The FCC is seeking comment March 3, replies April 2, in docket 13-24 on minimum performance standards for IP captioned telephone services and whether performance assessments should be carried out by the commission, individual providers or another entity, says Monday's Federal Register.

Proposed California wireline resiliency rules shift the burden of providing power to telecom providers from electric utilities, the cable industry commented Wednesday to the California Public Utilities Commission. CPUC members may vote Feb. 11 on a 72-hour backup power requirement and other resiliency rules for wireline providers (see 2101080040). This “would require wireline providers to provide backup power in extreme fire risk conditions that have been deemed too dangerous for the Commission to require the electric companies to provide power,” said Comcast in docket 18-03-011. Give wireline 18 rather than eight months to implement the policy, said Comcast, adding that the CPUC gave wireless carriers 12 months in a prior resiliency order. Cox, Charter Communications and the California Cable Telecommunications Association made similar comments. Frontier Communications suggested revisions including “a competitively-neutral cost recovery mechanism to help recover the enormous costs of these requirements.” CalTel and other small LECs urged similar for rate-of-return regulated providers. Don't require providers deploy generators in communities that oppose them, said AT&T. “Wireline carriers must have unambiguous discretion to adapt and deploy their limited personnel and equipment resources where their deployment supplies the maximum possible benefit to public safety.” Wireline backup power rules should apply in areas with insufficient wireless coverage, even if they’re not in tier one and two high fire threat districts covered by the proposed decision, said the CPUC Public Advocates Office. Industry commenters raised jurisdictional issues about regulating VoIP. A coalition including Communications Workers of America and The Utility Reform Network said, “This Commission has full authority and jurisdiction” here.

AT&T “must correct and certify” by March 1 its reported broadband deployments paid for with USF Connect America Fund Phase II money, then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., in a letter released Wednesday. Thompson wrote Pai in October about his “serious concerns” about AT&T “falsely claiming” after receiving $283 million in USF Connect America Fund Phase II funding “to have created new broadband service in places they have not, for people that are not receiving broadband service.” Thompson cited Mississippi Public Service Commission claims the carrier sent false information to Universal Service Administrative Co. AT&T disputes the findings (see 2010080055). The FCC is “in receipt” of the Mississippi PSC’s findings and is “reviewing this matter,” Pai said. “We must demand fiscal responsibility and accountability -- funds should be stretched as far as possible and they should be used for the sole purpose of delivering connectivity to consumers.” USAC routinely conducts random audits of carriers, and those “found in violation of Commission rules may be subject to enforcement action and forfeiture, as appropriate,” Pai said.

Verizon customers reported internet outages along the East Coast Tuesday, predominantly in the Northeast. Downdetector.com shows customers in the New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington areas most affected. Some took to Twitter to complain, prompting Verizon to respond that a fiber was cut in Brooklyn. Verizon didn't respond to our request for comment. An FCC spokesperson directed us to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's tweet that the Public Safety Bureau is "working to get to the bottom of what is going on."

"Reconsider its reliance on the endpoint" for an inmate calling service call to determine whether it's intrastate or interstate, NCIC Inmate Communications asked the FCC in docket 12-375, responding to Global Tel*Link's petition for reconsideration of the new standard (see 2012030056). NCIC's reply posted Friday supported GTL's petition and urged the commission to follow its precedent of relying on the area code of a recipient's phone number. GTL said the new rule is "an exercise of unreasonable rulemaking, issued without consideration of the feasibility of its implementation or its effect on state authority."

The FCC data collection order is "fundamentally flawed," the National Lifeline Association said in a petition for reconsideration in docket 20-437. The order required the nine largest Lifeline providers to submit five years of network cost data for the Wireline Bureau's Lifeline market report. NaLA argued the order is "unduly burdensome" and would "divert significant time, money, staff, and other resources to even attempt to respond" to "sprawling data demands."

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction was the "obvious result and culmination of Chairman [Ajit] Pai's flawed processes and ideology," Free Press told staff to Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, it said in docket 20-34 Wednesday. The group found "irregularities," including "massive giveaways" to incumbents for buildouts in served areas (see 2012210026). Free Press intends "to explore remedies for the apparent waste uncovered to this point and still coming to light," urging the commission consider using C-band auction proceeds to support USF.

Public interest groups and service providers clashed in replies posted Tuesday on the FCC Further NPRM to lower the cap on interstate and international inmate calling service rates (see 2011250048). A "one-size-fits all approach" is "not workable," said GlobalTel*Link in docket 12-375. GTL suggested continuing using backstop per-minute rate caps for interstate calls. Worth Rises said GTL was "the clearest example that the industry expects the commission to set rate caps in a manner that would allow correctional agencies to rely on families with incarcerated loved ones to fund their basic operations." NCIC Inmate Communications raised concerns about whether a site commission of 2 cents per minute will "adequately reimburse correctional authorities for the cost of making ICS available to inmates" and urged the commission not to eliminate site commissions. The National Sheriffs' Association said the proposed 2-cent rate is "not sufficient for jails and, in particular, smaller jails." Advocacy groups led by the Wright Petitioners said there's a "reasonable basis" to exclude site commissions from the rate analysis because they're "not directly related to the provision of communications services." Until a decision is made on whether to eliminate it, the groups asked that site commission rates be lowered to 1 cent per minute. Pay Tel Communications raised the need to clarify and modify terms and instructions to improve data collection, noting that all commenters who analyzed existing data agree it's "inherently flawed."

The FCC clarified Tuesday that charging the entire cost of a pole replacement to a requesting attacher when it isn't the sole cause of the replacement is "unreasonable and inconsistent" with the Communications Act Section 224. The commission issued its declaratory ruling in lieu of acting on NCTA's petition for clarification on pole replacements in unserved areas (see 2007170023). ACA Connects CEO Matthew Polka said it's one of a "series of recent decisions by the FCC to rein in investor-owned utilities' pole access practices that violate the statute and undermine broadband deployment."

The FCC Wireline Bureau OK'd NDS Technologies' transferring control of Baltimore-Washington Telephone to Voxology Group, effective Jan. 17, said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest (see 2012170056).