Charter Communications surrendered dozens of census block groups (CBG) that it was awarded funding for through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction. In a letter to the FCC posted Thursday in docket 19-126 (see 2402020006), Charter said it was returning the CBGs in Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin representing "less than 2%" of its winning bids. "Due largely to unforeseeable costs, primarily costs associated with the need for extensive utility pole replacements, deploying broadband in these few specific CBGs has become uneconomical," the company said. Citing pole replacement costs, Charter said utilities "generally have not been willing to share cost responsibility."

The consolidated petitions of 20 industry groups that challenge the FCC’s Nov. 20 order implementing Section 60506 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 240319004) do so because the order interprets digital discrimination to mean not only intentional discrimination but also “actions with a disparate impact,” the groups’ brief said Wednesday (docket 24-1179) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court in support of their petitions. Disparate-impact liability is "rare," and every "interpretive clue here" confirms that Congress didn't intend to impose it, said the brief that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CTIA and NCTA and others submitted. The FCC nevertheless has created the “first-ever regime” prohibiting business practices that cause a disparate impact based on income level, it said. The petitioners contend that the rule exceeds the commission’s statutory authority and that the order is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, it said. In light of the many "complex and novel questions" presented and the fact that these cases involve two “distinct, nonaligned groups of petitioners,” the industry petitioners ask that the 8th Circuit afford one hour of oral argument time, with the precise division to be determined after the briefing is complete, it said.

Hotwire Communications asked the FCC to abandon its proposal to ban bulk billing arrangements between ISPs and multi-tenant buildings in a meeting with Commissioner Nathan Simington and aides (see 2403050069). Hotwire said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-142 that the FCC determined in 2010 that bulk billing arrangements are "pro-competitive" and the record since then lacks evidence supporting a ban. The company asked that the item be considered during a commission meeting, saying it would "enable the public to review and provide input on the draft rulemaking for three weeks prior to the vote." It also asked that rules not apply to existing bulk billing agreements, since "numerous parties have made significant investment and deployment decisions in reliance on the 2010 decision."

The FCC Enforcement Bureau affirmed its 2019 decision fining AT&T and AMG Technology Investment for appearing to violate the commission's rules on prohibited communications during the Connect America Fund phase II auction (see 1909060063). The bureau said in a forfeiture order Monday that AT&T must pay a $75,000 fine because it violated the prohibited communications rule and five-business day reporting deadline. A separate forfeiture order affirming AMG's $100,000 fine said the company was "an active participant in prohibited communications with AT&T surrounding AMG’s bids, bidding strategies, and bidding results."

NCIC Communications asked the FCC to "expand its authority" to non-incarcerated people's communications service video visitation providers "to ensure those providers are required to comply with all FCC mandates applicable to IPCS providers," holding separate meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez. The company also met with Enforcement Bureau and Wireline Bureau staff, per an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 23-62. NCIC noted that some non-interconnected VoIP and commissary providers "often provide services that a traditional IPCS provider would provide" but "purport to operate outside of the FCC’s jurisdiction." It also asked the FCC to "extend to video visitation providers the requirement to provide access to video relay service."

A coalition of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction winners asked the FCC to waive its letter of credit (LOC) rules for RDOF, meeting separately with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez (see 2311140077). The group proposed limiting LOCs to one year of support similar to NTIA's waiver for the broadband, equity, access and deployment program. "Maintaining the LOC while having to absorb the huge construction cost increases that RDOF winners are encountering exacerbates the significant financial burden RDOF Winners are already facing," the coalition said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-126.

NTCA raised concerns about the FCC's proposed decision to grant ISPs forbearance from USF contributions under Communications Act section 254(d), holding separate meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez (see 2404050068). The FCC "would be on sounder legal footing" if it issued a Further NPRM "to consider how and whether to reform universal service contributions," the group said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 23-320. Forbearance is "a blunt instrument where a lighter touch that has similar effect would be far more appropriate," NTCA said, asking the commission to "adopt a procedural approach that will at once enable more careful consideration of the merits of contribution reforms and potential impacts."

Advocacy groups urged the FCC to take several steps to revise incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS). The United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, Worth Rises, the National Consumer Law Center, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Amalgamated Policy Research, Public Knowledge and the Wright Petitioners told Wireline Bureau and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff that a model carrier approach would best fulfill the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act's requirement to use "industry-wide average costs" to calculate new rates. The model carrier approach "is in the public interest" and "avoids subsidizing inefficient carriers and unnecessary costs," the groups said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-62. The coalition asked the commission to preempt site commissions and allow states to cap intrastate IPCS rates lower than the FCC's rates. The groups also sought a 30-day transition period for providers to implement the new rates.

Incompas pushed back on CTIA's claims regarding some FCC-proposed rules for call labeling and blocking in a meeting with Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff (see 2404080034). The group noted that the "lack of transparency into the call labeling and presentation practices that carriers and their analytics providers deploy is an increasing problem." FCC oversight of call labeling and blocking is necessary to ensure that "pay-to-play" business models "do not stymie nondiscriminatory, competitively neutral standardized solutions," Incompas said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 17-59. "Without greater accountability and transparency, competitive providers, their customers and end-users will be significantly disadvantaged," the group warned, asking the FCC to also "standardize the inclusion of rich call data."

A coalition of more than 50 small ISPs asked the FCC to investigate the "grossly inaccurate broadband speeds" reported by LTD Broadband to the commission's broadband data collection (BDC). The commission's recent enforcement action against Ohio's Jefferson County Cable TV for incorrect broadband location reporting "should serve as ample precedent for initiating enforcement actions against more egregious data reporting which is currently on the record," said the Accurate Broadband Data Alliance in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 19-195 (see 2403180063). The group argued that LTD and its subsidiary, GigFire, "continue to game the BDC" by "impugning the veracity of entities daring to file BDC challenges against the faulty data."