U.K.-based Boldyn Networks announced Thursday the close of its purchase of U.S.-based Apogee Telecom, a provider of on-campus connectivity serving the U.S. higher education (HED) market. “Apogee offers managed wireless residential and campus networks, as well as IT solutions, fibre infrastructure as a service, and video services for students, faculty, and staff,” Boldyn said. With the buy, “Boldyn will acquire and continue to serve more than 350 HED customers,” the company said.

Alaska Broadband Advocates met with FCC commissioners and staff and discussed “the current disparity between the Lower 48 and Alaska in terms of speed availability, residential package pricing and cost per household,” according to a filing posted Thursday in docket 16-271. For example, a school district’s cost per Mbps of service in Alaska is “200 times more than the median cost in the United States,” they told the FCC. The Alaskans met with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington and aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.

Alaska Telecom Association representatives emphasized to the FCC the importance of the Alaska Connect Fund to improving mobile wireless service in the state and other issues. The representatives met with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington. “We urged the Commission to quickly move forward with the Alaska Connect Fund to provide needed certainty to carriers and the consumers they serve in the state,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. USF support is “essential to make service available and affordable in Alaska and the Alaska Connect Fund can build on past successes,” the group said.

New America's Open Technology Institute is raising concerns about the FCC's broadband consumer labels (see 2404100076). In a meeting with Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff, OTI asked the FCC to issue best practices for formatting and clarify that ISPs "should not block automated collection and access of CSV files by means other than human directed web browser actions," according to an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 22-2. The group also found instances of "label implementation that either undermined the purpose of the rule or raised other concerns." OTI said some labels couldn't be accessed without providing a service address. One provider's plan directed a user to a "pop-up with a large block of 'fine print' rather than the label" on its website, OTI said. It also noted some consumers shopping for services in person "may not be aware" they can ask for a broadband consumer label to compare plans.

The FCC Wireline Bureau made several Rural Digital Opportunity Fund census block groups eligible for other funding programs following letters from Charter and Altice notifying the commission that each company was surrendering some winning bids (see 2405010080). The bureau said in a public notice Friday in docket 19-126 that the carriers "will be subject to penalties" for their defaulted bids.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel defended the agency’s order and Further NPRM on robocalls and robotexts. In letters to Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., posted Friday, she wrote that the commission "has now made it unequivocally clear" that sending robocalls or robotexts to consumers will require "prior express written consent ... on a one-to-one basis.” The lawmakers were concerned about the effect of that FCC policy on comparison shopping websites. “Our record indicated that consumers can unexpectedly receive hundreds or more robocalls and robotexts from a single inquiry on comparison shopping websites,” Rosenworcel said: While some of the websites “may have used this loophole to provide consumers with the ability to quickly compare goods and services and discover new sellers, our record demonstrated that consumers are often overwhelmed with robocalls and robotexts they did not agree to receive.”

EchoStar's supposed informal objection to SpaceX's request to do supplemental coverage from space (SCS) operations testing in Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand (see 2404230038) only suggests conditions for SpaceX's experimental special temporary authority application, rather than giving any reason to deny the request, according to SpaceX. SpaceX said in docket 23-65 Tuesday that it has already addressed almost all the proposed conditions by such commitments as conducting testing pursuant to a spectrum access arrangement between SpaceX and a mobile partner and taking steps to eliminate harmful interference if it occurs. SpaceX said the FCC "should reject [EchoStar's] demand to violate the national sovereignty of foreign administrations by imposing blanket operational limits."

WTA urged the FCC to consider "alternatives not involving waivers or amnesties" that will incentivize Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase (RDOF) I auction recipients who can't or won't build networks to relinquish their awards ahead of NTIA's broadband, equity, access, and deployment (BEAD) program (see 2404240050). The group said in a meeting with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that the FCC "must strictly enforce its auction rules, terms, and conditions." A waiver would "not only encourage future reverse auction participants to expect relief from unsuccessful bidding tactics" but also "open the door to increased judicial scrutiny," WTA said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 19-126. The FCC should "condition an RDOF awardee's acceptance of the reduced default penalty" of 10% of a carrier's "total relevant RDOF support" on the awardee's "enforceable commitment not to seek BEAD grants for any of its relinquished RDOF service areas."

The FCC received assignments in a national security memorandum that President Joe Biden signed Tuesday. They were similar to those in a 2013 presidential directive. The memorandum says the U.S. “is in the midst of a generational investment in the Nation’s infrastructure” but faces “an era of strategic competition with nation-state actors who target American critical infrastructure and tolerate or enable malicious actions conducted by non-state actors.” Moreover, the memorandum directs the FCC to “identify and prioritize communications infrastructure by collecting information” on communications networks. It is tasked with assessing sector risks and “work[ing] to mitigate those risks by requiring, as appropriate, regulated entities to take specific actions to protect communications networks and infrastructure,” the directive says. It calls on the agency to collaborate with “communications sector industry members, foreign governments, international organizations, and other stakeholders to identify best practices and impose corresponding regulations.” The FCC "is committed to doing its part, working with government and industry partners, to increase the security and resilience of our nation's communications infrastructure," an agency spokesperson emailed.

The FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday extended the deadlines for SI Wireless and other carriers to remove, replace and dispose Huawei and ZTE equipment from their networks. The deadline for Si Wireless was extended from May 24 to Nov. 24. “SI Wireless states that it has continued to experience delays in obtaining replacement equipment, in some cases experiencing delays of 4-6 months,” said the notice in docket 18-89: “It also asserts that equipment vendors are focusing on their production of 5G equipment and have reduced or terminated production of 4G LTE equipment, making it more difficult to access 4G-only LTE equipment.” Among the other extensions, the bureau moved the deadline for Bristol Bay Cellular from April 25 to Oct. 25, for Commnet Wireless from four deadlines in July to deadlines in January, for Mark Twain Communications from June 6 to Dec. 6, for Pine Belt Cellular from July 18 to Jan. 17, for Plateau Telecommunications from July 18 to Jan. 18, for Point Broadband Fiber from five deadlines in April and May to October and November, and for Southern Ohio Communication Services, from April 6 to Oct. 6.