An idea pushed by FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to have a federal agency determine Lifeline eligibility (see 1411120026) may not be more efficient, officials from companies making up the Lifeline Connects Coalition told Ryan Palmer, chief of the Wireless Bureau’s Telecom Access Policy Division Dec. 5, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-42. Citing 2013 Universal Service Administrative Co. statistics, the group said administrative expenses were 1.29 percent of USF disbursements, while administrative costs for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program were 9 percent. Involved in the meeting were Brian Lisle, president of the Telrite Corp.; Jeni Kues, of i-wireless; several Blue Jay Wireless officials including CEO David Wareikis; CGM founder Chuck Campbell; and Kelley Drye’s John Heitmann and Joshua Guyan. Clyburn "encouraged all parties to respond [to her ideas] ... on the best ways to reform Lifeline for the broadband era," Clyburn's office said. "We look forward to a meaningful debate involving all interested parties in order to achieve the goal of affordable broadband for everyone.”

Existing alarm systems must be tested as part of any IP transition trial to ensure they'll communicate with monitoring centers after the transition, without requiring changes for customers or the security company, Paul Plofchan, ADT vice president-government and regulatory affairs, and Rachel Sanford, ML Strategies director-government relations, told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Dec. 4, said an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-174. Because some broadband providers offer alarm services, the switch from copper-based to IP-based services could lead to a “severe distortion” in the market, ADT said. Approaches could include barring broadband providers’ technicians from trying to sell the company’s alarm systems during service calls, and communicating to customers that their existing alarm service is compatible with the new communications service, ADT said.

Communities in Mississippi and around the country should take the fact that 100 million Americans aren't using broadband as an “opportunity and a challenge,” FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the Mississippi Broadband Coalition Summit. She urged those trying to increase broadband usage to frame the discussion on the possibilities it brings, in Dec. 2 remarks posted on the commission's website Wednesday. “The goals here are economic development, decreases in unemployment, gains in education, and improved healthcare,” she said. “Too often, we think of these as happy by-products of broadband access. But, how you frame a problem, makes all the difference in finding a solution.” The FCC’s multidisciplinary Connect2Health Task Force’s vision of everyone being connected “to the people, information and services they need to get well and stay healthy” is an example of focusing on the goals, she said. The “benefit of a grand vision is that it can help people who haven’t drunk the broadband Kool-Aid better understand the value proposition of broadband,” Clyburn said. “It can help Mississippians who have to choose how to spend limited discretionary income, choose to spend it on broadband. It can transform the conversation from one about surfing the Internet (which some people may not fully value), to one about improving the health of all Mississippians -- imagine the economic value that could be created if there were no lost days at work due to illness. It can take a [medical] provider network stretched thin and give it more tools to fight obesity and diabetes before the Mississippi safety net cracks under the weight of chronic disease. And, it will give hope to a nation filled with other communities facing these same problems.”

The FCC should approve the draft order on circulation clarifying that calls originating or terminating over VoIP are subject to the same intercarrier compensation as any other kind of wireline traffic (see 1410280032), Greg Rogers, Bandwidth.com deputy general counsel, and Morgan Lewis’ Tamar Finn told an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Dec. 3, said an ex parte notice posted Monday in docket 10-90. “Every month of delay in addressing this issue costs Bandwidth time and money in disputed and unpaid access bills, diverting resources from running and growing its business, unlocking IP innovation for well-established and emerging partners on the creative edge of IP user experiences.” Verizon officials, though, told Daniel Alvarez, aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, Dec. 4 that the agency already has determined in a number of proceedings that an LEC “cannot assess end office switching access charges when it routes over-the-top VoIP traffic over the public Internet,” said an ex parte filing posted Monday. Reversing the determination would “encourage arbitrageurs to use over-the-top VoIP autodialing equipment to collect originating switched access through new robocall schemes,” Verizon’s Kathleen Grillo, senior vice president-federal regulatory affairs, Chris Miller, vice president-regulatory affairs, and Alan Buzacott, executive director-federal regulatory affairs, told Alvarez. If the commission changes course, it would have to adjust rules and apply it prospectively, Verizon said.

The FCC doesn't have authority to pre-empt state laws putting up obstacles to municipal broadband projects, and should reject pre-emption petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, Brad Ramsay, NARUC general counsel, and officials from ITTA and CenturyLink told FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and a Wireline Bureau official, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in dockets 14-115 and 14-116. Also involved in the Dec. 3 meeting were ITTA's Genny Morelli, president, and Micah Caldwell, vice president-regulatory affairs, and CenturyLink's Jeb Benedict, vice president-federal regulatory affairs.

