Monica Hogan

The FCC circulated a proposed "administrative clean-up" order and Further NPRM to address "serious and persistent" problems with waste, fraud and abuse in the Lifeline program, said agency officials Monday. If adopted, the new order would prohibit participating carriers from enrolling subscribers unless a national verifier database identifies the customer as living or the customer produces documentation demonstrating both identity and status as living. It would also prohibit telecom carriers from paying commissions to employees or sales agents based on the number of consumers who apply for Lifeline, and would require employees and sales agents to register with the Universal Service Administrative Co. before accessing any program databases.

NARUC, CTIA and consumer advocacy groups asked the FCC to postpone plans to change minimum service requirements for Lifeline until it can review a market study that's underway. That's per replies posted through Friday to docket 11-42. NARUC at the most recent meeting of state telecom commissioners asked the federal regulator to postpone such changes (see 1907230040).

New ways to help farmers get the best yields from their crops and the most from their broadband connections are being pushed by some rural ISPs, we found in interviews last week. Policymakers are looking at how to advance precision agriculture and expand broadband access to farms in unserved communities. The FCC plans a precision agriculture task force (see 1906170024). And the USDA's ReConnect funds are for expanding connectivity to unserved rural areas (see 1812130064).

MontanaSky Networks and MontanaSky West asked the FCC to ensure competitive LECs get a fair shake if the agency allows transfer of assets from Frontier Communications to Northwest Fiber, in comments posted Thursday to docket 19-188 (see 1907260044). The FCC should "recognize the scale of dysfunction that Montana Sky has endured to this point" and "ensure that pro-consumer practices guide us all in the future," they said in joint comments. The CLECs asked that as Northwest Fiber seeks control of the Frontier properties in Montana, it commit "up front to pro-competitive practices so as to avoid the prior and well documented anti-consumer, dysfunctional practices of the company it seeks to acquire." MontanaSky said Frontier provided poor service to its residential customers in Montana and "it also provided poor service to Montana Sky." MontanaSky recommended the FCC take three steps in evaluating the transfer of assets. It said "Northwest should commit to commercially reasonable practices in its interconnection and resale negotiations" with CLECs in the Montana markets. MontanaSky said Frontier has made negotiating for unbundled network elements or resale "virtually impossible." When MontanaSky tried to buy copper feeds to service a Connect America Fund auction block, it said, it was "frustrated at every turn by Frontier's refusal to return calls or set reasonable UNE rates." It asked FCC to get a commitment from Northwest "that these pricing and business practices will cease immediately upon transfer of control." It said the FCC should also require a "dig once" notification process for upgrades promised by Northwest. The Montana access lines "are located in low-population communities that are hard to reach and serve," MontanaSky said. "It would be efficient for all concerned if Northwest would give notice to Montana Sky or other interested CLECs when it intends to open a trench to upgrade its networks in these territories." Doing so would help "long underserved consumers" and increase the "likelihood of much-needed new infrastructure deployment from multiple providers." MontanaSky also wants reasonable access "on commercially reasonable terms" to backbone and middle mile fiber lines running through Libby, Montana, that Frontier has refused to discuss with the CLEC. "The Commission should urge Northwest to engage in these discussions, particularly since Montana is such a small and underserved market," it said. Montana State Rep. Steve Gunderson (R) told the FCC in a letter that Frontier service has been "spotty and lacking in speed performance and quality of service provided" in his district, but MontanaSky "has worked diligently" to provide high-quality service to customers in his hometown of Libby and nearby communities.

An FCC notice of inquiry for its annual national broadband deployment report could be released this month after it went on circulation with the commissioners in late July (see 1908020048). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has already voted in dissent, an aide said, because she wants changes such as new questions about whether the FCC should look at performance speed thresholds above the 25 Mbps upstream/3 downstream current minimum standard for broadband. The aide expects the NOI will go public once each commissioner casts a vote. Nothing material has changed in the language since last year's NOI on the same topic, the aide said. An FCC spokesperson didn't comment on the release date for the NOI or say Friday whether all the commissioner votes had been cast.

CenturyLink reported Q2 2019 revenue of $5.58 billion Wednesday, down from $5.9 billion in the same quarter last year, as it continues to expand its fiber network. The company's "guiding principle" is growing free cash flow per share, said CEO Jeff Storey during an earnings call (requires login). The company generated $956 million in free cash flow in Q2, excluding cash paid for integration and transformation costs and special items of $55 million, it said in an earnings report.

Frontier Communications stock received a rating of underperform Wednesday in an equity research note from analysts at Wells Fargo Securities after Frontier's Q2 2019 earnings report Tuesday. Frontier reported $2.07 billion revenue for the quarter, down from the Q1's $2.1 billion (see 1904300217). The company's net loss for the Q2 was $5.32 billion, for a net loss of $51.07 per common share. It reported a net loss of 71,000 broadband subscribers. On an earnings call Tuesday, Frontier CEO Dan McCarthy called the increased customer churn to 2.14 percent on the consumer side "disappointing," blaming it partly on seasonality, competitive pressures and customer roll-off as promotional bill credits ended. McCarthy said it's premature to speculate how the company's federal broadband subsidies will fare under an upcoming USF transition from the Connect America Fund to the proposed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund still at the NPRM stage. He suggested the terms of the RDOF reverse auctions may be less favorable to Frontier than they were under CAF Phase II auctions. Frontier plans to participate in the RDOF auctions and is pleased that latency will be a consideration in how the bids will be weighted, McCarthy said. The company said it expects to close on the sale of its operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, announced in late May, sometime in the first half of 2020 (see 1905290042). "The focus is clearly on liquidity, with plans of divesting its northwest operations to bring $1.3 billion in cash to the balance sheet," said Wells Fargo, "but the incremental investment required to meet the terms of the deal coupled with lower than expected benefit from FTR's transformation program and higher payments due in 2H 2019 that weren't initially considered with 2019 guide, all leave us firmly on the outside looking in." Frontier's share price dipped under a dollar early Wednesday and closed at 94 cents, down 23.59 percent.

Providers of video relay services for the deaf and hearing impaired want the FCC to quickly grant VRS users immediate access to new equipment during a two-week grace period while their eligibility is being verified, as proposed in a Further NPRM released in mid-May. The agency took comments on the matter through Tuesday in docket 10-51. "Granting users access to VRS during the verification period will further the goals of providing functionally equivalent service to deaf and hard of hearing consumers, more akin to how hearing individuals are able to use their new phones nearly immediately," said Convo Communications.

The FCC granted forbearance from unbundled network element (UNE) analog loop obligations for incumbent LECs to help encourage the continued move away from legacy TDM voice service and to spur further development of next-generation facilities-based networks, it said in an order issued Friday in docket 18-141. The forbearance is conditioned on a two-part transition. Competitive LECs are allowed to order new UNE analog loops for six months after the order's effective date and will grandfather any existing customer relationships for three years. An exception was made for Puerto Rico, where market transition was extended to five years.

Multiple stakeholders are asking the FCC not to phase down Lifeline support for voice services under its USF program. The requests came in comments that were due Wednesday and posted through Thursday. They were in response to a joint petition by CTIA and others and a July 1 public notice in docket 11-42 (see 1907010055).