The FCC's Q2 USF contribution factor will be 32.8%, said an Office of Managing Director public notice Thursday in docket 96-45. That's a decrease from Q1, which was 34.6%.

After five years of growth, “the pendulum swung rapidly towards the negative” in the second half of 2023 in the worldwide telecom equipment market, Dell’Oro Group’s Stefan Pongratz said Wednesday in a blog post. Revenue decreased across the six telecom programs tracked -- broadband access, microwave and optical transport, mobile core network, radio access network, and service provider router and switch -- with overall performance worse than expected. “There are multiple forces at play,” Pongratz wrote: “First and foremost, challenging comparisons in some of the advanced 5G markets with higher 5G population coverage taken together with the slow transition towards 5G [stand alone] helped to partially explain steep declines in wireless-based investments.” The aggregate telecom equipment fell by roughly a fifth in the North America region, “underpinned by weak activity in both RAN and Broadband Access.” Market conditions “are expected to remain challenging in 2024, though the decline is projected to be less severe than in 2023,” he said.

NTIA accepted digital equity plans for South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, the agency said Friday (see 2402290071). South Dakota received about $527,000 through the state digital equity planning grant program. Wisconsin received roughly $952,000. Wyoming received about $530,000. The three states created plans to address "disparities in digital access, skills and affordability."

The FCC Wireline Bureau extended until May 1 the deadline to apply for the rural healthcare program. In an order Thursday in docket 17-310, the bureau extended the FY 2024 application filing window due to "two instances of outages of a program form that delayed some program participants’ ability [to] begin competitive bidding."

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by March 26, replies April 9, in docket 19-126 on a coalition request for amnesty for certain Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and Connect America Fund II recipients, a public notice Tuesday said (see 2402280078). The coalition, which included nearly 70 ISPs, trade associations, state and local officials, and school districts, sought an amnesty period for support recipients "who cannot or do not intend to build their networks, a very short and expedited amnesty period of no more than a month that allows them to relinquish all or part of their winning areas without being penalized to the full extent that the commission’s rules provide."

The American Association of Public Broadband released a handbook for communities that want to build broadband networks. Published by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the guide “is a key part of AAPB's strategy to double the number of public networks in the next five years,” Executive Director Gigi Sohn said Wednesday.

The FCC and the U.K. Office of Communications announced Monday “a new framework for cooperation” on combating illegal robocalls and robotexts. The agencies agreed “to cooperate and share information to further their shared interests in protecting consumers and ensuring the integrity of communications networks.” Last week, the FCC and the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office said they will cooperate on robocall and robotext enforcement (see 2402290039). “Scammers cross borders to trick, irritate and defraud consumers,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

Effective April 4, an FCC rule states that a one-time text message that confirms a request to revoke consent from receiving any further calls or text messages and that contains no marketing information, doesn't violate commission rules strengthening consumers' ability to make such a request, said a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. A rule on delivery restrictions is delayed indefinitely. Commissioners adopted the item in February along with an NPRM seeking comment on wireless providers' ability to send robocalls or robotexts to subscribers (see 2402160048). Comments on the NPRM are due April 4, replies by April 19, in docket 02-278, said a separate notice for Tuesday's FR.

More than two-thirds, or 68%, of households enrolled in the affordable connectivity program "had inconsistent or zero connectivity" before entering the program, according to an FCC survey released Thursday. The survey included data from a December poll of ACP households. It said 80% of ACP households cited affordability as the reason for their lack of connectivity before the program. More than three-quarters of household respondents said losing ACP benefits would cause them to change or cancel their internet service plan. “Thanks to today’s survey data, leaders making the decisions about ACP’s future know one thing for certain," Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a note, ACP is "not nice-to-have, it’s need-to-have." Rosenworcel added: "We’ve come too far to turn back now."

Every state, D.C., and Puerto Rico submitted a digital equity plan to NTIA, the agency said Thursday. NTIA is "working to review and accept all of the state plans" on a rolling basis as it prepares to launch two grant programs. As of Thursday, the plans of Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Puerto Rico and West Virginia were accepted (see 2402150034).