Reclassifying broadband under Communications Act Title II would put net neutrality rules on the strongest legal standing, Leigh Freund, AOL global public policy chief counsel, told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Dec. 3, said an FCC ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Monday. A firm ban on paid prioritization “should rely on all jurisdictional sources available,” including Title II and Section 706, AOL said.

Rural broadband experiment bidders provisionally selected to serve 26,867 census blocks in 25 states and Puerto Rico were announced by the FCC Wireline Bureau in a public notice Friday. The bureau must now determine whether each selected applicant has demonstrated it has the technical and financial qualifications to successfully complete the proposed project within the required time frames and is in compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements, the notice said. The notice said 19 entities are seeking support to build networks capable of delivering 100 Mbps downstream and 25 Mbps upstream in census blocks in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico and Texas. Another 12 entities are seeking support to build networks capable of delivering 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream in census blocks in Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Nine entities are seeking support to build networks capable of delivering 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream in selected census blocks that are extremely costly to serve in California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, North Dakota, Kansas, South Dakota and Texas.

The FCC should adopt FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s draft order at Thursday's commission meeting to raise E-rate’s spending cap by $1.5 billion (see 1411170042), wrote Kristen Amundson, executive director of the National Association of State Boards of Education, in a Dec. 1 letter to the agency posted Friday in docket 13-184. “Historic education reforms,” including the implementation of college and career standards, “require or benefit significantly, from high capacity broadband,” Amundson wrote. “Unfortunately, far too many schools -- particularly the nation's rural schools -- lack access to broadband at the levels needed to adequately support effective teaching and learning." School district officials have also written the commission supporting the higher cap, according to ex parte filings. The Urban Libraries Council urged the commission to increase the amount of E-rate funding a library can receive, said an ex parte filing posted Friday. Three percent of libraries represent almost a third of all library Wi-Fi users, said a study ULC submitted in the filing. The libraries need more funding than allowed under the commission’s July E-rate modernization order (see 1407140044), wrote ULC President Susan Benton in a Nov. 28 letter, also included in the filing. Allowing the heaviest users to qualify for the funding they need would guarantee that the busiest 7 percent of libraries, with more than 63 percent of public Wi-Fi users, would be eligible for “requisite funding,” Benton wrote.

Building 10 Mbps broadband downstream under Connect America Fund Phase II would cost between $5 billion and $6 billion more than building 4 Mbps, “vastly more” than the CAF funding that would be made available over even seven years, CenturyLink officials told aides to FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel Dec. 1 and aides to commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O’Rielly Dec. 2, according to an ex parte filing made available by the company. The filing hadn't been posted in docket 10-90 Friday. Industry sources have said the CAF draft order, scheduled to be taken up by the commission on Thursday, would raise the minimum broadband speeds required under CAF from 4 Mbps to 10 Mbps, but would increase the length of funding under the proposal from five years to six years, with the provider having an option for a seventh year (see 1411260040). Saying that’s not enough to offset the additional cost of providing higher speeds, CenturyLink Senior Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Melissa Newman and Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Jeffrey Lanning said CAF funding also doesn't include “any provision for operating expense or replacement capital expenditure in these sparsely-populated, high-cost areas.” As a result, “it is likely that CenturyLink would find that it could accept such statewide offers of support in some states but not in others,” the ex parte said. “CenturyLink recognizes that it may be appropriate to increase the CAF II obligation to 10 Mbps downstream, but only if the Commission also adopts commensurate changes in the construction period, after-tax funding, and deployment flexibility to meet the increased cost associated with the increased speed,” the filing said. Distributing Phase II funding through auctions instead of statewide offers of support would lead to “considerable delays in broadband deployment as it will take many months to adopt rules, conduct auctions, and issue certifications before construction can begin,” CenturyLink said. “In addition, by their nature, auctions will lead to ‘cherry picking’ by providers, leaving many areas behind without any CAF II provider,” the filing said.

Granting Neustar’s petition to rebid the selection of the next local number portability administrator would "substantially delay or derail entirely the LNPA selection process, to the detriment of the public -- while only one party (Neustar) stands to gain,” CTIA said in a reply comment filed Wednesday to the FCC on the petitions. With the current contract due to end in June, CTIA said “further inaction will needlessly cost users of the LNP database, and ultimately all U.S. telephone consumers, scores or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Indeed, each day of delay in implementing a new LNPA contract beyond its ... expiration will impose more than $1 million of unnecessary costs on consumers." The group also said Neustar had not objected to the selection procedure previously: “Neustar is not ‘uncertain’ about the LNPA selection process and procedures it previously supported; instead, it ‘merely disagree[s] with them.’” Neustar's reply contested the cost of delay (see 1412030046). Telcordia, recommended to win the contract, pressed for a decision soon.