Chapter 11 bankruptcy won't interrupt any service operations or change the rates or terms of service provided to existing customers, Everstream told the FCC in a letter posted Friday. The Cleveland fiber operator said it had reached an agreement to be purchased by Missouri-based Bluebird Fiber as part of a bankruptcy reorganization. The Bluebird deal follows the sale of Everstream's Illinois and St. Louis metropolitan area networks and its plan to wind down its Pennsylvania operations, it said. Absent a rival bidder, the company expects its Bluebird transaction to close by year-end, it added.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Thursday authorized carriers to “grandfather” interconnected VoIP services provisioned over copper lines and waived an “associated requirement to file an application with the Commission” under agency discontinuance rules. The bureau also waived for two years “the need for carriers applying for section 214(a) discontinuance authority to follow the testing methodology and parameters described in the 2016 Technology Transitions Order and its Technical Appendix.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau announced Thursday the interim required locations lists for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, the Bringing Puerto Rico Together Fund, and the Connect U.S. Virgin Islands Fund. The release is tied to the FCC’s shifting carriers from reporting USF high-cost program data using latitude/longitude/address information to reporting deployment using fabric locations IDs, the bureau said. The FCC previously committed to releasing an interim required locations list this month for RDOF carriers using the latest version of the “fabric.”
BEAD's universal connectivity mission is "long overdue," and getting shovels in the ground requires elimination of "unnecessary and burdensome program requirements" imposed by the Biden administration, communications industry groups said in a letter Tuesday to President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Also required is "enabl[ing] the States to move forward quickly with implementation," said the letter from USTelecom, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, NTCA, the Telecommunications Industry Association and WTA. States "should remain in the driver’s seat, empowered to use their expertise in determining the best broadband technology solutions for their residents." While multiple technologies will have a role in BEAD, the program "is a golden opportunity to drive as much fiber infrastructure as feasible into our country, which will help advance your Administration’s important connectivity, AI, and advanced manufacturing goals."
Arizona-based Wyyerd Fiber has purchased fiber assets in that state from Ting Fiber and Conterra Networks, Wyyerd said last week. The acquisition includes fiber infrastructure across seven municipalities, expanding Wyyerd's footprint in Arizona.
USTelecom submitted a letter to the FCC Enforcement Bureau asking for the continuing designation of its Industry Traceback Group as the registered robocall traceback consortium. Letters of intent to serve in the role were due at the FCC on Friday.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday approved the transfer of control of Megawatt Communications from Jack Cathey to RSTN Communications (docket 25-146). The bureau noted that no one filed an opposition. Megawatt serves parts of Tennessee and is designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier there.
The International Connectivity Coalition continues to lobby the FCC to keep 25-year submarine cable system licensing terms and to adopt bright line rules for restricting or prohibiting transactions that have links to a foreign adversary (see 2505200039). In a docket 24-523 filing posted Thursday, ICC reported on a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, at which it also advocated for a fast-track review for parties whose licenses were approved previously.
Comments are due June 6, replies June 16, in docket 03-123 on the telecommunications relay services (TRS) fund administrator’s latest proposed provider compensation formulas and funding requirements, said a public notice Thursday. Rolka Loube Saltzer Associates' proposed formulas would apply from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. They include per-minute compensation formulas of $7.3512 for interstate traditional TRS, $8.4822 for interstate speech-to-speech relay service, and $3.1893 for interstate captioned telephone service. They also call for a compensation rate of $2.1970 per minute for IP relay service and a total fund requirement of $1,793,361,015 for the 2025-26 fund year.
MoffettNathanson analysts said AT&T’s proposed buy of substantially all of Lumen’s mass-market fiber business for $5.75 billion in cash was a smaller deal than expected (see 2505210078). A deal "was widely expected," but AT&T “proposed a relatively small transaction,” the firm said Thursday: “Lumen is still left with the bulk of its [incumbent local exchange carrier] assets (all its enterprise business, both copper and fiber; all its copper residential plant and subscribers; and all the related infrastructure, like central offices). And AT&T will have a fiber footprint that today reaches only about a quarter of U.S. households, and which, even after eventually meeting all of AT&T’s expansion goals, will be available to less than a third of the country.”