Embarq Missouri (Embarq MO) updated the FCC on its application for the emergency impairment of service in parts of the Mound City, Missouri, wire center area as a result of severe flooding in 2019. “Embarq MO files this further update out of an abundance of caution in light of the continued impairment of service,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-325. “Embarq MO continues to have no active customer accounts and no requests for service in this area,” the company said. Embarq noted it previously “described the presence of fiber optic cable, pedestals, cabinets, and other facilities likely used to provide communications service that had been placed by another service provider subsequent to the 2019 flood that affected the region” and those facilities apparently “remain in place.”

Everfast Fiber Networks has closed on its purchase of Consolidated Communications' Kansas City telecommunications holdings, per a notification posted Thursday with the FCC International Bureau.

The Washington, D.C., Mayor’s Office of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing raised concerns about interstate inmate calling rates, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 12-375. “Nearly two-thirds of DC residents convicted of felonies serve their prison sentences outside of the region hundreds or thousands of miles away from home,” the office said: Hearing impaired “individuals who are incarcerated face additional risks and overlapping barriers due to lack of adequate communication access to resources, programs, and ability to connect and communicate with their families over the phone.”

USTelecom representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to support the FCC's 2020 order on unbundled network elements rules and oppose a petition by Sonic Telecom seeking reconsideration (see 2210170079). “The Commission correctly recognized that in light of the passage of time and changed marketplace conditions, it should reexamine its unbundling requirements,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-308. The FCC “applied the law faithfully by evaluating what unbundling requirements are appropriate in the modern marketplace based on the impairment standard and by forbearing where the statutory test was satisfied,” USTelecom said, noting it “advocated for forbearing from all unbundling obligations, but negotiated a compromise” with Incompas and “nearly every interested competitive LEC and incumbent LEC in this docket.” The commission “has a long history of relying on negotiated agreements,” the group said.

Wall Street is mixed on how much a threat to cable comes from AT&T's joint venture with Blackrock to create an open access commercial fiber platform that would run outside AT&T's 21-state wireline footprint. The JV "poses a competitive challenge to cable providers and regional fiber providers, whose broadband reaches are geographically restricted, though those carriers could possibly become tenants on the open access Gigapower platform to extend their own footprints," GlobalData analyst Tammy Power said Friday. New Street Research said in a note to investors the effects on cable are likely negligible, and small on other telcos, "though this will depend on where exactly AT&T and Blackrock plan to build." Announcing the JV Friday, AT&T said it will use its nationwide wireless sales network to sell fiber to customers in Gigapower territories. BlackRock said AT&T -- along with being part owner and operator -- will be a wholesale tenant of the network. AT&T said Gigapower's initial deployment will be to 15 million customer locations nationwide using a commercial open access platform and will be in addition to AT&T's goal of hitting more than 30 million fiber locations by the end of 2025 in its 21-state wireline footprint. GlobalData's Parker said the open access network extends the carrier's influence without it assuming all the risk by itself. Gigapower also lets AT&T market fixed/mobile service bundles outside that 21-state footprint. And it will give AT&T more ammunition to compete against fixed wireless access services, she said.

Total U.S. submarine cable circuit capacity, which was 4.75 million Gbps in 2021, should top 6 million in 2023, per an FCC International Bureau report Friday. It said 58 cables were in service at the end of 2021, up from 57 a year earlier.

The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Friday on a joint petition by Northwest Communications Co-op (NCC) and Midstate Telephone for a waiver of the definition of “study area.” The two said the waiver would “permit Midstate to remove the Portal exchange, and associated customer base, from its North Dakota study area and for NCC to expand its study area to incorporate the exchange as a new exchange in its study area,” the bureau said. Comments are due Jan. 9, replies Jan. 16, in docket 96-45.

The National Exchange Carrier Association proposed to the FCC modifications to current interstate average schedule formulas, scheduled to be effective July 1-June 30, 2024. NECA proposes “formula changes that would result in a 0.3% overall increase in settlements at constant demand,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 22-427: “Actual settlements are expected to increase by 1.8% due to projected increase in [customer broadband only] lines and be offset by the effects of losses in access lines and reductions in demand for special access services. Impacts of the proposed formula changes on individual average schedule companies will vary depending on each company’s size, demand trends, and other characteristics.”

A coalition of business organizations asked the FCC to "act quickly to address and correct barriers to broadband deployment," in a letter Wednesday. The commission should "ensure fair allocation of costs between pole owners and attachers," said the National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship, National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce, the Latino Coalition, U.S. Black Chambers and U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. They asked that utility pole access "does not become a bottleneck to delivering much needed broadband to households and businesses with the greatest need." The groups also sought more efforts to increase adoption "for families and small businesses to thrive in today’s economy."

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau wants comments by Jan. 9, replies Feb. 6, in docket 03-123 on an NPRM on video relay service rules for communications assistants and international calling, said a public notice Tuesday (see 2206300058). Commissioners adopted the item in June.