A federal appeals court threw an interconnection dispute between Qwest and Western Radio Services back to district court Wednesday. Western disputes a Qwest interconnection agreement written by the Bell after the companies went through arbitration at the Oregon Public Utilities Commission. Western alleged that Qwest failed to negotiate in good faith, as required by the Telecom Act, and that the PUC violated Western’s constitutional rights. A U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., dismissed the charge against Qwest for lack of jurisdiction and the one against the PUC as unripe for decision. Western appealed to the 9th U.S. Appeals Court in San Francisco. The 9th Circuit vacated and remanded. Western couldn’t sue Qwest alleging bad faith before the PUC handled the charges, the appeals court agreed. But the commission may have done that when, shortly after the district court ruling, it approved the interconnection agreement filed by Qwest, it said. The lower court should consider whether the PUC decision is “sufficient to permit adjudication of Western’s good faith claim in district court,” the 9th Circuit said. The district court should also review whether the commission ruling affects its decision on Western’s charge against the PUC, it said. Qwest and Western Radio Services didn’t comment by our deadline.
The FCC has until Nov. 5 to explain the statutory basis for a nine-year-old interim compensation scheme for ISP-bound traffic, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday. It granted Core Communications’ petition for writ of mandamus. A promise by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin that the agency would wrap up a comprehensive intercarrier-compensation overhaul by that date (CD May 6 p1) held no water for the court. “We have heard this refrain before,” it said. “Having repeatedly, and mistakenly, put our faith in the Commission, we will not do so again.”
The FCC circulated an order on forbearance for Qwest in four metropolitan areas, a commission source told us, declining to elaborate. Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., urged commissioners to follow review tests set in the FCC order granting Qwest forbearance in Omaha. The carrier wants relief from loop and transport unbundling rules in Denver, Phoenix, Seattle and Minneapolis. Qwest and forbearance opponents have been lobbying legislators to write to the FCC (CD June 27 p9). Kyl has no “independent knowledge” of whether competition in Phoenix warrants regulatory relief, he said. “But the public policy goal ought to be free and rigorous competition, with minimal federal intervention required.” The Omaha order “may provide a good case study for the FCC review of Qwest’s latest petition,” he said. In an ex parte last week, CompTel fought the Omaha order’s applicability. “The Omaha experiment has proven unsuccessful and the Commission should avoid making the same mistake again,” it said.
Rules to protect deaf consumers from unwanted marketing and lobbying have created a double standard for how the FCC regulates telecom relay service providers and dial-tone carriers, said relay providers and others. But advocates for deaf people said marketing is one issue for which the FCC should treat TRS providers differently. “If we get abused, the fundamental principles of relay service will not meet its full potential,” said Claude Stout, executive director of Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI). If TRS users believe their call is being monitored or their data will be used for other purposes, they will be “less confident” to use relay service, he said. “We need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The FCC should grant cost-assignment rules forbearance to Embarq and all other price-cap incumbent local exchange carriers that agree to conditions the agency imposed on AT&T, Embarq said in comments on a Verizon and Qwest “me-too” request. In April, the FCC granted AT&T forbearance from cost-assignment rules requiring incumbent carriers to keep records that, among other tasks, separate interstate and intrastate costs (CD April 28 p5). But all of the me-too requests could be rendered moot. Last week, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates challenged the AT&T order, appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The FCC should stay an order finding that Verizon unlawfully marketed to departing phone customers, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance said Thursday. Verizon said it would appeal the order (CD June 25 p5) if it didn’t get a stay by Thursday this week. “The order imposes a disparate playing field and favors improperly one class of providers over another,” ITTA said. “Local exchange carriers… no longer resemble monopolies that could potentially thwart budding competition. Instead, ITTA members are losing lines every month in a robustly competitive marketplace.” Barring retention marketing “stunt[s] unnecessarily” the development of an “informed customer,” it added.
Free Press’s latest effort at increasing U.S. broadband adoption (CD June 26 p9) isn’t a coalition lobbying Congress or the FCC, Marvin Ammori, Free Press general counsel, said. Rather, InternetforEveryone.org will be an organizer of public forums across the country, Ammori told us in an interview. Free Press still is crafting the digital tool, with which the group’s nearly 50 members will be able to communicate and decide collectively on details for staging events, he said. Members have no central money pot to dip into, and largely will “pay their own way,” he said. Free Press is not funding the forums, but will help pay for signs, he said. Free Press seeks discussions more casual than public hearings it held on media ownership, Ammori said. Free Press expects 4 to 6 forums the next 12 months, he said. Free Press doesn’t plan to pay for the first event itself, he said.
The Homeland Security Department is behind schedule on integrating centers dealing with disruptions on voice and data networks, GAO said Thursday. “Until DHS completes the integration of the two centers, it risks being unable to efficiently plan for and respond to disruptions to communications infrastructure and the data and applications that travel on this infrastructure,” GAO said. That increases “the probability that communications will be unavailable or limited in times of need,” it said.
An FCC order on a 10-digit numbering plan for IP relay services most closely resembles a system pitched by AT&T and GoAmerica, but also incorporates elements of other proposals, the FCC said. The order, released late Tuesday, recommends a single database of phone numbers and IP addresses, maintained by a neutral party. Access would be limited to IP relay providers, the FCC said. But the FCC didn’t throw out proposals by NeuStar and CSDVRS. “We find that no single Industry Proposal represents the best implementation of a centralized numbering directory mechanism, but instead find that a combination of different elements” is appropriate, the FCC said.
The FCC must ensure its proposed broadband mapping program doesn’t “unwittingly hamper or undermine” state and local efforts to increase broadband availability and adoption, Connected Nation said in meetings last week with the Wireline Bureau and Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. Connected Nation, which has led state and local efforts like Connect Kentucky, supports FCC proposals made this month in a further notice attached to an order on broadband data collection (CD June 16 p6). But the group wants to make sure the commission keeps state and local authorities in the loop, said Laura Taylor, Connected Nation chief analyst, in an interview. Mapping requires ground- level data collection, because few providers keep availability data in a useful format, she said. “On its own, the FCC would be hard pressed to create an accurate or meaningful availability map, but state-based programs could be built into this process to make it effective,” she said. Connected Nation has meetings scheduled with the other three commissioners next week, she said.