Kansas Rural LEC Epic Touch To Purchase Louisiana Communications Providers

March 25, 2019 – Kansas rural incumbent local exchange carrier Epic Touch has entered into an agreement to purchase CP-TEL Holdings, Inc., the sole direct owner of Campti-Pleasant Hill Telephone Co., Inc. and CP-TEL Network Services, Inc. Epic Touch, headquartered in Elkhart, Kansas, provides telephone and broadband service in Southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma panhandle through affiliates. Campti-Pleasant Hill is a Louisiana rural ILEC that began operations in 1933 as a land line telephone provider. It currently provides telephone services, Internet access services, and digital cable services to subscribers in portions of Natchitoches, Sabine, and Desoto Parishes. CP-TEL Network Services was created to provide local, long distance, and international resold telephone service, broadband services, and digital cable services in Northwest Louisiana. Pursuant to a February 2019 stock purchase agreement, Epic Touch will purchase all of CP-TEL Holdings’ stock. Post-transaction, Epic Touch will own and control CP-TEL Holdings and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. According to the parties’ joint application for consent to transfer control of domestic and international Section 214 authorizations, key personnel from CP-TEL Holdings will remain in a management position at the company post-transaction, and Campti and CP-TEL Network Services will continue to serve their Louisiana customers in the same geographic service areas and under the same company names, rates, terms, and conditions as currently provided.

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Recording Industry Sues ISP Bright House Networks For Copyright Infringement

March 22, 2019 – A group of major recording companies (i.e., Universal, Warner, Sony) has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet service provider Bright House Networks, LLC, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Bright House is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Charter Communications, Inc. In their complaint, the record company plaintiffs allege that through the provision of high-speed broadband service, “Bright House has knowingly contributed to, and reaped substantial profits from, massive copyright infringement committed by thousands of its subscribers, causing great harm to Plaintiffs, their recording artists and songwriters, and others whose livelihoods depend upon the lawful acquisition of music.” The record companies claim that from March 2013 to May 2016, they sent hundreds of thousands of copyright infringement notices to Bright House, but Bright House “persistently turned a blind eye to the massive infringement of Plaintiffs’ works occurring over its network.” The record companies claim Bright House is liable as a contributory copyright infringer and a vicarious copyright infringer for the direct infringements of its broadband subscribers. They are seeking statutory damages.

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Another DMCA Lawsuit: Recording Industry Sues ISP Charter Communications For Copyright Infringement

March 22, 2019 – A group of major recording companies (i.e., Universal, Warner, Sony) has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet service provider Charter Communications, Inc. in U.S. District Court in Colorado. The record company plaintiffs allege Charter, through the provision of high-speed broadband service, “has knowingly contributed to, and reaped substantial profits from, massive copyright infringement committed by thousands of its subscribers, causing great harm to Plaintiffs, their recording artists and songwriters, and others whose livelihoods depend upon the lawful acquisition of music.” They further allege Charter, for years, has “deliberately refused to take reasonable measures” to stop customers from using its Internet services to infringe on copyrights, “even after Charter became aware of particular customers engaging in specific, repeated acts of infringement.” The record companies allege Charter is liable as a contributory copyright infringer and a vicarious copyright infringer for the direct infringements of its broadband subscribers. The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages.

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FCC To Eliminate The Rate Floor Rule During April 12th Open Meeting

March 22, 2019 – At its April 12 open meeting, the FCC will vote on a Report and Order that will eliminate the FCC’s “rate floor” rule. Adopted in 2011, the rate floor rule reduces a local exchange carrier’s high-cost support to the extent the carrier’s end-user rates for residential local voice service plus state regulated fees (such as state subscriber line charges and state universal service fees) do not meet the specified local rate floor. In 2017, the FCC froze the rate floor at $18 for two years, until July 1, 2019, in order to consider its effect on consumers and whether it is needed to ensure quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates. In the draft Report and Order, the FCC eliminates the rate floor rule and its accompanying reporting requirements.

