Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren urged the FCC that it continue providing Lifeline funding for tribal households should the affordable connectivity program end. In a letter Friday in docket 21-450, Nygren said the Navajo Nation backed a Smith Bagley petition seeking an increase in tribal Lifeline support (see 2404080030). The temporary increase in support would "keep broadband affordable for tribal households, many of which are located in remote areas and are among the most in need of ACP and Lifeline support," Nygren said.

The National Lifeline Association raised concerns with FCC Wireline Bureau staff about the potential funding gap in the affordable connectivity program. Many providers will continue reduced or no-cost service offerings "for some period of time in hopes of an ACP funding solution," NaLa said in a letter Friday in docket 21-450. It asked the commission to forego requiring that ACP providers de-enroll subscribers from the national Lifeline accountability database as of June 1. The process of re-enrolling ACP subscribers "would be a tremendous burden on ACP providers and consumers," NaLa said.

The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is concerned about the FCC's proposal that would ban bulk billing arrangements between ISPs and building owners (see 2403050069). The group said in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and a separate letter to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that "wholesale elimination of bulk billing would precipitate unintended consequences by having a negative effect on low-income residents." CLPHA noted that some bulk billing arrangements let residents in public housing units receive service at no cost.

Charter Communications told the FCC that several census block groups (CBGs) the company "inadvertently included" were awarded funding through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction. In a letter Wednesday in docket 19-126, the company listed seven CBGs in Missouri and two in Wisconsin. Charter cited pole replacement obstacles last week in its initial letter surrendering dozens of CBGs (see 2404260059).

DOJ supports FCC efforts to lower prices and increase competition for incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS), the department said Monday. “IPCS markets across the country suffer from a lack of competition, which harms both incarcerated people and those who purchase communications services to communicate with them,” the DOJ Antitrust Division said in a filing in docket 23-62. “Incarcerated people and their loved ones face an effective monopoly after the correctional facility selects a provider for its communications services. This process imposes long-term, structural barriers to competition and deprives consumers the benefits of a robust, competitive IPCS market.” Securus and Viapath “have controlled well over half of the overall market for more than a decade,” added the division: The providers’ competitors have failed to “discipline their prices” and there are “significant barriers to entry and expansion.” As a result, "unreasonably high rates, ancillary service fees, and abusive provider practices such as the seizure of unused funds in incarcerated people’s accounts without notice or refund,” characterize the market, it said. The division recommended considering “whether site commissions ought to be included as costs of providing service when determining just and reasonable rates.” Some jails and prisons prefer vendors that pay higher commissions, “but when site commissions serve to increase the rates that incarcerated people and their families pay, they work directly against the FCC’s mandate to ensure that such rates be just and reasonable,” it said. Also, the agency shouldn’t let providers "evade rate regulation by steering customers from regulated to unregulated communications services such as electronic messaging, which would cause competitive harm and dilute the intended benefits of the Martha Wright-Reed Act,” said the division: Messaging rates that incarcerated people pay “are unreasonably higher than the rates paid by people who reside outside of correctional facilities.”

Charter Communications surrendered dozens of census block groups (CBG) that it was awarded funding for through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction. In a letter to the FCC posted Thursday in docket 19-126 (see 2402020006), Charter said it was returning the CBGs in Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin representing "less than 2%" of its winning bids. "Due largely to unforeseeable costs, primarily costs associated with the need for extensive utility pole replacements, deploying broadband in these few specific CBGs has become uneconomical," the company said. Citing pole replacement costs, Charter said utilities "generally have not been willing to share cost responsibility."

The consolidated petitions of 20 industry groups that challenge the FCC’s Nov. 20 order implementing Section 60506 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 240319004) do so because the order interprets digital discrimination to mean not only intentional discrimination but also “actions with a disparate impact,” the groups’ brief said Wednesday (docket 24-1179) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court in support of their petitions. Disparate-impact liability is "rare," and every "interpretive clue here" confirms that Congress didn't intend to impose it, said the brief that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CTIA and NCTA and others submitted. The FCC nevertheless has created the “first-ever regime” prohibiting business practices that cause a disparate impact based on income level, it said. The petitioners contend that the rule exceeds the commission’s statutory authority and that the order is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, it said. In light of the many "complex and novel questions" presented and the fact that these cases involve two “distinct, nonaligned groups of petitioners,” the industry petitioners ask that the 8th Circuit afford one hour of oral argument time, with the precise division to be determined after the briefing is complete, it said.

Hotwire Communications asked the FCC to abandon its proposal to ban bulk billing arrangements between ISPs and multi-tenant buildings in a meeting with Commissioner Nathan Simington and aides (see 2403050069). Hotwire said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-142 that the FCC determined in 2010 that bulk billing arrangements are "pro-competitive" and the record since then lacks evidence supporting a ban. The company asked that the item be considered during a commission meeting, saying it would "enable the public to review and provide input on the draft rulemaking for three weeks prior to the vote." It also asked that rules not apply to existing bulk billing agreements, since "numerous parties have made significant investment and deployment decisions in reliance on the 2010 decision."

The FCC Enforcement Bureau affirmed its 2019 decision fining AT&T and AMG Technology Investment for appearing to violate the commission's rules on prohibited communications during the Connect America Fund phase II auction (see 1909060063). The bureau said in a forfeiture order Monday that AT&T must pay a $75,000 fine because it violated the prohibited communications rule and five-business day reporting deadline. A separate forfeiture order affirming AMG's $100,000 fine said the company was "an active participant in prohibited communications with AT&T surrounding AMG’s bids, bidding strategies, and bidding results."

NCIC Communications asked the FCC to "expand its authority" to non-incarcerated people's communications service video visitation providers "to ensure those providers are required to comply with all FCC mandates applicable to IPCS providers," holding separate meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez. The company also met with Enforcement Bureau and Wireline Bureau staff, per an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 23-62. NCIC noted that some non-interconnected VoIP and commissary providers "often provide services that a traditional IPCS provider would provide" but "purport to operate outside of the FCC’s jurisdiction." It also asked the FCC to "extend to video visitation providers the requirement to provide access to video relay service."