Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

CenturyLink got a tentative greenlight for its Level 3 buy from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. UTC telecom staff Friday filed an all-party settlement in docket UT-170042 to approve the $34 billion deal, the commission said in a Friday news release. Staff, Level 3, CenturyLink and the state attorney general’s public counsel signed the settlement. It includes commitments by CenturyLink to (1) file an annual report for three years showing spending on network maintenance, with explanation if the amount spent per access line is less than 2014-2016; (2) notify the UTC about major outages within 30 minutes, until 2021, and copy the UTC on Network Outage Reporting System reports about the state that it files with the FCC; (3) file annual reports on federal USF support from July this year to 2021; (4) file Communications Act Section 251 interconnection agreements between CenturyLink subsidiaries and Level 3 subsidiaries; (5) issue a news release about transaction closing and notify customers if the company’s name changes; and (6) assign a dedicated project manager to work on the transition to Next-Generation 911. The UTC will formally present the settlement May 25 to the parties, which then will accept, reject or modify the agreement, the commission said. “We are pleased to have reached a settlement in Washington in the case regarding the acquisition of Level 3," a CenturyLink spokeswoman emailed Monday. "This is an important milestone as we make progress toward the completion."

A court denial of further challenges to the FCC 2015 net neutrality order was decided 6-2 by the active judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1705010013). The six judges voted Monday to deny petitions for en banc rehearing of a June ruling by a three-judge panel that upheld the FCC order, which also reclassified broadband to be under Title II of the Communications Act. Two judges dissented and three others didn't participate in the ruling in USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063.

The FCC offered additional details Thursday on a proposal to scrap Title II broadband classification under the Communications Act and revisit net neutrality rules, building on a speech by Chairman Ajit Pai Wednesday (see 1704260054). Pai, as promised, released the draft NPRM. A senior FCC official said on a call with reporters that even if there's significant public blowback against the NPRM the FCC doesn’t make decisions based on taking the public's temperature. By our count, the draft asks for responses to more than 150 questions. It proposes a deadline of July 17 for initial comments, Aug. 16 for replies.

Arizona enacted small-cells wireless siting legislation as states continued to push forward small-cells wireless bills this week. Industry and localities continue to negotiate different terms in different states, while the FCC looks at ways to speed wireless infrastructure deployment at the federal level (see 1704260058). California senators promised more revisions to their bill after listening to many public comments -- for and against -- at a committee hearing Wednesday.

The FCC issued a draft rulemaking notice that proposes to reverse broadband Title II reclassification under the Communications Act and eliminate an internet conduct standard, as expected. It's also seeking comment on how to address open internet rules. Chairman Ajit Pai, who previewed the item in a speech Wednesday, put the draft NPRM on the tentative agenda Thursday for commissioners' May 18 meeting.

The FCC released the text of two wireline items Friday that commissioners approved the previous day at their monthly meeting (see 1704200046 and 1704200018). A 64-page item contains an NPRM, notice of inquiry (NOI) and request for comment (RFC) on ways to accelerate construction of advanced wireline broadband infrastructure. The "actions propose to remove regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment at the federal, state, and local level; suggest changes to speed the transition from copper networks and legacy services to next-generation networks and services; and propose to reform Commission regulations that increase costs and slow broadband deployment," said the item. The NPRM proposes steps to ease pole attachments and copper retirements, including by revisiting technology-transition notification rules for the latter, and to streamline telecom service discontinuance requirements under Section 214 of the Communications Act. The NOI explores using FCC pre-emption authority to prohibit enforcement of state and local legal barriers to broadband deployment, and the RFC invites input on when carriers must obtain FCC permission to discontinue a telecom service. An eight-page order on reconsideration partially grants an NTCA petition and allows rate-of-return carriers to deploy broadband networks that exceed their capital allowance limits and still receive USF subsidy support if they pay for the costs above their limits.

Though the FCC voted 2-1 Thursday to restore the UHF discount and re-examine the rule later this year along with the national broadcast ownership cap, both Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who dissented from the vote, and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in news conferences after the meeting they believe altering the national cap is the province of Congress. “Something of that significance, I would appreciate additional guidance from Congress,” said Clyburn in response to a question from Communications Daily. O’Rielly reaffirmed his view the agency doesn’t have authority to change the cap, and said he's interested to see how the matter “gets litigated out.”

Changes to rules for the 3.5 GHz shared band appear to be on a fast track at the FCC, with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly driving the process, industry and agency officials said. O’Rielly asked the industry about potential changes to the rules, the officials said. But he's expected to push only limited changes. Wi-Fi advocates warn that more sweeping changes could mean a slowdown in the launch of the band, a multiple-year focus for the FCC.

Pending Senate legislation from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., known as the Managing Your Data Against Telecom Abuses Act (see 1704170048), would remove the FTC’s common carrier exemption for broadband providers and give the FTC Administrative Procedure Act rulemaking authority for unfair or deceptive acts or practices on privacy and security, a Democratic Senate staffer told us. The bill text was unavailable. The legislation won't be formally introduced until Congress returns from recess next week, the staffer said.

Critics of an FCC business data service plan mounted a full-court press to postpone a vote scheduled for Thursday on a deregulatory draft order they say would harm competition and consumers unless changed. At the very least, they said the FCC should create a three-year transition to new BDS rules to give competitors more time to deploy new broadband connections to business customers and wireless cellsites. Three congressional Republicans from Arkansas backed a "reasonable transition." Incompas, Sprint and Windstream said AT&T raised business broadband rates in several states as the commission prepares to undermine BDS competition. "Those are unrelated rates not impacted by the FCC’s BDS proposal," said an AT&T spokesman.