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FCC To Consider Spectrum, Rate Floor, OTARD Rules, And Other Items At April Open Meeting

March 22, 2019 – FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced the following tentative agenda for the FCC’s April 12th open meeting:

• Rate Floor – The FCC will consider a Report and Order that would eliminate the high-cost program’s rate floor rule and end the federal mandate that raises the telephone rates paid by many rural Americans. (WC Docket No. 10-90)

• 5G Incentive Auction Public Notice – The FCC will consider a Public Notice seeking comment on procedures for the incentive auction of Upper Microwave Flexible Use Licenses in the Upper 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz Bands (Auction 103) for Next Generation Wireless Services. (AU Docket 19-59)

• 37 GHz & 50 GHz Spectrum Band Rules – The FCC will consider a Report and Order that would allow Fixed-Satellite Service earth stations to be individually licensed to transmit in the 50 GHz band and would establish a process for the Department of Defense to operate on a shared basis in the Upper 37 GHz band in limited circumstances. (GN Docket No. 14-177)

• Fixed Wireless Infrastructure OTARD Rules – The FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to modernize the Commission’s rule for over-the-air-reception devices (OTARD) to facilitate the deployment of modern fixed wireless infrastructure. (WT Docket No. 19-71)

• Channel Lineup Requirements – The FCC will consider a Report and Order that would eliminate the requirement that cable operators maintain a channel lineup at their local office and would eliminate the requirement that certain cable operators make their channel lineup available via their online public inspection file. (MB Docket Nos. 18-92, 17-105)

• USTelecom Partial Forbearance – The Commission will consider a Memorandum Opinion and Order that would grant forbearance to Bell Operating Companies and independent incumbent carriers from certain unnecessary and outdated structural and nondiscrimination requirements. (WC Docket No. 18-141)

The FCC’s April 12, 2019 open meeting is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. EDT in the Commission Meeting Room (Room TW-C305) of the Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. The meeting is open to the public, and will be streamed live online at www.fcc.gov/live.

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FCC Imposes $2.32 Million Penalty For Slamming And Cramming

March 21, 2019 – The FCC has adopted a Forfeiture Order imposing a penalty of $2,320,000 against Long Distance Consolidated Billing Company for changing consumers’ long distance carriers without proper authorization – slamming – and charging consumers for services they never authorized – cramming. The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau began investigating Long Distance Consolidated Billing Company after receiving and reviewing more than 70 complaints filed against the company. The Enforcement Bureau’s investigation not only showed the company engaged in slamming and cramming, but also led the Bureau to conclude that Long Distance Consolidated Billing Company’s telemarketers engaged in deceptive marketing practices by impersonating consumers’ existing long distance carriers and misrepresenting the true nature of their sales calls. The FCC’s Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture originally proposed a penalty of $2.4 million. However, two of the slamming violations occurred outside of the FCC’s one-year statute of limitations period, thereby reducing the penalty to $2.32 million.

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FCC Orders Revise Unlicensed White Space Device Rules

March 20, 2019 – The FCC has released a Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration which revise its rules for unlicensed white space devices. In the Report and Order, the FCC revises rules to improve the accuracy and reliability of fixed white space device data recorded in white space databases and assure that the potential for those devices to cause interference to protected services is minimized. In the Order on Reconsideration, the FCC modifies white space device antenna height rules to allow improved broadband coverage in rural areas, and resolves certain outstanding white space reconsideration issues.

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New Rural Call Completion Rules Impose Service Quality Standards On Intermediate Providers

March 15, 2019 – The FCC has adopted a Fourth Report and Order revising its rural call completion rules and continuing its implementation of the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2017. In the order, the FCC adopts service quality standards for intermediate providers that are intended to complement existing rules that apply to covered providers. Additionally, the FCC will sunset its remaining call data recording and retention rules one year after the new service quality standards become effective.

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Court Strips ISP Grande Communications Of DMCA Safe Harbor

March 15, 2019 – The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has ruled that Internet service provider Grande Communications Networks, LLC is not eligible for a safe harbor defense under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In April 2017, a group of major record labels filed a lawsuit against Grande Communications alleging Grande is secondarily liable for copyright infringement. The record company plaintiffs allege Grande allowed its broadband subscribers to repeatedly infringe the record companies’ copyrighted material using BitTorrent and other file sharing applications. In an August 2018 motion for summary judgment, the record companies asked the court to strip Grande of a DMCA safe harbor defense, arguing Grande does not terminate broadband subscribers who are repeat copyright infringers. In order for an ISP to be eligible for a safe harbor defense under the DMCA, it must adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders who are repeat infringers. In the March 2019 summary judgment Order, the court stripped Grande of its DMCA safe harbor defense, finding Grande had adopted a repeat infringer policy, but failed to implement it because Grande never actually terminated subscribers for repeated copyright infringement. The court said “the evidence is clear that from at least 2011 until 2016 Grande had no internal policy or procedures whatsoever to enforce their forward facing statement that they would terminate customers for repeat infringements.” The case now moves to trial, where the record companies are seeking statutory damages for over one million instances of copyright infringement by Grande subscribers.

