The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
The Regulatory Mix will be on hiatus from December 24, 2014 through January 4, 2015 for the Holidays.
We wish you a Merry Season and a Happy New Year!
TELECOM
FCC
2015 HCLS
The FCC approved the National Exchange Carrier Association, Inc.’s (NECA) proposed average schedule company high-cost loop support (HCLS) formula for 2015. It projects $10.3 million in payments to carriers serving 179 average schedule study areas, a decrease of 8% from 2014 payments.
Rural Call Completion
The FCC is seeking comment on a petition for a limited waiver of the recordkeeping, retention, and reporting requirements adopted in the its Rural Call Completion Order. See the Regulatory Mix dated 11/19/14. The petition was filed by Carolina West Wireless, Inc., (CWW) which serves well under 100,000 subscriber lines. It seeks a waiver of the rule that requires the subscriber lines of its affiliates – none of which have any influence over CWW’s call routing decisions – to be counted toward the determination of whether CWW serves fewer than 100,000 subscriber lines. Comments are due December 22, 2014; reply comments are due December 31, 2014.
Alabama
The PSC adopted new rules for inmate calling service (ICS). No changes were made to the rate caps or the amount of the payment processing, bill processing, convenience, and paper bill fees proposed in July 2014. However, the PSC did agree to allow a Cash Payment fee of $3.00 for payments at an ICS provider’s kiosk. The Order must be implemented by January 8, 2014, and contains numerous one-time and annual reporting requirements. TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated 12/15/14
Vermont
The PSB has determined that given the evidence in the record regarding existing service quality problems, as well as the recent developments regarding the E-911 outage, it is appropriate to stay the FairPoint proposed incentive regulation plan proceeding until a final determination is made in the FairPoint service quality investigation. See the Regulatory Mix dated 12/16/14. The Board recognized that the current Incentive Regulation Plan expires on December 31, 2014, and invited FairPoint and/or the Public Service Department to file a motion to amend the current plan to extend the expiration date until the service quality investigation is complete.
