Five submarine cable operators urged the FCC to create a new regulatory fee category for submarine cable systems. The firms now are in the international bearer circuit category. The proposed SCS fee would cover systems linking international points for which the FCC has issued a separate cable landing license, said Level 3 and four other companies in comments on 2008 regulatory fee assessment and collection. FCC rules require that the agency annually collect regulatory fees for “costs associated with the Commission’s enforcement, policy and rulemaking, user information, and international activities.” IBC regulatory fees for services sometimes exceed revenue, said Level 3, among the companies filing. The IBC fee “distorts the market by grossly overcharging high-capacity systems” and “discourages innovative submarine cable offerings,” the backhaul provider said. Fees must be updated to reflect industry changes, it said. The FCC still assesses submarine cable operators’ fees according to capacity though they haven’t had to ask the FCC for consent to add circuits since the 1996 Telecom Act, it said. To triple capacity, for example, Level 3 has to pay three times in regulatory fees, even though the FCC need do nothing more, it said. The five operators suggested the FCC split today’s IBC fee revenue requirement 50-50 between new IBC and SCS fees. To set each company’s SCS fee, the FCC would divide the revenue requirement by the number of payers, they said. The FCC should reduce submarine cable operators’ fees, but not at other companies’ expense, AT&T said. Changes to IBC fees “should not result in increased fees for other services or service providers,” it said. AT&T also claimed the current system has not handicapped the industry. “There is… no apparent adverse impact on industry growth from the existing fees, with Commission data showing a massive on- going expansion of U.S. submarine cable international circuit capacity, including substantial capacity increases by many private cable operators.”
The FCC probably will extend a deadline on an AT&T forbearance petition seeking relief from Automated Reporting Management Information System (ARMIS) requirements, an FCC official told us. The petition’s 12-month shot clock expires June 8, but forbearance rules let the FCC extend it 90 days. No order has been circulated, the official said. The commission usually circulates orders three weeks before the due date, which in this case would have been May 16. An extension wouldn’t be surprising because the FCC commonly extends forbearance deadlines, the source added.
A draft order on an FCC 10-digit numbering plan for IP relay services recommends a system proposed by AT&T and GoAmerica, FCC officials told us. The commissioners will vote on the order at the June 12 meeting. The draft recommends a single database of phone numbers and IP addresses, shared by all relay providers, an FCC source said. A neutral party would maintain the list, with access limited to relay providers, an official said. Commissioners’ offices are studying the draft, the official said. An alternate proposal by CSDVRS also recommended a central database, but on the open Internet for access by relay users, too. NeuStar recommended a multiple-database system in which relay providers have direct access to their customers’ addresses but must work with other relay providers to complete calls to those providers’ customers. It’s unclear whether the draft adopts any aspects of the NeuStar or CSDVRS proposals. The FCC discussed the industry proposals at an April workshop, and compromise seemed possible (CD May 1 p1). “We're pleased that the FCC is moving forward and will support any solution the FCC requires the providers to implement,” said GoAmerica President Ed Routhier. “It remains our position that it is a matter of public safety that any solution must be able to be implemented per the timeline provided by the FCC, and that the solution we jointly proposed with AT&T is the only solution capable of this. It appears the FCC shares this view.” NeuStar declined to comment. CSDVRS didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The FCC clarified “overly broad” rules meant to protect Telecommunications Relay Service users from unwanted marketing and lobbying. In a declaratory ruling issued late Wednesday, the FCC gave examples of settings in which interstate relay service providers may use TRS databases to contact users. But the extra guidance fails to eliminate a double standard for relay and non-relay users, said an official at TRS provider GoAmerica.
The U.S. formally challenged EU tariffs on some information technology products, said U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab. The U.S. filed Wednesday in Geneva for World Trade Organization dispute-settlement consultations with the EU. Japan also filed. The U.S. initiated the proceedings because the EU violated WTO’s 1996 Information Technology Agreement by putting duties on products that should be duty-free, Schwab said. If a 60-day settlement proceeding fails, the U.S. will litigate, she said.
The FCC should reconsider last month’s AT&T forbearance order, said Sprint Nextel, CompTel, Time Warner Telecom and the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee. Late Tuesday, the groups filed a petition for reconsideration of the order, which gave AT&T relief from cost-assignment rules requiring Bell companies to keep records that, among other tasks, separate interstate and intrastate costs (CD April 28 p5). Meanwhile, Qwest and Verizon lawyers have joined forces as their companies campaign to get the same relief as AT&T.
At least three commissioner’s offices still haven’t heard from Chairman Kevin Martin about his plan to complete broad intercarrier compensation reform by mid-November, multiple FCC sources told us. Commissioner offices have met only with industry lobbyists scrambling to learn what the FCC intends to do, we're told. But at a Friday press briefing, Martin stood by a six-month pledge he authorized a lawyer to make May 5 in oral argument at the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (CD May 13 p2). “The commission should be in a position to try and find a way to address both broader intercarrier compensation and potentially at least some of the broader Universal Service reform,” the chairman said, terming the issues connected. The interim USF cap was a “critical first step” toward that goal, he said.
The FCC should “step up” and tackle universal service issues, since congressional efforts are stagnant, Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said in a conference keynote Tuesday for the Western Telecommunications Alliance and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. Terry said he told FCC Chairman Kevin Martin over the phone that “it doesn’t look like we're going to be able to do USF this year.” Terry asked Martin if that means “the FCC perceives that they need to step up,” he said: “He said ‘Yes.'”
Phone and cable companies split in comments on a rural incumbent carrier’s petition concerning VoIP interconnection rights. Vermont Telephone wants the FCC to rule that it need not interconnect with Comcast Phone, a VoIP carrier. Phone companies largely sided with VTel, noting that only telecom carriers have interconnection rights. But cable said VTel’s petition failed to distinguish between VoIP providers and their wholesale carrier partners.
VON conference organizer Pulvermedia is “closed for now,” a spokeswoman for the company confirmed Monday, declining to elaborate. The comment is all Pulvermedia has said since layoff rumors spread in late March.