The public notice Thursday seeking “focused comment” on E-rate modernization (CD Mar 7 p16) “bodes poorly for real reform,” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a statement Friday: “Reform should mean eliminating the priority system that arbitrarily favors some technologies over others. Yet the Public Notice doubles down on it. Reform should mean abolishing the discount matrix that encourages wasteful spending by well-funded districts and consistently underfunds small, rural schools and libraries. Yet the Public Notice builds on it. And although the Public Notice mentions streamlining the administrative process, the proposals to do so (such as making ’simple changes’ to the existing forms or changing ‘invoicing deadlines') are overwhelmed by proposals that would saddle our nation’s teachers and librarians with more paperwork.” Pai suggested the FCC advance a “concrete proposal” in a further notice of proposed rulemaking. “If the Commission needs to focus comment on an issue,” it should do so in a way that complies with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, he said: “The Wireline Competition Bureau cannot propose new rules."

Several CLECs are “concerned” that NCTA is “urging the Commission to approach the data collection and the special access proceeding in a manner that would undermine Chairman Wheeler’s objective of establishing a technology-neutral framework for the preservation of competition in an IP, packet-based environment,” they said in a filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1igCt9P). Contrary to NCTA’s assertions, the proposed data collection on the state of the special access market should not be used solely to revise the pricing flexibility triggers for legacy DS1 and DS3 special access services, said the CLECs, including Cbeyond, EarthLink, Integra Telecom, Level 3 and tw telecom. Also, “despite its complaints, the estimated burden of the proposed information collection on NCTA members is manageable given the size of the companies at issue,” they said. Further, “the FCC has the experience and expertise to collect and timely process and analyze the information requested in the proposed collection,” they said.

Comments are due March 11 on inmate calling service provider Securus’s petition to expand the Pay-Tel waiver, and its request to be able to add a fee for voice biometrics technology to the per-minute prison calling rate, the FCC said in a public notice Tuesday (http://fcc.us/NsQcfY). Securus has asked that the relief granted to Pay-Tel be granted to all ICS providers operating in the 13 states that Pay-Tel services.

The FCC granted Vonage’s request for a further extension of time to comply with a new rule banning fake ringtones. The VoIP provider showed good cause for a waiver, and now has to April 3 to comply with the rule, said a Wireline Bureau order Friday (http://bit.ly/1g4SIjg).

Comments are due March 31 on AT&T’s IP transition trial proposal, the FCC said in a public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/NnVB8b). AT&T proposed two southern locations Friday to be the first wire centers the telco attempts to transition to all-IP technology (CD Mar 3 p3). AT&T also proposed to convert the wire centers, in part, to wireless-based service, the FCC said. Reply comments in GN docket 13-5 are due April 10.

Several prisoners’ rights groups opposed a petition by Securus to add a 2 cent-per-minute fee to its interstate calls to cover the cost of providing voice biometric technology, in a filing Friday (http://bit.ly/1cof6Jm). “Securus utterly failed to demonstrate that the rate caps imposed in the Inmate Calling Services Report and Order are below its cost of providing service, even if the Voice Biometrics fee is included,” said the groups, including the D.C. Prisoners’ Project, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, the Prison Policy Initiative and others. Securus said Pay-Tel had gotten similar relief (CD Feb 21 p15), but the prisoners’ groups said Securus hadn’t submitted nearly enough proof of its need. “While Paytel was required to submit audited financial statements and detailed cost studies in connection with its request for waiver, Securus merely states -- ‘Me too,'” they said. Unless Securus is willing to submit financial documents detailing its financial situation and verified cost studies, the FCC must deny the petition, the groups said.

The FCC Wireline and Wireless Bureaus extended further interim support of $33,276 and $40,104 to Alaskan telco Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary Windy City Cellular. The support will last six months or until the bureaus or the FCC complete review of the telcos’ petition for reconsideration of a waiver denial, whichever comes first, the bureaus said Friday (http://bit.ly/NO1b3m). The bureaus had denied their petition for waiver of rules setting a monthly $250 per line cap on high-cost universal service support. The telcos said last month that without continued support, they wouldn’t be able to provide telecom service to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team as it searches for active World War II-era bombs on the island (CD Feb 21 p14).

CenturyLink delivers at least 1.5 Mbps downstream to more than 94 percent of the non-rural areas it serves, said the telco ISP’s semi-annual broadband deployment report to the FCC Friday (http://bit.ly/1mQqm5w). Current through December, the report includes the percentage of living units within the legacy Qwest territory to which CenturyLink, which bought that company, offers broadband services. More than 75 percent in non-rural areas CenturyLink serves have access to 5 Mbps downstream, 62 percent have access to 12 Mbps and 30 percent have access to 40 Mbps, said the telco. For rural areas, 82 percent have access to 1.5 Mbps downstream, 57 percent to 5 Mbps, 38 percent to 12 Mbps and 11 percent to 40 Mbps, it said.

The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance proposed an alternative regulatory framework for rate-of-return companies, in a filing Thursday (http://bit.ly/1gHLzHh). The voluntary plan would address “some of the concerns associated with eventually moving to model-based support by providing stability, certainty, and an adequate transition period,” ITTA said. In Phase I of the two-phase plan, USF support would be frozen at current levels while participants continue to implement intercarrier compensation (ICC) rate reductions pursuant to the framework in the 2011 USF/ICC Order. They would then move to a price cap-like structure with respect to regulation of rates for special access service. In Phase II, which would begin after the Connect America Cost Model has been modified “to reflect the unique circumstances of [rate-of-return] companies,” participants would accept model-based support and assume service and public interest obligations, in the same way as price cap carriers under CAF Phase II, ITTA said. “We think it’s a noteworthy proposal that should move the industry forward,” ITTA President Genny Morelli told us. “We're hopeful that others will feel the same way.” The primary benefit of the plan is “knowledge of your revenues,” said Trey Judy, director-regulatory at the Hargray Communications Group. “We get stability of revenues, we know the revenues that we will be able to count on to build out broadband,” he said. The plan will also make it a more feasible and easier process to acquire funding, Judy said. Western Telecommunications Alliance Vice President-Government Affairs Derrick Owens said he’s sending ITTA’s proposed plan to his policy committee and plans to discuss it with the committee early next week. “I know I have some companies who are interested in model-based support” or are thinking about what would happen,” Owens told us. But “right now the model that’s out there -- the CAF Phase II model -- doesn’t work for rate of return carriers, and so we're going to take a close look at what ITTA proposed.” CAF Phase II doesn’t work because “the inputs just don’t line up with the actual costs for rate-of-return carriers,” he said. “Any type of model that doesn’t focus on actual costs is difficult for us to accept.” From what Owens has seen from the ITTA proposal, “it at least puts something out there that we can talk to our members about,” he said.

USTelecom and some of its member telcos met with FCC Wireline Bureau officials Feb. 20 to discuss eligible telecom carrier status as the FCC implements Connect America Fund Phase II in territories served by price cap carriers, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/1fLO4KK). The ILECs discussed how to ensure obligations and funding are “appropriately matched” while avoiding consumer disruption. The groups discussed “how this can be achieved with the coming charge from very broad geographic support under legacy programs to the CAF II program’s targeting of universal service support to very narrow, discrete geographic areas for specifically defined services,” the filing said, without going into further detail.