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FCC Proposes Vertical Metric For E911 Wireless Location Accuracy Rules

March 15, 2019 – The FCC has issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on adding a vertical, or z-axis, location accuracy metric to the FCC’s E911 wireless location accuracy rules. If adopted, the proposed rules “would assist 911 call centers in identifying the floor level where the 911 call occurred, which can reduce emergency response times and ultimately save lives.” In the FNPRM, the FCC proposes a z-axis metric of 3 meters relative to the handset for 80% of wireless E911 calls for each of the benchmarks and geographic requirements previously established in the FCC’s E911 wireless location accuracy rules. Under this proposal, by April 3, 2021, nationwide cell phone service providers would be required to deploy in each of the top 25 Cellular Market Areas either dispatchable location or z-axis technology in compliance with the 3-meter metric. In Cellular Market Areas where z-axis technology is used, nationwide providers would be required to deploy z-axis technology to cover 80% of the Cellular Market Area population. By April 3, 2023, these requirements would be expanded to cover each of the top 50 Cellular Market Areas. Non-nationwide cell phone service providers that serve any of the top 25 or 50 Cellular Market Areas would continue to have an additional year to meet each of these benchmarks in the relevant Cellular Market Area. Comments are due 45 days from the date the FNPRM is published in the Federal Register, and reply comments are due 75 days from publication.

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FCC To Hold Open Meeting On March 15

March 8, 2019 – The FCC will hold an Open Meeting on Friday March 15, 2019, and will consider the following seven items:

• Spectrum Horizons – The FCC will consider a First Report and Order that would adopt rules to make available 21.2 GHz of spectrum above 95 GHz for unlicensed operations and create a new class of experimental licenses for the 95 GHz to 3 THz spectrum range. (ET Docket No. 18-21; RM-11795)

• Expanding Broadband to the 900 MHz Band (Review of the Commission’s Rules Governing the 896-901/935-940 MHz Band) – The FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose to reconfigure the 900 MHz band to create a broadband segment to facilitate technologies and services for a wide variety of businesses, including critical infrastructure, as well as seek comment on various transition mechanisms to achieve this goal. (WT Docket No. 17-200)

• Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements – The FCC will consider a Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes a vertical, or z-axis, location accuracy metric in connection with wireless E911 calls. (PS Docket No. 07-114)

• LPTV, TV Translator, and FM Broadcast Station Reimbursement – The FCC will consider a Report and Order that implements Congress’s directive in the Reimbursement Expansion Act that the Commission reimburse certain low power television, television translator, and FM broadcast stations for costs incurred as a result of the Commission’s broadcast television spectrum incentive auction. (MB Docket No. 19-214, GN Docket No. 12-268)

• Reauthorizing Television Satellite Stations (Streamlined Reauthorization Procedures for Assigned or Transferred Television Satellite Stations; Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative) – The FCC will consider a Report and Order that streamlines the reauthorization process for television satellite stations when they are assigned or transferred. (MB Docket Nos. 18-63, 17-105)

• Partitioning, Disaggregation, and Leasing of Spectrum – The FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would explore how potential changes to our partitioning, disaggregation, and leasing rules might better close the digital divide and increase spectrum access by small and rural carriers, fulfilling the Commission’s requirement under the MOBILE NOW Act. (WT Docket No. 19-38)

• Rural Call Completion – The FCC will consider a Fourth Report and Order to implement the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2017 by establishing service quality standards for intermediate providers.  (WC Docket No. 13-39)

The meeting is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. EDT in the Commission Meeting Room at the FCC Headquarters, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. The meeting will be streamed live online at www.fcc.gov/live.

