Monica Hogan

Stakeholders interviewed last week want the FCC to delay further Lifeline changes and promptly answer an industry petition requesting a pause on stricter minimum broadband service standards set for Dec. 1 (see 1906280012). A proposed order and Further NPRM has stirred some concern, as the poor could lose access to mobile broadband if the cost to provide new minimum service levels exceeds incentives from federal reimbursements.

FCC staff granted the North American Numbering Council another extension for its Numbering Administration Oversight Working Group, until Jan. 13, to file a technical requirements document for rules to establish a single, comprehensive database containing reassigned numbers information, posted Thursday on docket 17-59. The database is meant to help consumers avoid unwanted calls intended for others. The WG must also file an adequate work plan on the topic by Sept. 30, and provide recommendations for a fee structure and pricing for users of the database by Feb. 13. Outgoing NANC Chair Travis Kavulla, of the R Street Institute, announced the extension Thursday at the last meeting of the current council, which is expected to be rechartered by Wednesday (see 1908210010). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai thanked Kavulla and the other NANC members for advising on matters such as number portability, robocalls and a proposed three-digit national suicide hotline. "NANC has punched above its weight," Pai said. NANC adopted now an August report from the Interoperable Video Calling group recommending that the council and the FCC identify experts who could suggest existing numbering databases and commercially available interoperability databases so the next WG can evaluate them (see 1906200025).

Public Knowledge and The Utility Reform Network flied a 10-page petitioner's supplemental filing on standing (in Pacer) Friday in Greenlining v. FCC (17-73283), on federal regulation as phone companies discontinue copper line telephone service. Two 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges in Aug. 27 oral argument in Seattle probed the consumer groups over whether they demonstrated enough injury to merit standing (see 1908270026). Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld asked the court for the opportunity to supplement the records, and the court granted the request (see 1908280052).

The FCC proposes eliminating access arbitrage in a 43-page draft order for docket 18-155 updating the intercarrier compensation regime. Commissioners are scheduled to consider that and four other proposals at the Sept. 26 commissioners' meeting. They are USF funding for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; auction procedures for the 3.5 MHz band; public notice simplifications for broadcast filings; and direct broadcast satellite licensing rules (see 1909040073).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order on the eighth floor Wednesday to direct $950 million in a second round of USF funding to strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, after Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017 (see 1805290028). The commissioners will vote on the draft order at the agency's Sept. 26 public meeting, the FCC said Wednesday (see 1909040073). The agency has collected public input for over a year on the Uniendo a Puerto Rico and Connect USVI funds in docket 18-143 (see 1805180075).

Broadband providers disagree whether and how the FCC should draft new regulations on how occupants of apartment buildings, malls and other multi-tenant environments access competing broadband services. Proponents of broadband competition want the FCC to allow states and municipalities more flexibility in oversight of agreements between landlords and communications providers. Comments on an NPRM posted through Tuesday in docket 17-142 (see 1908300058).

SEATTLE -- 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges questioned whether groups petitioning to repeal parts of a 2017 declaratory ruling on whether and how to notify customers when carriers retire copper networks had demonstrated sufficient injury to merit standing, during oral argument Tuesday in Greenlining v. FCC (17-73283). The FCC and the DOJ asked the court in November to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction or on its merits. Judge Margaret McKeown said a court of appeals "shouldn't have to hunt and peck" for clear evidence of standing and jurisdiction. "This is a threshold issue in every case."

Consumer groups are heading to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday in Seattle to challenge a 2017 FCC order that relaxed regulations on how telcos retire copper phone lines and how they notify customers (see 1906170005). Appellants said in recent interviews they like their odds, while the government and its allies in the case weren't talking. Last September, The Greenlining Institute, Public Knowledge, The Utility Reform Network and National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates petitioned the 9th Circuit to challenge the order, claiming the agency hid intentions during a comment period and predetermined the outcome in striking down the functional test standard in service discontinuances (see 1809270036). The California Public Utilities Commission later added its support to the petition (see 1810040059).

USTelecom and its partners are hoping the results of the four-month location fabric broadband mapping pilot project it recently concluded in two states will be promising enough to convince the FCC to move forward with and pay for similar efforts nationwide, executives said during a webinar Tuesday on its findings. The nationwide initiative could take 12-15 months to complete and cost upward of $8.5 million to $11 million depending on the types of datasets used, said Jim Stegeman, CEO of CostQuest Associates, during Q&A after the presentation. He recommended the maps be updated once or twice a year thereafter to take into account new construction or structures that are torn down. USTelecom estimates annual costs of $3 million to $4 million for updates.

Those representing schools and libraries endorsed an FCC plan to update its rules on USF E-rate category 2 spending to make permanent a pilot program that was to expire at the year-end, and asked that it move to a districtwide vs. a building-level budget approach, add to its list of eligible services and lessen filing burdens for applicants, in comments to docket 13-184 posted through Monday (see 1907090074).