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.
Competitive local exchange carriers submitted another study on Qwest forbearance to the FCC Thursday, urging the commission to deny the Bell’s petition. Qwest seeks relief from loop and transport unbundling rules, tariffing and other regulations in Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis and Phoenix. In the past two months, CLECs have submitted several studies opposing Qwest forbearance. Thursday, Qwest fought back with a 14-page letter to the FCC refuting the recent batch of CLEC studies. The CLECs “recommend several unwarranted changes in the Commission’s forbearance analysis,” Qwest said. The TDS Metrocom-commissioned study released Thursday accuses Qwest of “padding competitive market assessments” with its own resale and commercial offer lines. Those lines are “meaningless in any retail market analysis because they impose no price constraints on the incumbent and provide no meaningful commercial opportunity for competitors,” the CLECs said. The resale market peaked in 2000, serving less than 3 percent of the market, the CLECs said. Commercial offers, Bell-priced wholesale products, “have shown rapidly decaying volumes” since launching in late 2004, they said. Resale is competitively irrelevant because the reseller can’t differentiate a resold product, independently reduce prices or sell access services, they said. “Qwest has attempted to puff up its numbers in a variety of ways,” said Heather Gold, XO Communications external affairs senior vice president. “First they fobbed off ‘wireless substitution’ as competition to wireline service, which is completely erroneous. Now Qwest is adding in its own resale service, which is irrelevant. The only test of market share that matters is the proof of successful, facilities-based competition.”
AT&T saw nothing but industry support on its appeal of a Universal Service Administrative Co. audit. AT&T disputes a USAC order that eligible telecommunications carriers must report partial or pro-rata dollars for USF Lifeline subscribers who left the Lifeline program within the month they joined. AT&T said it doesn’t need to provide the information because it has never asked USAC for partial or pro-rata support. In comments filed Wednesday, USTelecom, Qwest, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, Embarq and Sprint Nextel supported the appeal. No one opposed it.