Conexon Connect said it was incorrect when it told the FCC that it had met its three-year 40% rural development opportunity fund (RDOF) buildout milestone in Kentucky. In a docket 19-126 filing posted Tuesday, Conexon said it based its claim (see 2501160056) on the best data available at the time. Further analysis determined that the number of locations it serves in Kentucky is "slightly below" the required 40% milestone. But the company "still intends to fully satisfy its RDOF obligations in each of the ten states in which it receives RDOF support."

RiverStreet Communications is getting closer to Connect America Fund Phase II compliance in Virginia and has been removed from noncompliance tiers in North Carolina, it said Monday in letters in docket 10-90. RiverStreet said the Universal Service Administrative Co. has notified it that enough CAF locations have been certified in North Carolina so that the company is no longer subject to quarterly reporting about its progress there. RiverStreet also said that since its most recent quarterly progress report regarding Virginia, it has deployed broadband to an additional 970 locations -- 6,261 in total -- and "continues to close the compliance gap" there.

The Wireline Bureau has dismissed Sonic Telecom’s 2021 petition for reconsideration of portions of the FCC's unbundling network elements rules, said an order on reconsideration Friday. “We find that Sonic fails to show any material errors or omissions, raise any new or additional facts or arguments it could not have raised during the original proceeding, or provide any reason otherwise warranting reconsideration,” the order said. Sonic had argued that the FCC’s UNE rules were based on unsubstantiated predictions and untrustworthy data (see 2102090077). “Sonic’s Petition merely restates arguments the Commission has already rejected, and to the minimal extent it may raise new evidence or arguments, such evidence or arguments could have been raised earlier,” the bureau said.

Google's GU Holdings has received a green light from the FCC Office of International Affairs to build and operate a non-common carrier submarine cable system linking California and Guam to Taiwan and the Philippines, the agency said Friday. The cable system, TPU, will have a total capacity of about 260 Tbps, it said. GU -- which had previously received special temporary authority to construct and test the portions of the cable system in U.S. territory -- plans to begin offering commercial service on TPU in May.

Permitting difficulties and inaccurate Form 477 data have hampered SCI Broadband's efforts to meet its rural deployment opportunity fund buildout obligations, according to CEO Ron Savage. In a docket 10-90 filing posted Friday recapping a meeting with the FCC, Minnesota's SCI said it was bringing the issues to the agency's attention before potentially seeking a waiver from serving certain census blocks where it received RDOF funding.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters Thursday that he will look “very closely” at the state of play on legacy copper in carrier networks. “We have a regime in place where we are requiring carriers to invest billions and billions of dollars into aging, legacy copper networks,” sometimes in parallel with building a modern network, Carr said. “We need to find a way to create the incentives so that we can transition people to next-generation services and incentivize investment in new infrastructure.”

Plans for Hawaii to be the first fully fiber-enabled state in the U.S. will have to overcome such logistical and operational challenges as its remote location and the difficulty of getting from island to island, Hawaiian Telcom President Su Shin said Wednesday. During a Fiber Broadband Association webinar, Shin said those access issues add to costs. While the timeline is “aggressive,” a lot of the most difficult areas have already been built, and the company is confident it can meet the deadline of the end of 2026, she said. About 60% of Hawaii -- more than 400,000 homes and businesses -- is fiber-enabled, she said, with two of the six main islands complete and the focus turning to the others over the next two years. She said federal support, such as via the rural deployment opportunity fund and NTIA’s middle mile program, will help with the highest-cost areas, but 90% of the $1.7 billion fiber project comes from private capital.

AT&T defended its proposal to stop accepting new customers for parts of its legacy copper network (see 2501310046), responding to opposition from the Communications Workers of America and Bandwidth (see 2502240025). AT&T has four applications pending at the FCC involving legacy services in wire centers in 18 states. “As detailed in each application, demand for each of these services is very low in the Affected Service Area, and new orders are almost nonexistent,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 25-45. “Grandfathering these outdated services will benefit the public and serve as an important step toward meeting both AT&T’s and the Commission’s goals of advancing toward next-generation technologies that customers crave.” AT&T said no actual end users filed comments on the applications. Contrary to CWA's allegations, “all existing customers of the Affected Services will be able to keep their current service,” the carrier said. “AT&T spends over $6 billion annually in direct costs to keep its copper services running -- resources that would be much better spent connecting more Americans to newer networks.”

Surf Internet announced Friday it raised $175 million in new equity funding and secured an upsized $300 million debt facility as it seeks to build out fiber in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. “The equity investment was led by Macquarie Capital, with participation from existing investors Bain Capital and Post Road Group,” the company said. “The debt upsize, led by DigitalBridge Credit, includes a new commitment from global investment group CDPQ, along with participation from Boundary Street Capital and Liberty Mutual Investments,” and builds on “Surf’s existing $200 million debt facility.”

TDS Telecom will target 1.8 million marketable fiber service addresses after ending 2024 with 928,000 total locations, the company announced Friday. The ISP laid out a long-term plan to increase its percentage of locations served by fiber to 80%, provide speeds of at least 1Gb to 95% of its footprint, and decrease its copper footprint to 5%. “We’ve been transforming into a fiber company in a big way for several years,” TDS CFO Kris Bothfeld said. “We’re now also focusing on streamlining our operations to enhance elements of our customer experience and further improve our margins and cost structure.”