FCC commissioners probably will vote on an order related to a Freedom of Information Act request ahead of this week’s agenda meeting, a commission official told us. Commissioners probably will vote 5-0 to reject Fusion Telecommunications’ challenge to an order granting an FoIA request by Wall Street Journal reporter Mary O'Grady, the official said. O'Grady, researching Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide’s finances, asked the FCC for international traffic-tariff material on Fusion. When the FCC found it didn’t have the information, it asked Fusion to file it. Fusion complied but asked the agency to keep the material confidential. The FCC gave O'Grady the information, saying it should be public.
Keep interconnected VoIP eligible for Universal Service Fund E-Rate schools and libraries support, a cross section of industry and E-Rate applicants said in Thursday comments on a rulemaking. But commenters differed on funding year 2009 eligibility for filtering software, dark fiber and other new services.
Recent talk of overhauling intercarrier compensation and USF has sparked fevered telecom industry debate. On a Thursday FCBA panel, officials and lawyers representing AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Windstream, OPASTCO and competitive local exchange carriers reviewed recent proposals by Verizon and others advocating a uniform $0.0007 terminating access rate for all traffic. USF contribution was among few items on which they appeared to agree.
Private submarine cable operators support a regulatory fee structure proposed by AT&T and Verizon for submarine cable systems, FCC and industry officials told us Wednesday. The two sides are working on language and implementation issues, but are near formal agreement, we're told. The FCC has promised to act by Sept. 29 on the issue (CD Sept 5 p8). Level 3 and the other submarine cable operators, which earlier pitched a collective proposal, now believe the AT&T- Verizon plan, while likely to mean higher fees, is more fair, said an industry official close to the proceeding.
Legislation requiring pre-paid calling card companies to accurately disclose terms of service unanimously passed the House Commerce consumer protection subcommittee Tuesday. Work on a package of amendments was deferred to the full committee at an afternoon markup session, giving lawmakers more time to resolve disagreements over sections of the bill. Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., suggested in comments he supports the FTC’s request to allow it authority over telecom carriers in policing pre-paid calling card fraud.
Consumer groups for people with speaking disabilities supported stricter rules for speech-to-speech telecom relay services, in comments last week on an FCC notice of proposed rulemaking. Relay providers resisted some of the changes being considered. The sides agreed that Internet-based STS service should get Interstate TRS Fund support.
The FCC seems to be setting up intercarrier compensation and Universal Service Fund overhaul proposals for its Nov. 4 meeting. Whether Chairman Kevin Martin will propose a complete overhaul there was still fluid, sources said. A court order gave the commission until Nov. 5 to explain the statutory basis for its ISP-bound traffic compensation regime. Industry officials said the Wireline Bureau is soliciting comments on several comprehensive proposals.
A bill aimed at curbing call center outsourcing got mixed reviews in a Thursday House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection hearing. The call center bill (HR-1776), sponsored by Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., would require call centers to give their physical locations at the start of a call.
T-Mobile asked the FCC not to adopt new requirements for dual-mode CMRS-VoIP phones as the commission revises rules for VoIP E-911. The dual-mode phone issue loomed large last month as commissioners debated a rulemaking required by the NET 911 Improvement Act. Other commenters said the dual-mode issue appears unique to T-Mobile and asked the FCC to table the issue to focus on the Act’s main thrust: Ensuring that interconnected VoIP providers have access to E911 services.
Only audio bridging service providers supported two petitions to reconsider and clarify a June order that would force Intercall and other audio bridging companies to pay into universal service (CD Aug 12 p10). Unsurprisingly, Intercall backed the petitions, urging the FCC to declare audio conferencing an information service. Multi-Point Communications, another audio-conferencing provider, termed the FCC order “procedurally defective,” because it didn’t give “appropriate notice and comment to the teleconferencing industry.” The FCC provided 11 days to comment, and Multi- Point “was given only last-minute notice that it must adopt and implement procedures to fulfill its new [USF] obligations,” it said. Meanwhile, Verizon demanded that the petition be rejected outright. “There are no grounds for reconsideration,” the carrier said. The petitioners didn’t participate in the initial proceeding, they raise no new questions of law or fact and their arguments lack merit, it said. Others asked the FCC to clarify that the Intercall order changed no rules. Cisco said it believes the Intercall order confirmed existing FCC rules, but could be misread as rewriting them. It urged the FCC to make clear that the former -- and not the latter -- is true. The FCC “should confirm that this decision applied existing precedent, and did not adopt a new test for what constitutes an integrated information service,” said the VON Coalition. Also, the FCC should clarify the decision’s scope and say that it doesn’t cover information services including a functionally integrated voice communications function, the Coalition said.