A group of wireless carriers withdrew their petition to have the FCC reconsider its interim cap on the Universal Service Fund high-cost program, according to a Friday ex parte. The Rural Cellular Association and a group of small wireless competitive eligible telecom carriers challenged the cap earlier this month (CD Aug 6 p10). The ex parte didn’t explain the withdrawal, but a source with knowledge of the matter told us the group didn’t want to “waste a lot of time” at the FCC, planning instead to take their challenge to court next week. The carriers filed at the FCC first because they expected others to file reconsideration petitions, the source said. If the carriers immediately went to court and others filed challenges at the FCC, the court probably would hold the case in abeyance pending the FCC proceedings. Since no one else has filed reconsideration petitions, the RCA group can go to court, the source said.
AT&T and other price-cap carriers will escape Automated Reporting Management Information System (ARMIS) requirements if commissioners vote to approve a draft order now circulating on the eighth floor, an FCC official said Monday. The draft grants AT&T’s forbearance petition, due for a vote Sept. 6, and extends that relief to Verizon, Qwest, Embarq, Frontier, Citizens and Windstream, we're told. An FCC spokeswoman declined comment because the proceeding is ongoing.
With slightly more than two months left to act on intercarrier compensation reform, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin hasn’t divulged his plan to colleagues, three FCC officials said Monday. Eighth floor offices are meeting with industry, but probably won’t talk to one another until Martin gives more instruction, they said. There’s no indication of what Martin’s plan will look like, only that it will be coming, an agency official said.
Telecom and cable firms, states and others resisted an AT&T plan for an interim intercarrier-compensation revamp (CD Aug 13 p8). In comments last week, they urged the FCC to keep its eye on the comprehensive overhaul promised by Chairman Kevin Martin for November. Comments on an alternative interim proposal by Embarq are due Tuesday.
Industry rhetoric on another AT&T forbearance petition on accounting rules has been one sided heading into its final two weeks. The FCC has until Sept. 6 to act on the petition seeking relief from Automated Reporting Management Information System (ARMIS) requirements. This week, Verizon and other price-cap carriers continued to argue for a sweeping order extending them the same relief as AT&T. But competitive carriers and others that opposed a related April FCC order granting AT&T forbearance from cost-assignment rules are mum.
Telemarketers may no longer send prerecorded messages to consumers’ telephones, unless the consumer permitted them to do so, said the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC voted 4-0 to approve the ban, one of two Telemarketing Sales Rule amendments issued Tuesday. The second modifies the TSR’s method for calculating the maximum permissible level of call abandonment. “Just like the provisions of the Do Not Call Registry, these changes will protect consumers’ privacy,” said FTC Chairman William Kovacic. “The amendments now directly enable consumers to choose whether they want to receive prerecorded telemarketing calls.”
A draft order on AT&T’s forbearance petition seeking relief from Automated Reporting Management Information System (ARMIS) requirements is circulating the eighth floor, an FCC official told us. The draft appeared Friday, the source said. The FCC must vote on it by Sept. 6, according to the statutory deadline for forbearance petitions. Verizon and other price-cap carriers wanting ARMIS relief met last week with FCC officials, urging the commission to accept all their petitions and to grant all price-cap carriers the same relief (CD Aug 15 p5).
Qwest is mulling whether to refile for forbearance in the Phoenix metropolitan statistical area, according to a July 30 Qwest e-mail to Capitol Hill offices. Last month, the FCC denied a Qwest forbearance petition seeking unbundling relief in Phoenix, Denver, Seattle and Minneapolis. Shortly after, Qwest filed for review in the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit. “Qwest still believes that competition is rigorous in these markets,” said Brooks Brunson, Qwest federal relations director, in the e- mail.
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain wants less regulation and more tax breaks for the technology industry. After flak from Sen. Barack Obama, Ill., and other Democrats for lacking a tech plan, the Arizonan posted one on his Web site late Thursday. Soon after, ex-FCC Chairman Reed Hundt condemned the plan. At the same time the Democrats were talking technology, with a party platform draft.
FCC handling of an OrbitCom forbearance petition elicited more reaction Thursday. The agency withheld the petition from public view for nearly a year after OrbitCom filed it (CD Aug 14 p1). Wednesday, an FCC spokesman said a draft order on circulation denied the request “because the petition was so deficient on its face.” If that was so, the FCC should have acted sooner, said Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation, a think tank focused on deregulation and free-market policies. “That way, the petitioner, if it chose to do so, could have promptly refiled a beefed-up petition in an attempt to make its case,” he said. The FCC should reform the forbearance process “to prevent something going into effect without the commissioners actively voting on it,” said Dan Mitchell, legal vice president for the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. “While we're not familiar with all of the details surrounding the OrbitCom proceeding, it seems to demonstrate that the drop dead date in forbearance proceedings can be problematic.”