Broadband VI (BBVI) has received a limited waiver of the FCC's Connect USVI Fund deployment milestone rules for U.S. Virgin Islands service areas. BBVI now has until March 31 to meet the 40% deployment milestone, said a notice in Monday's Daily Digest. The FCC Wireline Bureau in its order said BBVI couldn't meet the Dec. 31 milestone deadline due to unforeseen circumstances obtaining permits for deployment. The bureau also said it was seeking comment on BBVI's waiver request, with comments due Jan. 13, replies Jan. 21, in docket 18-143.

Comments are due Jan. 3, replies Jan. 10 on an application from Fiberlight of Virginia and Central Virginia Services (CVSI) to transfer RDOF support and obligations for Census Block Group No. 511139301001 from Fiberlight to CVSI, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Friday. CVSI maintains that it's “well-positioned to complete the required buildout for the provision of RDOF-supported broadband and voice services in advance of the deadlines established in the Commission’s RDOF rules” because the transferring census block is close to its broadband service area, the PN said. In a separate PN, the bureau is seeking comment on a related CVSI petition expanding its Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) designated service area in Virginia to include the transferring census block. “Accordingly, the expansion of CVSI’s ETC designated service area to include the Assigned CBG will be conditioned upon approval of its 214 Transfer Application,” the PN said. Comments on the ETC expansion are due Jan. 20, replies Feb. 4.

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved a limited waiver for Virginia’s RiverStreet Communications of the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund milestone and noncompliance rules, relieving it of RDOF obligations to serve all eligible census blocks within the census block groups (CBGs) covered by RiverStreet’s winning bids, said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. The order relieves RiverStreet of the obligation to serve all census blocks in New Kent County, Virginia. The relief will “prevent duplication” with buildout commitments made by Cox Communications to serve all the locations within those CBGs, the order said. The waiver “will further our interagency coordination efforts by avoiding duplication of public funding and maximizing the use of public funds to support high-speed broadband service to as many unserved consumers as possible,” it added.

Comments are due Jan. 3, replies Jan. 10 on the proposed sale by California-based Varcomm Holdings of Halsey, Oregon, local exchange carrier Roome Telecommunications to Oregon’s Alyrica Networks, said a public notice Friday. Alyrica serves 10,541 residential and business subscribers in the Philomath, Oregon, area. After the transfer, Roome would continue to exist under the same name and provide rural LEC service in the same area, the PN said. The proposed deal will be “seamless and virtually transparent to consumers of Roome” and won’t involve changes to the rates, terms and conditions of Roome’s services, Alyrica told the bureau.

Providers with more than 100,000 voice service subscriber lines must comply with FCC rules protecting the privacy of calls and texts to domestic violence hotlines by Aug. 20, 2025, said the Wireline Bureau in a public notice Friday. The PN includes database specifications that service providers will use to identify calls and text messages that are bound for domestic violence hotlines -- the November 2023 order implementing the 2022 Safe Connections Act (see 2311150042) pegged the implementation deadline to the release of the database. Smaller providers have a later deadline, defined as 14 months from publication of Friday’s PN. The bureau will later release one or more additional public notices announcing the download file naming convention for the database, the means by which Service Providers can arrange secure access to the download file, and the availability of the initial database download file for testing, the PN said.

Securus Technologies received a waiver until Sept. 1 of the incarcerated people's communications service per-minute pricing rules, according to an order in Friday's Daily Digest. The FCC Wireline Bureau said in the order it's waiving the rules while Securus completes development of a video IPCS platform that can bill on a per-minute basis.

Mercury Broadband, which has notified the FCC it can't meet rural digital opportunity fund commitments in census tracts in multiple states (see 2411270049, 2411180044 and 2411060028), is relinquishing more than 50 census block groups in Ohio, it said in a default letter posted Wednesday in docket 19-126. As with past default notifications, Mercury said rising deployment costs have made the cost of extending its network to the RDOF census block groups economically unviable.

The FCC Wireline Bureau has granted the petitions of two carriers that sought to expand their Lifeline footprint, said an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. It granted requests for expanded designations as eligible telecommunications carriers from Conexon Connect for Florida and Scott County Telephone Cooperative in Tennessee and Virginia. The carriers were already designated as ETCs in their respective states in areas where they were authorized to receive Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support, but Tuesday’s order expands the areas in which they can participate in Lifeline. Conexon and SCTC’s petitions drew no opposition filings, the order said.

The FCC’s remaining extensions on the implementation of call authentication standards “remain necessary to avoid undue hardship for the limited number of providers that require them,” the Wireline Bureau said in a public notice announcing its annual evaluation of extensions. The extensions of Stir/Shaken standards apply to small voice service providers originating calls via satellite using North American Numbering Plan (NANP) numbers and providers that cannot obtain a service provider code token. Retaining the extensions “does not present a significant barrier to the Commission’s goal of full participation in STIR/SHAKEN,” the PN said. The Wireline Bureau’s annual evaluation of the extensions is required by the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act, the PN said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau and the Office of Economics and Analytics Friday announced the 2025 reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice service for eligible telecommunications carriers. The numbers are based on the FCC’s most recent urban rate survey. The 2025 urban average monthly rate for voice is $30.67, the notice said. “The reasonable comparability benchmark for voice services, two standard deviations above the urban average, is $55.55.” That’s up from $55.13 for 2024 (see 2312260049). ETCs “must certify … no later than July 1, 2025, that the pricing of its basic residential voice services is no more than $55.55,” the notice said. The FCC also released the benchmark table for broadband. It runs from a U.S. monthly low of $89.51, $147.65 in Alaska, for 4 Mbps service, to a high of $145.80, $209.03 in Alaska, for 2 Gbps service. “Recipients of high-cost and/or Connect America Fund support that are subject to broadband performance obligations are required to offer broadband service at rates that are at or below the relevant reasonable comparability benchmark.”