Late removal of the FCC set-top order from commissioners' meeting agenda Thursday (see 1609290014) indicates Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel are relatively far from a compromise on what a final order should look like, industry and FCC officials told us. If the two sides were closer together, it's likely the meeting would have been delayed for hours instead of the item being delayed indefinitely, officials said. In the day or so before, a Democratic member of Congress who led a letter against the order (see 1609270048) lobbied Rosenworcel, while others lobbied her aide, filings show.

Sprint and Verizon pushed business data service regulatory proposals, but cable companies, telcos and unions objected to them, in filings posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 16-143. Commissioners may consider BDS action at their Oct. 27 meeting, the tentative agenda for which is due for release Oct. 6. Sprint said the BDS joint proposals of Incompas and Verizon were the "best path" to ensure "non-competitive market conditions" don't hurt business customers and incumbent rivals, including wireless carriers rolling out 5G mobile broadband networks that need more backhaul. AT&T is engaged in an "eleventh-hour effort" to block changes and preserve its "lucrative dominance," said a Sprint filing, which included an extensive overview of "the overwhelming evidence in support" of the Incompas/Verizon framework and separate "backstop remedies." Verizon disputed Comcast arguments the cable company was a BDS "private carrier" (not a “common carrier”) and should be subject to different rules. Verizon said it backed exempting post-2006 Ethernet providers from proposed benchmark regulation. But NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox and Mediacom said the record showed BDS was "intensely competitive" and provided "no basis" for Incompas/Verizon regulatory proposals. In a meeting with staffers, they urged the FCC to adopt NCTA's proposal to regulate only where companies have market power. CenturyLink said Incompas/Verizon proposals would cut rates in BDS offerings below 50 Mbps and extend them to Ethernet services in noncompetitive areas through benchmark regulation affecting most price-cap ILECs except Verizon, which would see "little, if any, impact." The agency can justify "no more than minimal" reductions to DS1 and DS3 rates based on "X-factor" productivity analysis, said CenturyLink, which said regulation undercut 5G. Frontier Communications and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers urged the FCC not to impose "draconian" ILEC rate cuts that would threaten union jobs in favor of competitors that blocked organized labor and provided lower pay and benefits. Dorsey Hager, executive secretary of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, asked the FCC to revise proposals that are based on "data that is out of date." Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell disagreed that Incompas/Verizon proposals were a compromise, given their increasingly common wireless-oriented interests. Verizon would reap the benefits of lower BDS rates out of region but wouldn't have to lower its own Ethernet rates, he said in a commentary.

Sprint and Verizon pushed business data service regulatory proposals, but cable companies, telcos and unions objected to them, in filings posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 16-143. Commissioners may consider BDS action at their Oct. 27 meeting, the tentative agenda for which is due for release Oct. 6. Sprint said the BDS joint proposals of Incompas and Verizon were the "best path" to ensure "non-competitive market conditions" don't hurt business customers and incumbent rivals, including wireless carriers rolling out 5G mobile broadband networks that need more backhaul. AT&T is engaged in an "eleventh-hour effort" to block changes and preserve its "lucrative dominance," said a Sprint filing, which included an extensive overview of "the overwhelming evidence in support" of the Incompas/Verizon framework and separate "backstop remedies." Verizon disputed Comcast arguments the cable company was a BDS "private carrier" (not a “common carrier”) and should be subject to different rules. Verizon said it backed exempting post-2006 Ethernet providers from proposed benchmark regulation. But NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox and Mediacom said the record showed BDS was "intensely competitive" and provided "no basis" for Incompas/Verizon regulatory proposals. In a meeting with staffers, they urged the FCC to adopt NCTA's proposal to regulate only where companies have market power. CenturyLink said Incompas/Verizon proposals would cut rates in BDS offerings below 50 Mbps and extend them to Ethernet services in noncompetitive areas through benchmark regulation affecting most price-cap ILECs except Verizon, which would see "little, if any, impact." The agency can justify "no more than minimal" reductions to DS1 and DS3 rates based on "X-factor" productivity analysis, said CenturyLink, which said regulation undercut 5G. Frontier Communications and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers urged the FCC not to impose "draconian" ILEC rate cuts that would threaten union jobs in favor of competitors that blocked organized labor and provided lower pay and benefits. Dorsey Hager, executive secretary of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, asked the FCC to revise proposals that are based on "data that is out of date." Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell disagreed that Incompas/Verizon proposals were a compromise, given their increasingly common wireless-oriented interests. Verizon would reap the benefits of lower BDS rates out of region but wouldn't have to lower its own Ethernet rates, he said in a commentary.

