The FCC wants comments by Aug. 19, replies Sept. 3, in docket 80-286 on whether it should extend by six years its freeze on federal-state jurisdictional separations of telecom costs and revenue, said a public notice Monday. Commissioners approved the NPRM earlier this month (see 2407020017).
The Armstrong Group agreed to pay $6.5 million for violating the FCC's rules on the USF high-cost program, DOJ announced Friday. The company admitted to "submitting improper costs in order to inflate the subsidies it received," a news release said. An investigation found that five incumbent local exchange carriers the Armstrong Group owns failed to comply with FCC rules between 2008 and 2023. A whistleblower will receive about $1.2 million "as his share of the recovery," DOJ said. “When providers like the Armstrong Group fail to follow federal law and FCC regulations, they jeopardize not only critical government programs but also consumers’ ability to access a modern lifeline," Eric Olshan, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, said.
ClearCaptions urged the FCC to provide "at least two years of rate stability" in a new rate plan adopted for IP-captioned telephone services using automatic speech recognition (ASR). There are "no additional efficiency gains expected" in ASR costs in the medium term, it said during a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2309250056). An ex parte filing was posted Thursday in docket 22-408. Raising concerns about further rate cuts, ClearCaptions said continuous rate cuts would "signal to banks and other investors that there could be no end in sight for rate reductions."
CaptionCall will pay a nearly $35 million fine and implement a compliance plan following an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation about data privacy for consumers with disabilities, according to a consent decree Tuesday. The bureau found that the company unlawfully retained call content beyond the duration of a call and submitted inaccurate information to the Telecom Relay Service Fund administrator. The investigation found that CaptionCall retained some call content of TRS users for three years before the issue was discovered. TRS providers must "take additional precautions given their unique access to the content of their customers' calls," Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued an initial determination order against Veriwave Telco Monday for failing to comply with the commission's call blocking rules for providers suspected of carrying illegal traffic. The bureau ordered the company to respond to its order within 14 days, otherwise other providers must block Veriwave's voice traffic. An investigation found suspected illegal traffic originated at Veriwave earlier this year. "Providers must do their part to prevent these junk calls from getting to consumers," Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a news release. If they don't, "they will face significant consequences," she added.
The FCC is seeking comment on NPRMs dealing with updates for letter of credit (LOC) rules, the commission said Wednesday (see 2406060028) in a notice for Monday's Federal Register. The NPRMs include modifying LOC rules for the FCC's USF high-cost programs in rural communities, for Connect America Fund Phase II support recipients, and for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support recipients. Specifically, the FCC wants comments on changing the rules governing which U.S. banks can issue LOCs and potentially allowing certain RDOF recipients to lower the value of their LOC. Comments are due Aug. 5, replies Aug. 19.
Eligible telecom carriers (ETC) may file their Form 481 submissions until July 10, an FCC Wireline Bureau order Friday in docket 14-58 said. In extending the deadline from July 1, the bureau cited technical difficulties in the Universal Service Administrative Co.'s filing portal in its waiver of the program year 2025 filing deadline.
The FCC's Emergency Connectivity Fund was to sunset on Sunday, the agency said in a public notice Friday in docket 21-93. All purchases needed to be made by then to be eligible for reimbursement; funding requests with a June 30 service delivery date need an Aug. 29 invoicing filing deadline.
Consumer advocates urged the FCC to act on a petition filed last month about using communication assistants (CA) in IP captioned telephone services (see 2406030062). The Hearing Loss Association of America, National Association for the Deaf and TDIforAccess noted in a letter Tuesday (docket 03-123) that automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology doesn't always correctly process speech with "accents, dialects, or patterns that deviate from standard American English." Without performance or accuracy standards for ASR systems used by IP CTS providers, there is "no way of knowing if the ASR systems that are being used to transcribe calls" are "more or less accurate" than calls a CA transcribes, the groups warned.
The Government Accountability Office told House and Senate Commerce committee leaders Monday it recommends NTIA improve technical assistance to Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program recipients. GAO found NTIA’s “plans for providing technical assistance throughout the funding period do not include support for recipients that are unable to implement their financial sustainability plans. In addition, over half of TBCP recipients with infrastructure projects planned to use other federal funding to support their ongoing financial sustainability. But those sources have proven difficult for Tribes to obtain or have ended.” The office recommended NTIA “provide technical assistance to recipients that are unable to implement their financial sustainability plans.” The agency should “consolidate technical assistance resources for the TBCP environmental review process in a single location” given it didn’t already include most of those resources “in its one-stop hub,” GAO said. The office also recommended NTIA report to Congress on TBCP projects’ “financial stability needs.” The agency agreed with the recommendations, GAO said.