Alaska's Quintillion expects a "prolonged" outage of its service to North Slope and northwest Alaskan communities due to a fiber cut under the Beaufort Sea, according to President Mac McHale. McHale said that the company became aware of the outage Saturday and that winter conditions, including sea ice and darkness, "have made it impossible to pinpoint an exact location of the cut and the extent of the cable damage." He added, "Unfortunately, the outage will be prolonged, and sea ice will prevent a repair crew and vessel from entering the area and completing a subsea repair until late summer." McHale said Quintillion "is aggressively exploring options" for a short-term fix, such as a terrestrial route. "The good news is that Quintillion had previously invested millions of dollars to acquire the cable needed for such a route and has this hardware on hand in Fairbanks," he said. That option, though, "will require significant assistance from the federal government." He said the company has been working with the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope on obtaining a FEMA resilient infrastructure grant, with a joint application being filed with FEMA in March. Quintillion will continue pressing for FEMA support and pursuing the Bureau of Land Management permits needed to build this terrestrial route. "To expedite a repair, we will need the full force and support of the incoming Trump Administration, including cutting federal government red tape and eliminating bureaucratic obstacles that will stand between Quintillion and system restoration," McHale said. "The time for federal agencies to act is now.”

As it begins moving customers off legacy networks to next-generation technology, AT&T filed at the FCC last week a test plan for its new AT&T Phone for Business -- Advanced (APB-A) technology, “an IP-based voice product that provides substantially similar performance” to the legacy service. The new technology is based on the company's AT&T Phone -- Advanced (AP-A) technology, said an undocketed filing by AT&T. It noted that AT&T's proposal to initially stop new sales and then discontinue residential local service in nine Oklahoma wire centers was based on the AP-A test plan. The FCC approved that move in December (see 2412230066). “The methodology set forth in this APB-A test plan is substantively identical to the methodology set forth in the AP-A test plan that AT&T employed in that successful discontinuance application,” the filing said.

Five hundred ninety-seven submarine cable systems and 1,712 landings are active or under construction, consultancy TeleGeography said Monday as it released its 2025 submarine cable map. That's an increase of 38 cable systems and 76 landings from the 2024 edition.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Friday sought comment on the application of Solen Ventures and NexTalk for conditional certification as providers of IP-captioned telephone service (IP CTS). Solen acquired majority ownership and control of NexTalk in December, the bureau noted. The companies recently asked the FCC to grant conditional certification, allowing NexTalk to remain eligible for compensation from the interstate telecommunications relay service fund (see 2412310047). Comments are due Feb. 7, replies Feb. 18, in docket 03-123.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau on Thursday handed down a $100,000 fine against Pacific Data Systems for allegedly failing to file telecommunications reporting worksheets with the Universal Service Administrative Co. The bureau noted that it proposed the fine in 2023 and the company sought a reduction or cancelation “on the grounds that it experienced personnel issues that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a two-and-a-half year period of noncompliance that has since been corrected.” After reviewing the record, the bureau said, “We find no reason to cancel, withdraw, or reduce the proposed penalty, and we therefore affirm the proposed $100,000 forfeiture penalty and reject Pacific’s request to cancel or reduce the forfeiture.” Based in Guam, the company provides local exchange services. The bureau said it failed to file 13 worksheets required by the commission’s rules from Aug. 1, 2019, to Feb. 1, 2022, “despite several reminders from USAC.”

More broadband providers are notifying the FCC that they won't meet their third-year rural development opportunity fund (RDOF) buildout milestones (see 2501150071). Conexon Connect said Thursday it exceeded the 40% milestone in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Missouri as of the end of 2024 but fell short in Arizona, Illinois and Louisiana (docket 19-126). It said it "intends to fully satisfy its RDOF obligations in each of the ten states in which it receives RDOF support." Texas' AW Broadband told the FCC it won't meet its first interim buildout milestone in Texas. It said while it deployed 36% of its RDOF locations as of year's end, it expects to meet the 40% milestone before the end of Q2, and the 60% milestone before year's end. Kentucky's Foothills Connect said it was short of the milestone in that state, and Alabama's Point Broadband Fiber said the same about work in Alabama and Michigan. West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative said it missed its RDOF milestone in Illinois. Cox said it had positive news, exceeding its third-year buildout obligations in six states where it received RDOF awards; however, it's falling short in Louisiana, where it's at 28%, Nebraska (33%) and Arizona (38%). Cox said it's "working to address these shortfalls before the next milestone." Charter Communications, which has asked to return some RDOF census block groups in North Carolina, citing its inability to get tribal consent to build on or across tribal lands, on Thursday added a broadband serviceable location to that list. Charter said it wasn't defaulting on it and the other North Carolina locations but asking that the FCC waive its RDOF rules to remove the locations from its RDOF buildout requirements.

Anne Neuberger, White House deputy national security advisor-cyber and emerging technology, and her counterparts from countries in Scandinavia and the Baltics agreed Wednesday to “deepen cooperation on protecting undersea cable” after recent suspected sabotage incidents in the region, the Biden administration said. The White House said Neuberger and other officials raised “concerns about the range of threats to the security of undersea cable infrastructure, whether communication networks or energy." Participants “intend to increase coordination,” including on procedures “for sharing real-time situational awareness and incident information within national governments, across Allies, and between public and private sector stakeholders, including incorporating private sector disruption notifications.” They will “encourage commercial cable operators, where possible, to establish a repository or database to collect and share information between operators regarding accidental cable faults/damage, completed repair work, time taken to repair, and reasons for any repair delays,” the White House said.

Communications infrastructure installer National OnDemand purchased Texas fiber splicing and underground construction firm J. Tucker Construction, it said Wednesday. NOD said the deal is part of its strategy of expanding its geographic footprint nationwide.

Comments are due Jan. 29, replies Feb. 5, on NEK Community Broadband’s proposed acquisition of Consolidated Communications of Vermont’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support and related buildout and service obligations, said a public notice in docket 24-686 Wednesday.

Commnet Wireless, Mercury Wireless and Mediapolis Telephone Co. have defaulted on some rural digital opportunity fund (RDOF) census block groups in Idaho, Washington, Ohio and Iowa, which opens them to consider other funding programs, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Wednesday. It said the carriers would be subject to penalties, adding that it was referring the Commnet and Mercury defaults to the Enforcement Bureau. In docket 19-126, Plains Internet said it hadn't met its year-end 2024 milestone for the Kansas RDOF deployment. It said while it intended to have deployed service to 40% of three Kansas locations, it hadn't deployed at all. It said it wasn't relinquishing its RDOF obligation for the Kansas locations.