Preempt California's regulatory framework for VoIP services, the Cloud Communications Alliance and Cloud Voice Alliance asked the FCC in a petition for declaratory ruling filed Monday (see 2501240002). The California Public Utilities Commission’s pending proceeding on the issue "conflicts with federal policies designed to promote competition, innovation, and affordable communications services," the groups said. They also asked that the FCC reaffirm its "end-to-end jurisdictional analysis as the definitive standard for determining the regulatory treatment of VoIP services."

The Coalition for IP Network Transition challenged claims contained in a public interest statement on Verizon’s proposed $20 billion buy of Frontier (see 2410160049). The companies claim the deal will “bring enhanced benefits to local communities within the Frontier footprint,” the coalition said. “The truth of the matter is that the benefits will only flow to those retail customers who are subject to substantial competition,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 24-445. “Nothing will change for Frontier’s access customers in those same markets.” They won’t “receive the benefits of additional investments in today’s standard technology,” fiber and IP connections, and “will remain bound to obsolete technology forced on them by Verizon and Frontier.”

Fiber-optics company Luna Innovations announced Monday that it’s filing the paperwork for Nasdaq delisting. While Luna “has been working diligently” to complete various delinquent filings, “we are unable to file them within Nasdaq’s prescribed timeline,” said CEO Kevin Ilcisin. Nasdaq has notified the company of its intent to delist the stock, he said.

Broadband VI (BBVI) held a successful meeting with the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Public Works (DPW) and restarted some of its work there under the Connect USVI Fund, the provider told the FCC. The DPW issued a stop work order Nov. 21 and “was refusing to move forward with any additional permits,” said a filing last week in docket 10-90. After meeting with the company, the DPW commissioner agreed that BBVI can “expeditiously resume work in the DPW approved areas,” the provider said. BBVI will also regularly meet with DPW officials “to resolve any remaining discrepancies between the parties.”

The FCC approved the Bifrost subsea cable system, which will connect California, Oregon, Guam, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, said a notice in Friday's Daily Digest. The system is a joint effort of Meta, Indonesia's Telin and Singapore's Keppel.

The Puerto Rico Telephone Co. (PRTC) updated the FCC on its work restoring copper networks following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. “Fixed telecommunications services in the areas served in network node 95000IP06 have been restored,” bringing nodes restored to 1,201, said a filing this week in docket 18-240. That includes 590 network nodes restored through deployment of fiber-to-the-home to replace copper loops, “which is more than four times the number of network nodes that PRTC originally had planned for restoration through FTTH.” PRTC noted that part of its restoration plan is to replace legacy connections with fixed broadband voice over LTE. “As PRTC has informed the Commission, the deployment of this fixed VoLTE-based solution was delayed significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent supply chain disruptions that affected the telecommunications industry.”

Fiber broadband deployments “reached a new annual record” of 10.3 million U.S. homes passed last year, the Fiber Broadband Association said Thursday. “Including homes with more than one passing, there are now a total 88.1 million homes passed with fiber in the U.S. with continued growth expected over the next five years,” FBA said. The association released a report it commissioned from RVA Market Research & Consulting that also found fiber passes 56.5% of U.S. households and fiber take-rates “increased slightly in 2024, growing to an average of over 45% based on unique passings.” With the “broadband boom, it is encouraging to see the preference for fiber growing,” said Deborah Kish, FBA vice president-research and workforce development. “Fiber provides the most reliable, high-quality broadband experience compared to alternative technologies, making fiber the clear choice to connect communities and close the digital divide.” The fiber industry is “experiencing record-breaking success, and there is a lot more runway left to go,” said RVA CEO Mike Render. "The addressable [fiber-to-the-home market] remaining is still very large, assuming about 70 million first passings left (including household growth) and an estimated 80 million more second or third FTTH passings to go.”

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.