPTEL PLUS Convention & EXPO event on October 6, 2014. COMPTEL pointed out some of the key highlights of the discussion, including that: the cost per bit for delivering content has fallen over time; broadband Internet access providers sell access to content providers’ services; and consumers subscribe to broadband services to get access to legal content without obstacles. Special Access FairPoint Seeks Waiver of Special Access Data Collection Deadline FairPoint filed a Petition on November 5, 2014, seeking a limited waiver of the December 15, 2014 filing deadline for the special access data collection. FairPoint seeks a 90-day extension, until March 16, 2015, for its price-cap LECs due to extraordinary hardships caused by circumstances beyond its control. Universal Service WTA Discusses Revisions to Urban, Rural Definitions for Determining E-rate Rural Discount WTA met with Legal Advisors to Commissioners O’Rielly, Pai and Rosenworcel on November 3 and 4, 2014, to discuss the Commission’s revised definitions of urban and rural that will determine qualification for the additional rural discount under the E-rate program. WTA stated that the addition of urban clusters of 2,500 people or more to the definition of urban has unexpectedly disqualified many rural school and library districts that have long received and depended upon the rural discount. WTA urged the Commission to revise the urban definition to include urbanized areas (communities of more than 50,000 people) and communities of more than 25,000 inhabitants for the purpose of the E-rate rural discount. Today’s News Clips With Its new majority, the GOP turns to redefining how you watch TV, get online and call mom By Brian Fung The Washington Post Hello, America, and welcome to a world in which the legislature and the executive branch are held by two competing parties that see eye-to-eye on almost nothing. Ironically, this could be a good thing for Washington productivity: Instead of the deadlock caused by the Senate thwarting the House and vice versa all the time, Republicans say controlling both chambers will let them work together on sending legislation to the White House. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/11/05/with-its-new-majoritythe-gop-turns-to-redefining-how-you-watch-tv-get-online-and-call-mom/?hpid=z17 US net neutrality advocates plan Hungary-style protests By John Ribeiro ComputerWorld UK Protests are planned outside the White House in Washington, D.C., and at several locations across the U.S. on Thursday evening to object to leaks that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is considering a new "hybrid" proposal to break through the deadlock over net neutrality rules. Taking a cue from recent protests in Hungary against an Internet tax, the demonstrators plan to hold their mobile phones, laptops, tablets and flashlights above their heads as a symbol of protest to "shine light" on alleged corruption in the federal government. http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3584538/us-net-neutralityadvocates-plan-hungary-style-protests/?wpisrc=nl-swbd&wpmm=1 Colorado Towns Vote Overwhelmingly In Favor Of Better Broadband By Stephanie Paige Ogburn KUNC Several Colorado counties and towns voted overwhelmingly Nov. 4 in support of efforts to improve broadband in the state. As we reported earlier, the towns of Boulder, Cherry Hills Village, Red Cliff, Wray and Yuma were all seeking to override a 2005 state law that prohibits them from constructing or operating broadband or telecommunications infrastructure or services. That law, SB05152 [.pdf], which was pushed by large telecommunications companies, can be overridden by a majority of voters. http://www.kunc.org/post/colorado-towns-vote-overwhelmingly-favor-better-broadband Editor: Teresa Evert | Assistant Editor: Shawn O'Brien Subscribe | Unsubscribe
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