Comments are due Sept. 26, replies Oct. 14, on an NPRM proposing to end the requirement that telecommunications relay services providers support the now-obsolete ASCII transmission format, said a notice for Wednesday’s Federal Register. Commissioners approved the NPRM in June (see 2506260030).

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday scheduled oral argument in a case examining the legality of the FCC’s prison-calling order. It's set for Oct. 7 at 9:30 a.m. in the En Banc Courtroom at the Moakley Courthouse in Boston. The court last month rejected the FCC's request to hold the case in abeyance given the Wireline Bureau’s decision to delay some incarcerated people’s communications service deadlines until April 1, 2027 (see 2507160027). “There will be no continuance except for grave cause,” the court said.

Repair work on Quintillion's damaged subsea cable off the North Slope of Alaska is underway, the company said Friday. It reported that two repair ships are on-site, with crews on one working to locate the damaged segment via a remotely operated vehicle. Good ice and weather conditions "continue to support the safe and efficient execution of this work." The cable repair and testing work should take up to a week, Quintillion said, with burial of the replacement to take an additional two weeks. The company said in January that the damaged line could result in "prolonged" outage of its service to North Slope and northwest Alaskan communities (see 2501220001).

The International Center for Law & Economics urged the FCC last week to move forward on proposals to speed the retirement of legacy copper phone lines. Commissioners agreed to take comment on ways to speed retirements in an NPRM approved last month (see 2507280053).

Comments are due Sept. 8 in dockets 25-256 and 25-257 on two Consolidated Communications applications to discontinue legacy voice services at locations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, said a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. The application will be granted automatically Sept. 22 unless the FCC notifies the company otherwise.

Intrepid is dropping its petition asking the FCC to preempt a contract that Cottage Grove, Minnesota, has with another provider for deployment of fiber-optic infrastructure there. In a motion to withdraw posted Friday (docket 25-248), Intrepid said it and the city have settled, "and there is no longer a 'controversy' requiring resolution by the Commission." In its petition, Intrepid said Cottage Grove granted exclusive access to another provider and was denying Intrepid access to its right of way.

Comments are due Sept. 5, replies Sept. 12, on Crown Castle's proposal to sell its fiber network business to Fiber FinCo. That company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Front Range, a joint venture between investors DigitalBridge Group and Sweden’s EQT. Filings should be posted in docket 25-174, said a Friday order by the FCC Wireline Bureau. Crown Castle sought agency clearance in May.

A pair of submarine cable repair ships should arrive at the Point Barrow repair site in the next few days to deal with a damaged subsea fiber line, Alaska's Quintillion said Wednesday. The company said in January that the damaged line could result in "prolonged" outage of its service to North Slope and northwest Alaskan communities (see 2501220001). When the ships, the IT Integrity and the CanPac Valkyrie, arrive at the repair site, crews will start locating and recovering the damaged cable, Wednesday's update said. Repair and testing could take up to a week, with cable burial extending potentially for an additional two weeks, it added.

NTCA representatives spoke with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about small providers' need for greater clarity as they move away from time-division multiplexing-based interconnection. They discussed how to “facilitate and expedite the voluntary migration of small rural providers from legacy voice services to cloud-based and hosted VoIP services,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-97.

Comments are due Sept. 22, replies Oct. 21, on the questions raised in the pole attachments NPRM adopted by the FCC at its July meeting (see 2507280053), said a notice for Friday's Federal Register. The docket is 17-84. Among the questions asked in the NRPM is whether Section 224 of the Communications Act, which governs pole attachments, also covers light poles.