MDC Data Centers plans to make two additional fiber routes connecting Texas and Mexico operational this year, it said this week. The Laredo-Nuevo Laredo crossing should be operational in Q2, with the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez crossing to follow in Q4.
States that support the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 (see 2501280053) defended it in a brief at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Amici States operate correctional facilities covered by the Order and seek to maintain security within those facilities while enhancing broader public safety,” said the brief filed this week in docket 24-8028. It was signed by the District of Columbia, New York, California, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced Tuesday that one of his former aides, Joseph Calascione, is returning to the FCC as chief of the Wireline Bureau. The announcement comes the day after Carr said acting Chief Trent Harkrader is leaving the agency after 26 years (see 2504280019). Calascione joined Akin Gump in early 2022. He previously served for 20 months as an acting legal adviser to Carr. “His legal and policy expertise on wireline and other communications issues will enable the FCC to modernize its regulatory frameworks” and “unleash economic opportunity,” Carr said.
Comments are due May 9, replies May 16, on applications to transfer control of Colorado-based Strasburg Telephone Co. from TDS Telecom to the Eastern Slope Rural Telephone Association, a public notice said Friday. Strasburg Telephone Co. served a total of 1,036 subscriber access lines in its service area as of September, the notice said. Comments are also due on the same dates on the proposed transfer of Delta County Tele-Comm from TDS to Elevate. Also based in Colorado, Delta County Tele-Comm served a total of 2,673 subscriber access lines in its service areas as of September.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday delayed the Aug. 20 deadline for larger carriers to meet the Safe Connections Act's requirements. The act's goal is to help domestic violence survivors gain access to safe and affordable communications services. The FCC approved an order implementing the act in November 2023 (see 2311150042).
With the 25-year license of its South America-1 submarine cable network set to expire, Telxius Cable is seeking a renewal. In an FCC application posted Thursday, Telxius said the SAm-1 cable network continues to operate, so the company wants to relicense it until 2051. SAm-1 connects Florida, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru, offering bulk capacity to wholesale and enterprise customers, the application said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Thursday posted new filing deadlines for a Talton petition seeking a waiver of the commission’s rules capping the rates for audio and video for incarcerated people provided to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Comments are now due May 8, replies May 15, in docket 23-62. The bureau suspended earlier deadlines on the petition (see 2504170020) after public interest groups, led by the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, objected to Talton’s request for confidential treatment.
USTelecom reiterated its position opposing new pole attachment rules (see 2504140049) in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-84. As broadband providers “with operational experience both owning and attaching to poles, USTelecom members urge the Commission to refrain from imposing prescriptive new regulations that will create further disputes, confusion, and inefficiencies,” it said: “Micro-managing the pole attachment process will not speed USTelecom members’ or any broadband service providers’ deployments, whether those are through government funding programs or through massive private investment.”
Incompas CEO Chip Pickering said Tuesday’s White House memorandum on permitting “will accelerate the deployment of high-speed broadband networks, robust energy grids and advanced data centers” and help America win the global AI race, according to a release Friday. “By directing federal agencies to eliminate paper-based processes, implement automation and establish the Permitting Innovation Center, the administration is removing the roadblocks that have hindered our technological advancement,” Pickering said. The memorandum called for the Council on Environmental Quality and the National Energy Dominance Council to issue a plan for modernizing federal environmental review and permitting processes for infrastructure projects. “The administration's commitment to deliver results at 21st-century speeds demonstrates a clear understanding that America's AI leadership depends on our ability to build physical infrastructure efficiently,” Pickering said.
Pointing to a late Connect America Fund Phase II quarterly certification now having been submitted, Aristotle Unified Communications is asking the FCC for a rules waiver that would restore its Arkansas CAF support. In a docket 10-90 filing posted Friday, Aristotle said that despite curing the tardiness, the Universal Service Administrative Co. continues to withhold its Arkansas support, impeding its ability to provide broadband and voice service to Arkansas CAF locations. It said the submission failure was a ministerial error.