The FCC Wireline Bureau announced the North American Numbering Plan Administration fund size estimate and contribution factor for fiscal year July 1, 2015, through September 30, 2016, in a public notice Monday in docket 92-237. The fund covers costs of the NANPA, which helps ensure consumers have access to numbering resources, the notice said. Welch LLC, the NANP billing and collection agent, on May 4 proposed a NANPA funding requirement of $8.176 million and a telecom industry contribution factor of 0.0000387 of revenue, with $6.65 million coming from U.S. providers, $162,000 from Canadian and Caribbean providers, and $1.36 million from a surplus in the prior fiscal year. If the FCC takes no further action within 14 days of the notice's release, the fund size and contribution factor are deemed approved.

The FCC made the right decisions in February in its net neutrality order, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the Greater D.C. Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. “Those of us who voted to support the Order have and will continue to take some heat, but I firmly believe this approach is in the best interest of the people we have pledged to serve, including the small and medium-sized business owners in this room,” Clyburn said in the text of the speech posted Thursday. Clyburn also stressed the importance of expanding the Lifeline program. An order and further rulemaking on Lifeline are teed up for a vote at the FCC’s June 18 meeting (see 1505280037). There are issues with Lifeline but the “level of criticism the program has received is not entirely justified,” she said. Clyburn said current efforts to reshape the program started in 2013 when she was acting chairwoman. “Like many of you, I know what it is to be underestimated, under-appreciated and misunderstood,” she said. “When I was appointed Acting Chair of the FCC, many concluded that I would be a mere bench warmer, accepting the title and the perks, but hanging out until the permanent appointee assumed the post. But like many of you, being underestimated, under-appreciated and misunderstood just causes me to shift into this highly motivated, hyper-driven state -- where I do as much as I can for as long as I am able.”

The FCC's major to-do list over the next 19 months includes the ongoing Lifeline modernization, redefining multichannel video programming distributors to include the over-the-top universe, speeding along the IP telephony transition, the incentive auction and overhauling its website and Electronic Comment Filing System, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler. Sohn spoke Thursday at a Media Institute luncheon on what she called the agency's lesser-heralded accomplishments over the past 19 months since Wheeler was confirmed by the Senate, and its major priorities over the coming 19 and the remainder of the current presidential administration. Asked about the timing of a variety of decisions the regulator still has to make before the expected auction in 2016, Sohn said it "depends on when things are ready." "Obviously we want to start the auction in the first quarter," she said. "Summer, fall's going to be pretty critical for some of these decisions to come out." Wireless companies agreeing to unlock their cellphones and allowing texting to 911, and the elimination of the sports blackout rule were among significant FCC accomplishments that have "flown under the radar," Sohn said. "It's those lower-profile decisions ... that make me especially proud," she said.

The FCC established an expedited pleading cycle on a $1 billion deal under which Crown Castle proposes to buy Quanta Fiber Networks, also called Sunesys. The companies sought FCC blessing last week (see 1505280013). The transaction would give tower company Crown Castle 10,000 miles of fiber in major metropolitan markets across the U.S., including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, northern New Jersey, Philadelphia and Silicon Valley, the companies told the FCC. Comments are due June 17, replies June 24, said a Wednesday notice from the agency. "The transfer of control identified herein has been found, upon initial review, to be acceptable for filing as a streamlined application," the notice said, but the application can be returned if it's "defective and not in conformance with the Commission’s rules and policies."

Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council President Kim Keenan said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal to revamp the Lifeline program (see 1505280037) is a positive move. “Americans are increasingly relying on broadband to access education, jobs, healthcare, and other essential services, but a disproportionate number of minorities and economically vulnerable consumers rely on their smartphones to access these services,” Keenan said in a news release Thursday. “Closing the digital divide and getting everyone connected is critical and the Chairman’s actions today are a major step in the right direction.” MMTC was part of a 36-member coalition that recently called for modernization of the Lifeline program (see 1505150049). NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said Lifeline support is only part of the answer for increased adoption. “In high-cost areas, the Lifeline program and other USF programs can only be effective to the extent that a network for consumer use is there in the first instance and if the services offered on that network are reasonably comparable in price and quality to those in urban areas,” Bloomfield said. "If we don’t tackle and overcome these threshold issues in high-cost areas -- if we don’t set up a sufficiently funded and predictable high-cost mechanism that is updated for a broadband world -- consumers of all kinds in rural America, low-income and otherwise, could be left behind notwithstanding any Lifeline changes that might follow."

The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee will next meet June 23, the FCC said Friday. The meeting takes place at FCC headquarters, starting at 9 a.m. The DAC held its initial meeting in March (see 1503170063). DAC is divided into four subcommittees: Communications, Emergency Communications, Relay/Equipment Distribution and Video Programming.

Comcast officials updated FCC staffers on the company's "Internet Essentials" broadband-adoption efforts during discussions they had on the commission's Lifeline USF program, said a Thursday ex parte filing on a meeting they had. Internet Essentials offers students and their families in more than 30,000 schools access to broadband service for $9.95 per month, Internet-ready computers for less than $150, and options for digital literacy training, the filing said. The program connected more than 450,000 households with more than 1.8 million Americans to the Internet, the filing said. Comcast spent $225 million in cash and in-kind support to promote digital literacy and readiness training and education reaching more than 3.1 million people, it said. Comcast officials also outlined their efforts to make the program's application process more user friendly. Meanwhile, Charter Communications officials meeting with FCC officials said Charter supported transitioning Lifeline to provide discounts for broadband and discussed barriers to company participation in the program, a Thursday ex parte filing said.

The Federal Aviation Administration selected Spok’s enhanced 911 software for several facilities, said a news release from Spok. The software will enable the FAA’s emergency response teams to pinpoint a 911 caller’s exact location, notify appropriate onsite personnel and maintain the safety of FAA employees and visitors, Spok said. The same software already has been implemented at the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, it said. Additional rollouts are ongoing at regional FAA facilities in Alaska and Hawaii, and are planned for the FAA headquarters in Washington, plus the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, the release said.

Consumers have lots of defenses against unwanted robocalls, Verizon said in a blog post Wednesday, the day the FCC said new rules on automated calls are to get a vote at the commission’s June 18 meeting (see 1505270048). “We understand that unwanted robocalls can be a bother, and we stop many robocalls before they reach consumers,” the carrier said. “We monitor our networks to detect spikes in suspicious calls, and then work with law enforcement and with other communications companies to shut down illegal robocallers.” There are “dozens of free call-blocking apps from a wide variety of developers” available on the App Store and Google Play, and CTIA offers a list of apps for all operating systems, Verizon said. The FCC appears poised to stand up to industry in its proposed declaratory ruling on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and the National Association of Consumer Advocates said Thursday in a news release. “We applaud the FCC chairman for upholding the essential consumer protections” in the TCPA, said NCLC attorney Margot Saunders. “The industry petitions would have gutted this key consumer law and exposed consumers to a tsunami of unwanted robocalls and texts to their cell phones.”

FCC local number portability rules on porting interval and validation requirements take effect June 25 after a summary of the commission's June 20, 2014, order was published in Tuesday's Federal Register. The order adopted several recommendations of the North American Numbering Council (NANC) to make changes to "provisioning flows" intended to improve the process for number porting, which allows consumers to keep their phone numbers when they change carriers but not locations. "These improvements include revising existing processes for cancelling a number port request, clarifying the timeline for re-using disconnected ported numbers, and stopping new service providers from prematurely activating ports," the order said. "We clarify that, notwithstanding the NANC's preference for area code overlays over area code splits, the states still have the option to choose the best means of implementing area code relief for their citizens."