NTCA representatives met with FCC Wireline Bureau staff to discuss the challenges carriers face as they maintain or build and upgrade broadband networks in rural areas. “These can include low densities, long distances from urban areas, mountainous and rocky terrain, workforce challenges, and weather-shortened construction seasons,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 17-84. “These challenges are exacerbated by time-consuming and expensive permitting processes at the local, state, and federal levels that inhibit their ability to serve their rural communities.”
Incompas and some of its members met with FCC Wireline Bureau staff on infrastructure issues, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-84. Among the companies represented were Crown Castle, C-Spire, Arcadian Infracom, PBI Fiber and Zayo. Incompas members “discussed the substantial investments in infrastructure and technologies they have made to deliver competitive communications services to customers in urban, suburban, and rural communities across the country,” the filing said. “Members also described current state and local permitting and franchising requirements, including the timelines and costs impacting broadband deployment. We also provided examples of variances in these requirements between jurisdictions.”
Dobson Telephone asked to withdraw an application filed last week seeking to discontinue three varieties of legacy wholesale telecommunications services in Oklahoma. “Upon further review, and in light of the Commission’s 2017 Order in Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure Investment, Dobson Telephone has determined that Commission approval is not required for its proposed discontinuance,” said an undocketed filing posted Wednesday. Dobson’s “affected services are provided solely on a wholesale basis to carrier-customers, and thus fall within the wholesale exception clarified by the Commission for upstream carriers.”
The number of subsea cables is set to increase 48% by 2040, but 66% of cable maintenance ships will reach the end of their service life by then, TeleGeography and Infra-Analytics said in a study released Monday. It will take $3 billion to sustain current service levels and avoid repair delays through the acquisition of 15 replacement and five new vessels, they said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday accepted for filing CenturyLink's proposal to discontinue its Engage Business VoIP service covering all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Objections are due July 16 in docket 25-206. Absent further action, a CenturyLink request to discontinue the service will be “deemed granted” Aug. 1, the bureau said.
HMB Solutions will pay a $15,000 fine for not getting prior FCC approval for the substantial transfer of control of its cable landing license for the Japan-Guam-Australia North submarine cable system, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Monday.
ZipDX raised concerns about an FCC proposal to close a gap in the agency's Stir/Shaken authentication rules by addressing non-IP calls. Commissioners approved an NPRM in April (see 2504280038), and initial comments are due July 16. ZipDX representatives met with Wireline Bureau staff, said a filing Monday in docket 17-97.
Ameelio CEO April Feng and others from the company met with aides to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez on Ameelio’s incarcerated persons communications service (IPCS) offering. Ameelio “explained that it is a nonprofit provider of IPCS that provides service without charge to incarcerated persons or their families, but rather charges a subscription fee to prisons, jails, and other facilities to provide the services in those institutions,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 23-62. “Ameelio’s fee is based on its costs of providing service to a given facility or facilities for the estimated usage of the service by incarcerated persons in those facilities, rather than a per minute rate that increases with total minutes of use,” and it doesn’t increase “even if actual usage exceeds the estimate.”
The Wireline Bureau has extended several incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027, and the FCC could reevaluate aspects of the 2024 IPCS order, said an order and news release Monday. The new order waived the deadlines for complying with the rate cap, site commission, and per-minute pricing rules adopted in 2024 “to ensure sufficient funding for safety and security tools, while IPCS providers and the facilities they serve address the challenges of implementing these requirements.” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a release that the 2024 order “is leading to negative, unintended consequences” where prisons limit the availability of IPCS, and it “does not allow providers and institutions to properly consider public safety and security interests when facilitating these services.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is circulating an order that would deny a set of 2024 applications for review regarding upward revisions for reimbursement of services provided in the last month of the Lifeline COVID-19 waiver period. While the FCC provided a limited waiver during the pandemic of the non-usage rule -- which bars Lifeline providers from being subsidized for services that subscribers aren't using -- not extending the waiver after the relevant time period ended ultimately saves taxpayers millions, Carr said Friday. "While the Commission offered flexibility during the pendency of the COVID-19 pandemic, that does not mean we should allow providers to game the system for extra reimbursement, at the American public’s expense, after the need for this leniency had clearly -- and officially -- ended," he said. Assist Wireless, enTouch Wireless, Easy Wireless and iAccess Wireless in 2024 filed a set of applications for review of a Wireline Bureau order denying the companies an upward revision of their April 2021 Lifeline reimbursement claims. The circulating order would affirm the bureau's decision that the COVID-19 relief waiver for non-usage ended that month, and the companies aren't entitled to an additional month, the FCC said.