Dish Network and Frontier Communications launched a competition to stimulate growth and revitalization in small cities and towns across 27 states. “America’s Best Communities” will award seed money to help communities develop growth and revitalization plans, the companies said Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1otaOk3). The top three communities will receive several million, it said. Municipalities with populations of 9,500 to 80,000 people, and located within Frontier’s service areas, are eligible to apply, and must do so by Jan. 12, it said.

Three Democratic senators filed amicus briefs Tuesday in a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case challenging the legality of NSA’s phone metadata collection program (http://bit.ly/1tL9Y95). The senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Mark Udall of Colorado and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, are on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The trio said they “have seen no evidence that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records has provided any intelligence of value that could not have been gathered through means that caused far less harm to the privacy interests of millions of Americans.” The government has also interpreted its authorization for the phone records program -- Patriot Act Section 215 -- in a manner that “could authorize bulk collections of information far beyond the call records at issue in this case, such as financial or medical records, or even records indicating the location or ordinary Americans,” they said. The senators urged the 9th Circuit to overturn a lower court ruling in the case, Smith v. Obama (case No. 14-35555). A hearing is expected in November, said an Electronic Frontier Foundation blog post (http://bit.ly/1rIHK93).

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) formally requested the FCC’s opinion Tuesday on telcos’ legal ability to implement call-blocking technology. Thirty-nine AGs asked the FCC in the NAAG letter whether legal prohibitions against software like Call Control, NoMoRobo and Telemarketing Guard are “subject to change” if customers specifically request the use of the software. USTelecom had said last year that legal restrictions against those technologies prevented telcos from implementing the technologies, NAAG said. The group asked the FCC if carriers can legally block a call if technology identifies a call as coming from a telemarketer, provided the telco wants to block at a customer’s request. NAAG also asked the FCC to clarify the accuracy of USTelecom’s description of the FCC’s position as a “strict oversight” of the delivery of telecom traffic and that call blocking is an “unjust and unreasonable practice” under Communications Act Section 201(b). The telcos’ resistance to implementing call-blocking technology “raises important questions. If a solution to the nation’s illegal telemarketing problem is possible, it will require the private sector -- including telephone carriers -- to get involved,” NAAG said in the letter (http://bit.ly/Zg5uKS). USTelecom is “reviewing the letter” and continues “to work on this issue,” a spokeswoman said.

A number of redactions in Neustar’s reply comments about the selection of the next local number portability administrator should be removed, Venable’s James Barnett and McKenna Long’s Jason Carey and Erin Sheppard, all representing Telcordia, told officials of the FCC Public Safety Bureau Thursday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1Ar4H5i) posted in docket 09-109 Friday.

The Justice Department cleared Level 3’s proposed acquisition of tw telecom (CD June 17 p7), said the buyer in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1uGrbh5). This completes the process under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, it said. The deal also needs approvals from the SEC and the FCC, a Level 3 spokeswoman said. Some had asked the FCC to condition the approximately $7 billion deal (CD Sept 4 p5).

The FCC should enforce requirements mandating telecom relay service equipment be compatible with other such equipment, ASL/Global VRS Managing Partner Angela Valcarcel-Roth and Vice President Gabrielle Joseph told officials with the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and the Office of the Managing Director, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1q7PHcq) posted Friday in docket 10-51. Joseph and Valcarcel-Roth discussed last week’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision putting on hold stricter standards for how quickly VRS calls must be answered (CD Sept 4 p7), the filing said. The executives also provided information about expanding capabilities for deaf/blind users through video relay services. They also raised concerns about compensation rates under a competitive bidding process and the disproportionate financial impact of commission penalties on smaller companies, said ASL/Global, a provider of interpreting services.

The Henrico County School District’s application for review of its denial for E-rate funding was denied by the FCC, in an order (http://bit.ly/1pya507) released Thursday. The Wireline Bureau had upheld the Universal Service Administrative Company’s denial of the Richmond, Virginia-area school district’s funding requests for funding year 2008, said the order, which was adopted Wednesday. The bureau said Henrico violated the commission’s competitive bidding rules by failing to use price as the primary factor in selecting vendors for telecommunications and high-speed Internet access, the order said. Commissioner Ajit Pail concurred with the decision but criticized the bidding process. The bidding rule doesn’t require the lowest-priced bid to be selected, Pai said in a statement. It requires only that cost must be given “more weight” than any other factor -- “so if an applicant considers ten factors, price could be weighted as little as 11 percent,” said Pai, who called the rule “nothing more than a paperwork exercise” that “elevates form over substance."

The FCC should bar paid prioritization that degrades service if a company won’t pay extra, but should allow the option of “fast lanes,” said Progressive Policy Institute Senior Fellow Hal Singer during a teleconference Friday. Singer co-authored a policy report (http://bit.ly/WpI1Fy) released Thursday that advocated the FCC avoid Title II regulation in the net neutrality debate, and rely on its Section 706 authority to deal with abuses by Internet service providers on a case-by-case basis. Title II would “zap” broadband investment, while not encouraging investment by edge providers, Singer said during the call.

The FCC should grant Smith Bagley Inc.’s petition for a partial waiver, in which the independent Lifeline auditor would examine only one of the company’s two largest states, Lukas Nace lawyers David LaFuria and Robert Koppel told Wireline Bureau officials at an Aug. 27 meeting, said an ex parte notice (http://bit.ly/WfJCxh) posted in docket 11-42 Wednesday. SBI operates in only three states and would be the only multiservice operator required to have 100 percent of its operations audited, the Smith Bagley representatives said.

The FCC shouldn’t regulate intrastate inmate call rates, said the Virginia Association of Counties in a letter (http://bit.ly/1psMNZC) to the agency, posted in docket 12-375 Wednesday. The association opposes a “one-size fits all federal policy,” (CD July 10 p4 and believes state and local correctional systems should be allowed to decide inmate intrastate rates based on “the circumstances and policy priorities facing their localities, region and state,” the letter said. Banning inmate service providers from paying commissions to correctional institutions would cost Virginia local and regional jails about $13.5 million annually that the jails use to offset the cost of providing phone and other services to inmates, the letter said.