Representatives of the National Sheriffs’ Association met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty about the group’s concerns over last year’s rules on incarcerated people’s communications services (see 2501280053). The group “summarized the major arguments in its past filings, with particular emphasis on the role of safety and security measures in enabling access to IPCS,” said a filing this week in docket 23-62. It also “discussed the role tablets play in the carceral setting.”
Missouri-based Bluebird Fiber said Tuesday that it hopes to close on its purchase of Everstream's assets by the end of the year. The purchase received U.S Bankruptcy Court approval last week, but Bluebird said the closing still requires regulatory approvals. Bluebird CEO Jason Adkins said Everstream's fiber network and staff "will mesh perfectly with our fiber network and team." The newly combined company "will form one of the largest fiber enterprise businesses in the Midwest." The sale doesn't include Everstream's Pennsylvania assets, which are being wound down. Ohio-based Everstream has told the FCC it doesn't want its Chapter 11 bankruptcy to interrupt service operations or affect rates or terms of service for existing customers (see 2505300037).
Amphenol announced Monday an agreement to buy CommScope’s connectivity and cable solutions (CCS) business -- with 15,000 employees -- for $10.5 billion in cash. It's the second deal between the companies. Amphenol said the buy expands its “interconnect product capabilities in the fast-growing IT datacom market … adding fiber optic interconnect products for artificial intelligence and other data center applications.”
The Wireline Bureau is seeking comment on the proposed sale of Maryland-based Baltimore-Washington Telephone Co. from its owner, Voxology Group, to Uptown Moose, which is based in Illinois, said a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. Comments are due Aug. 15, replies Aug. 22, in docket 25-237.
Members of the ACAM Broadband Coalition spoke with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about the work toward developing the enhanced-alternative connect America cost model (E-ACAM), said a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90. “Achieving final support levels in the E-ACAM adjustment process that are as accurate and sufficient as possible requires two main elements,” the coalition said: “use of location, service availability, and enforceable commitment data that is as accurate and complete as possible” and “use of a support recalculation process that incorporates, to the extent possible, the true cost of serving E-ACAM company locations.”
The FCC should consider narrowing its proposed presumption that a violation of the Cable Landing Licensing Act should disqualify a party from future licenses, the North American Submarine Cable Association said. In a docket 24-523 filing posted Thursday, NASCA said the presumption in the draft subsea cable order on Thursday's FCC meeting agenda (see 2507170048) would disqualify parties from future licenses, even though in the past, parties haven't lost licenses after entering into consent decrees for admitted violations. The presumption should be limited to instances where the violation wasn't remediated with a consent decree or compliance plan, resulted in a lost license or authorization, or was found by the FCC to be intentional, said NASCA. The group's filing recapped a meeting with counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, while a nearly identical filing documented a meeting with Commissioner Anna Gomez's office.
AI-driven growth in fiber capacity points to a clear need "to rapidly expand both route miles and fiber miles to meet the new needs," the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) and consultancy RVA said in a white paper Thursday. They forecast that roughly double the route miles of fiber will be needed by 2029, from 95,000 today to 187,000, and more than double the fiber miles, from 159 million last year to 373 million by 2029. "Meeting this need will be far from easy," the FBA and RVA said, adding that it will require such steps as permitting relief, as well as fiber and power providers collaborating on joint easements.
The FCC Wireline Bureau is seeking comment on a waiver allowing the creation of a study area for UP Fiber as part of the company’s proposed acquisition of 40 wire centers in 42 exchanges and the associated customers from AT&T’s Michigan Bell. Comments are due Sept. 2, replies Sept. 17 in docket 25-181, said a notice Thursday. The companies said in a May application that the assets in the deal include more than 9,000 miles of copper lines and 1,500 miles of business fiber and network infrastructure providing voice and internet service to more than 9,000 residential and business customers.
A collection of operators hope to start commercial operations on a submarine cable system connecting Boca Raton, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, with multiple other Caribbean locations starting in Q4 2027, they said in an FCC application posted Wednesday. The Celia system would also go to Martinique, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Barts, Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, the filing said. The applicants -- Telxius, Antigua Public Utilities Authority, Orange Carriers USA and Servicio di Telecomunicacion di Aruba -- said they would operate the Celia system on a non-common-carrier basis.
The 100% bonus depreciation provision in the revised budget reconciliation package, which was signed into law earlier this month (see 2507030056), could significantly benefit some broadband network owners, Keller & Heckman communications lawyers Casey Lide and Jackson Cherner wrote Wednesday. The legislation makes permanent a bonus depreciation rate that was going to phase out in 2027, allowing companies to continue to deduct the entire cost of a fiber-optic network or telephone distribution plant in the year that asset was acquired, they said. But the bonus depreciation's availability to fiber network owners depends on the accounting methods they follow, the lawyers noted.