Just a week from today, we'll kick off three days of dealmaking at  The INCOMPAS Show in New Orleans. There you'll be able to meet and network with representatives from nearly 250 companies, the majority of whom are key decision makers in their organization.

Want to get a jump on networking? Registered attendees can use The INCOMPAS Show Mobile App to search the attendee list, send invites to meet at the Deal Center and manage their schedules throughout the event. 

Not registered yet? Do it today, so you can start booking meetings and save time onsite at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. There are a number of options you can choose from: Full Conference, which includes all activities; Single Day access on Tuesday, April 4 or Wednesday, April 5; and a Networking pass to attend only networking receptions throughout the show. 

In addition, you can take advantage of the Buyers Forum, which brings qualified buyers from companies such as:

• Bandwidth
• B2 Telecom LLC
• Broadview Networks
• CenturyLink
• FiberLight LLC
• Fibernet Direct
• Frontier Communications
• Horizon Network Partners
• Granite
• Grid4 Communications
• GTT
• iBasis
• Inteliquent
• Peerless Network
• Powernet
• Southern Light
• Sprint
• TDS Telecom
• Windstream
• Zayo Group 

On March 22, Sprint filed a letter urging the FCC to reject proposals from AT&T, CenturyLink and Frontier to declare that the business data services (BDS) marketplace is almost uniformly competitive across all BDS services and in all, or nearly all, geographic markets and eliminate all BDS protections.

In its letter, Sprint stated the Commission has recognized that thousands of large and small businesses across the country are paying far too much for broadband because of inadequate competition in the multibillion-dollar BDS marketplace. Sprint added that "BDS connections power our information economy, generate high-paying jobs and are critical to expanding our nation's telecommunications infrastructure. But a small handful of companies are overcharging the very investors and employers that are critical to our economic growth-and are using anticompetitive tactics to ensure that these businesses never have access to competitive alternatives. In response, investors and job creators from all corners of the industry, including a coalition of the country's largest companies, leading incumbent local exchange carriers, competitive local exchange carriers, and wireless providers like Sprint, have recognized the need to address inflated prices and the lack of competition."

Sprint asserted there is no lawful basis for the FCC to accept ILEC efforts to remove protections for the thousands of American businesses that buy dedicated broadband services. Sprint said, at a minimum, if the Commission is considering a new proposal similar to the plans proposed by these ILECs, it must reveal its reasoning, conduct a new economic analysis that supports such a dramatic change, publish the details of its new proposal and give the public an opportunity for notice and comment.

At its March 23 Open Meeting, the FCC adopted an NPRM and NOI that proposed rules enabling providers, on their customers' behalf, to block spoofed caller ID numbers associated with phone lines that do not actually dial out, without running afoul of FCC rules requiring carriers to complete all calls. The proposed rules also allow carriers to continue to block calls upon the request of the subscriber and when the spoofed caller ID cannot possibly be valid, including numbers that have not been assigned to anyone yet or are purport to be from an area code that does not exist. 

The FCC also seeks comment on how to address spoofed calls from international locations and how to create a safe harbor for providers from FCC call completion rules when they rely on objective criteria to identify and block calls that are highly likely to be fraudulent, illegal or spoofed robocalls. More details about comment deadlines will be provided after publication in the Federal Register.