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FCC Commissioner Asks USAC For Information On E-Rate Overbuilds

March 7, 2019 – FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has asked the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to provide detailed information on the extent to which E-Rate participants have applied for or used E-Rate funding to overbuild existing fiber networks that are supported by the universal service fund. Currently, the FCC’s E-Rate rules allow schools, libraries, and consortia to construct their own broadband networks when self-construction is the most cost-effective solution to obtaining high-speed Internet access. In his letter to USAC, Commissioner O’Rielly notes that he became concerned about overbuilding after learning about proposals made by regional-based educational consortia to construct wide area networks that would provide Internet access to certain school regions in Texas. Those projects have been approved for funding even though there are multiple fiber-based broadband providers capable of serving individual schools within each region. Commissioner O’Rielly has asked USAC to provide answers, no later than April 1, 2019, to seven specific questions concerning the use of E-Rate funds to construct broadband networks.

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DOJ Seeks Injunction To Stop Pirate Radio In Worcester Massachusetts

March 5, 2019 – The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil action seeking an injunction to prevent an unlicensed radio station from operating in Worcester, Massachusetts. The DOJ’s complaint was filed against Vasco Oburoni and Christian Praise International Church for operating a radio broadcast station on frequency 97.1 MHz without a license from the FCC. The DOJ further alleges that Oburoni and the Church previously operated an unlicensed radio station on frequency 102.3 MHz, causing the FCC to issue a forfeiture order in the amount of $15,000 against Oburoni for repeated violation of the Communications Act. The Communications Act of 1934 authorizes the Department of Justice, at the request of the FCC, to seek an injunction ordering compliance with the Communications Act against operators broadcasting without an FCC license.

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Verizon Seeking Waiver Of Handset Locking Rule, Comments Due April 4th

March 5, 2019 – The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is seeking comment on a petition for declaratory ruling, or in the alternative a petition for a partial waiver, filed by Verizon regarding Section 27.16(e) of the FCC’s 700 MHz C Block licensing rules, more commonly referred to as the handset locking rule. Comments on Verizon’s petition are due on or before April 4, 2019, and reply comments are due April 19, 2019. Section 27.16(e) of the FCC’s rules provides that no C Block licensee may disable features on handsets it provides to customers or configure handsets it provides to prohibit use of such handsets on other providers’ networks. As explained in its filing, Verizon is seeking the requested relief “to better protect its customers and itself from identity theft and related forms of handset fraud – large and growing problems that significantly harm legitimate customers who are the primary victims of these crimes.” Verizon wants to be able to place a temporary, 60-day lock on 4G LTE handsets it sells to ensure they are purchased by a bona fide customer. Devices would then be automatically unlocked by Verizon at the end of the 60-day period, regardless of whether a device has been fully paid off by that time.  

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CSRIC To Consider Reports On NG911 And Security Risks To Current IP-Based Protocols At March 8th Meeting

March 4, 2019 – The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) will meet Friday, March 8, 2019, at 1:00 p.m. at the FCC Headquarters in Washington, DC. During the meeting, CSRIC members will consider and vote on a Report on NG911 Best Practices Version 2.0 by Working Group 1 (Transition Path to NG911), and a Report on Best Practices and Recommendations to Mitigate Security Risks to Current IP-based Protocols by Working Group 3 (Network Reliability and Security Risk Reduction). The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed live online at www.fcc.gov/live.

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FCC Declares SDN’s Tariffed Interstate Switched Access Rate Unlawful

March 1, 2019 – The FCC has issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order concluding an investigation into the lawfulness of tariff revisions filed by centralized equal access (CEA) service provider South Dakota Network, LLC (SDN) on September 17, 2018. In the order, the FCC concluded that SDN did not properly calculate its CEA switched access rate as required by the FCC’s benchmark rule and recent FCC precedent. First, the FCC determined that the benchmark rate applicable to SDN’s tariffed interstate switched access service is $0.002288 per minute of use, the tandem switching rate charged by CenturyLink in South Dakota. The FCC then concluded SDN’s tariffed rate of $0.004871 per minute of use is unlawful because it exceeds the applicable benchmark rate. As a result, SDN must file, within the next 60 days, a revised tariff that includes the allowable competitive LEC benchmark rate of $0.002288 per minute of use. Additionally, the FCC directed the Wireline Competition Bureau to determine any refunds that may be required once SDN’s revised rates are effective.