Frontier Communications said wireline telcos could be harmed disproportionately if potential business data service regulation doesn't account for differences among carriers. A Frontier executive and a senior commission staffer agreed further industry talks on BDS proposals are desirable, but not much time remains for a broad agreement if commissioners act at their Oct. 27 meeting, as some expect (see 1609190064). Frontier, NCTA and others made new filings in docket 16-143 opposing BDS regulation proposals.

Frontier Communications said wireline telcos could be harmed disproportionately if potential business data service regulation doesn't account for differences among carriers. A Frontier executive and a senior commission staffer agreed further industry talks on BDS proposals are desirable, but not much time remains for a broad agreement if commissioners act at their Oct. 27 meeting, as some expect (see 1609190064). Frontier, NCTA and others made new filings in docket 16-143 opposing BDS regulation proposals.

Multichannel video programming distributors, programmers, tech companies and civil rights groups continued to lobby the FCC over the agency's set-top proposal until the beginning of the sunshine period Thursday evening, according to ex parte notices posted in docket 16-42 that day and Friday. Groups on both sides repeated their opposition or support for the draft item set for commissioner's coming Thursday meeting, T-Mobile announced support for the FCC plan, and a coalition of civil rights groups asked the FCC to delay the vote. Amazon proposed an alternative to the commission’s licensing plan that was raised by FCC officials in discussions with content companies, according to an ex parte filing.

Multichannel video programming distributors, programmers, tech companies and civil rights groups continued to lobby the FCC over the agency's set-top proposal until the beginning of the sunshine period Thursday evening, according to ex parte notices posted in docket 16-42 that day and Friday. Groups on both sides repeated their opposition or support for the draft item set for commissioner's coming Thursday meeting, T-Mobile announced support for the FCC plan, and a coalition of civil rights groups asked the FCC to delay the vote. Amazon proposed an alternative to the commission’s licensing plan that was raised by FCC officials in discussions with content companies, according to an ex parte filing.

Drafting FCC orders for business data services (BDS) and broadband privacy is a top priority for the Wireline Bureau, said bureau Chief Matt DelNero at an FCBA event Wednesday. DelNero said Chairman Tom Wheeler continues to urge industry rivals to achieve as much agreement as possible on the regulatory treatment of a BDS market generating at least $45 billion in annual revenue. The bureau is also busy carrying out past commission decisions, particularly regarding overhauls of various USF mechanisms, he said.

Drafting FCC orders for business data services (BDS) and broadband privacy is a top priority for the Wireline Bureau, said bureau Chief Matt DelNero at an FCBA event Wednesday. DelNero said Chairman Tom Wheeler continues to urge industry rivals to achieve as much agreement as possible on the regulatory treatment of a BDS market generating at least $45 billion in annual revenue. The bureau is also busy carrying out past commission decisions, particularly regarding overhauls of various USF mechanisms, he said.

AT&T called Incompas/Verizon business data service regulatory proposals nothing like the compromise the two parties suggest it is. Verizon sold so many wireline systems, it "is almost certainly a net purchaser of BDS whose interests are more aligned" with Incompas than with other ILECs, said an AT&T filing posted Monday in docket 16-143, calling their joint recommendations "cynical." As Incompas and Verizon reveal details of their proposals, it's becoming clear their proposals are "structured as a massively one-sided giveaway to Verizon at the expense of consumers, competition and virtually all other BDS competitors," AT&T wrote. It said Verizon had some of the highest BDS rates in the industry where it's the incumbent, "significantly higher than AT&T's, for example." But Incompas is willing to protect Verizon's high in-region rates to win the telco's support for "radical and debilitating rate reductions on all other ILECs and Ethernet providers outside of Verizon's territory," AT&T said. "That may be a win-win for Verizon and INCOMPAS, but it would be hard to design a proposal more inimical to the public interest." AT&T said "Verizon would be rewarded for having DS1 rates that far exceed those of AT&T, because those high DS1 rates translate directly into higher benchmark Ethernet rates for Verizon." Incompas and Verizon didn't comment to us. In a Monday filing, Verizon said cable provides BDS offerings the same way others do, via common carriage. Verizon also asked the FCC to allow existing BDS contracts to run their course rather than void them through "fresh look" requirements, in the filing on a call with Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero. In a blog post, USTelecom said Friday the FCC should stop barring incumbents from discounting BDS prices in about one-third of the country. "Prices could be lower in those areas if the FCC simply granted more flexibility to incumbent providers to lower their prices in all areas of the country," the ILEC group said. A Macquarie Securities note to investors Monday said the impact of new FCC BDS regulation "could be greater" for Frontier Communications and CenturyLink.