A dozen civil liberties and open government groups expressed support Monday for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's effort to get intelligence agencies to consider changes in how they classify and declassify information in a move toward more transparency. In a letter to Clapper, they wrote "far too much information" is unnecessarily classified, and also for far too long and at too high a level. The groups, including Access Now, Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, Electronic Frontier Foundation and New America’s Open Technology Institute, said Clapper's March 23 memo directing intelligence chiefs to consider some changes such as "implementing a proactive discretionary declassification program" could be successful "if strongly promoted and sufficiently resourced."

Verizon deployed OpenStack network function virtualization (NFV) in five data centers, the carrier said in a news release Monday. The project started in 2015, and additional deployments are underway in other domestic data center and aggregation sites, Verizon said. The carrier plans to deploy NFV internationally over the next several months, and in edge network sites by year end, it said. Verizon partnered with Big Switch Networks, Dell and Red Hat to develop the OpenStack pod-based design. It went from concept to deployment of more than 50 racks in five production data centers in less than nine months. The NFV project is a step toward building Verizon’s next-generation network, said Adam Koeppe, vice president-network technology planning.

The FCC's Connect2Health Task Force plans a May 18 meeting in Houston on how broadband technologies can improve mental healthcare and related policy issues. "Policymakers, industry leaders, health technology innovators, consumer advocates, clinicians, rural health organizations, and others interested in leveraging technology to help address and improve mental health" are invited, a Friday public notice said. Among those slated to attend are FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, University of Houston Law Center Dean Leonard Baynes, former astronaut and CEO of Vesalius Ventures Dr. Bernard Harris, and Francisco Fernandez, dean of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, whose school's efforts will be highlighted. The event is part of the task force's "Beyond the Beltway" outreach initiative. Further details will be posted at the task force's webpage.

Parties supported a temporary waiver of a "first-come, first-served" rule for allocating toll-free numbers, which was sought by Somos (formerly SMS/800) for numbers controlled by its help desk (see 1604060037). Somos wants to restrict "Responsible Organizations" (RespOrgs), which manage toll-free numbers for others, to obtaining 100 numbers per day for a period of five days to prevent some entities from hoarding. In comments filed Thursday in docket 95-155, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions SMS/800 Number Administration Committee said it agreed with Somos that there's "widespread and intense interest" in toll-free 800 numbers, justifying a limited waiver to ensure "a wider and fairer distribution" than "first-come, first-served" allocation. Inteliquent, a new RespOrg, agreed the Somos proposal was the best way to allocate the 96,000 toll-free 800 numbers Somos says it took back from another RespOrg for nonpayment. Inteliquent said when Somos made its last large allocation of 800 numbers -- 23,000 in 2008 -- more than 70% went to just two entities. Also supporting the petition is ATL Communications, another RespOrg, which said it had large backlogs of client requests for 800 numbers that haven't been available in "any significant number" for "many years."

The FCC Technological Advisory Council will meet June 9, starting at 12:30 p.m., the agency said Thursday, in the Commission Meeting Room. “The TAC is helping the Commission to continue the momentum spurred by the National Broadband Plan to maximize the use of broadband to advance national interests and create jobs,” the FCC said in a notice.

The Department of Agriculture invited applications for $11.7 million in grants to provide broadband to unserved rural areas through its Rural Utilities Service's Community Connect program, a department release said Monday. The minimum grant amount is $100,000; the maximum, $3 million, it said.

Nine Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant projects were still underway Sept. 30, NTIA said Monday in a Q3 status report. After passage of the 2009 economic stimulus act, NTIA said it made available about $4 billion in BTOP grants to broadband projects and almost $300 million to state broadband projects covering every state, five territories and the District of Columbia. By Sept. 30, NTIA said 271 projects had completed their activities, including 215 BTOP recipients, with one state and nine BTOP projects still active. During Q3, BTOP recipients deployed or upgraded 968 network miles, bringing the cumulative total to 115,665 miles, and another 88 community anchor institutions were connected, bringing the cumulative total to about 25,766, it said.

Alaska Communications knocked an Alaska Telephone Association wireless USF proposal to the FCC, saying it provides a windfall for competitors -- and General Communications (GCI) in particular -- without clearly addressing middle-mile connectivity needs in rural Alaska. ATA's proposal for keeping annual USF support for rate-of-return wireline telcos in the state at $55 million for 10 years, subject to reasonable broadband deployment expectations, was appropriate, said an Alaska Communications (ACS) filing in docket 10-90. The price-cap telco said the rate-of-return plan is consistent with its own Connect America Fund Phase II proposal for the state's price-cap areas. But ACS objected to ATA's "extraordinary" proposal to expand annual USF support for wireless competitive eligible telecommunications carriers in the state to $100 million for 10 years. The telco called the billion-dollar proposal a "CETC enrichment plan" that would not ensure connectivity to remote areas, including 188 Alaskan Bush communities. "ATA does not endorse a specific proposal for closing Alaska’s middle mile gap, with defined deployment milestones and enforceable performance standards for capacity, speed, latency, and -- most important of all -- service affordability (as the Commission adopted for the rest of the nation)," ACS said. It said much of the $1 billion would "underwrite GCI's unregulated middle-mile monopoly," thus harming competition. The telco said the FCC should address ATA's proposals for wireless and rate-of-return carriers separately. If the CETC support is increased, ACS said, the FCC should attach safeguards, including "reasonable non-discriminatory access obligations, affiliate transaction rules, and cost-based pricing requirements, to ensure adequate and quality broadband service sufficient to meet current and project demand." GCI Senior Counsel Chris Nierman emailed in response Tuesday: “All of the providers supporting the Alaska Plan have demonstrated its need and benefits to consumers. Alaska’s unique circumstances require an integrated plan to address the challenges for Alaska. Just as the FCC saw fit to provide stability for non-contiguous price cap carriers like ACS, a similar approach is appropriate for Alaska’s other providers.” ATA didn't comment, but its representatives last week discussed its planned "Alaska Infrastructure Fund" with Wireline Bureau officials, said a Monday filing that included detailed proposed revisions to the FCC's recently updated rate-of-return USF rules (see 1603300065).

Mitel agreed to acquire Polycom in a $1.96 billion deal, they said in a news release Friday. The cash-and-stock acquisition is expected to close in Q3, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals from the DOJ, FTC, Russia and Germany. The combined company will be located at Mitel’s headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, operating as Mitel under CEO Richard McBee but keeping the Polycom brand. The combined company will have a global workforce of about 7,700.

An educational alliance asked the FCC to extend an April 29 E-rate application deadline for FY 2017 funding requests. The Education and Libraries Networks Coalition (EdLiNC) said an extension is needed because recent FCC changes to the E-rate program -- and its application portal in particular -- created complications for parties seeking to apply for school and library broadband/telecom discounts. "With the E-rate application deadline of April 29, 2016 fast approaching, additional time to complete the application process would greatly benefit potential beneficiaries," said an EdLiNC letter posted Friday in docket 10-90. It didn't specify the length of a possible extension.