The Senate's confirmation of Anna Gomez to the FCC could result in the commission proposing to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service "soon," wrote Cowen analyst Paul Gallant Friday (see 2309070081). It's "the FCC's highest-profile issue, so we expect it to be voted at the Oct. 19 or Nov. 15 open meeting," Gallant said, estimating final rules could be expected next summer. The "key angle for investors is whether the FCC also preempts states from regulating broadband," he said.

ISPs invested about $102.4 billion in communications infrastructure in 2022, said USTelecom in a new report Friday. It's a "21-year high for investment from the communications sector," the group said. Investments included gigabit fiber deployments, fiber and mobile network integrations, and increased rural broadband construction.

NTIA awarded nearly $50 million to organizations in New Hampshire, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming to expand middle-mile broadband infrastructure Wednesday (see 2306160038). The new funding will cover 27 counties and support the deployment of more than 500 miles of new fiber, said a news release. It's the last of the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program, the agency said, noting awards were made to "36 organizations across 40 states and territories."

The FCC awarded nearly $7 million in additional Emergency Connectivity Fund support Wednesday. The new funding will support about 110 schools and school districts, nine libraries and library systems, and one consortium, said a news release. "Now that Labor Day has come and gone and schools are back in session, students everywhere need access to broadband connections and digital tools to succeed," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

AT&T said Thursday it’s expanding its use of generative AI, which it announced in June (see 2306200020), with more than 30,000 AT&T employees now having early access to Ask AT&T. “It’s an intuitive, conversational platform that you can interact with in plain English (or just about any other language),” blogged Andy Markus, AT&T chief data officer. “While our initial use case was for software developers to use it to write and refine code, we’re seeing opportunities across every part of our business,” Markus said: “Whether it’s in network engineering or finance, software development or supply chain, or any other part of our business, we’re pushing hard to put this tool in the hands of as many AT&T employees as possible.”

The USF contribution factor will likely increase to 36.2% during Q4 2023, making it the "highest quarterly contribution factor in the history of the USF," emailed analyst Billy Jack Gregg Friday. Gregg noted total revenue will also be about $362 million less than the previous quarter.

Federal broadband funding could reach 94% of unserved and underserved locations nationwide, blogged Cloudflare Director-Network Strategy Mike Conlow Monday. The FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and recently adopted enhanced alternative connect America model program could reach 31% of the remaining digital divide, Conlow said, leaving 8.3 million locations that would need to be reached through NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program (see 2308310047). "The two FCC programs are doing a tremendous amount to lower the number of locations that BEAD needs to fund, leaving more BEAD money for the remaining locations," he said. Conlow noted some states will still have "a lot of trouble" reaching all their unserved and underserved locations: It "behooves every state to incorporate ways of generating competition in their grant program."

The FCC told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Consumers' Research's challenge of its Q1 2022 USF contribution factor "lacks merit" and defended the Universal Service Administrative Co.'s role as "exclusively administrative" in establishing quarterly factors. "Congress’s delegation of authority to the FCC amply satisfies the constitutional standard set forth in controlling Supreme Court precedent," said the commission. The USAC "has no policymaking authority" and is "overseen by the FCC at every step," the said in an en banc brief posted Thursday in case 22-60008 (see 2308070033). The FCC also said CR's private delegation challenge should be rejected because USAC "does not exercise regulatory power" or have any policymaking role in administering USF programs.

A coalition of consumer advocacy organizations asked the FCC to clarify certain rules on revoking consent for robocalls and robotexts (see 2308150071). The National Consumer Law Center, National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, Electronic Privacy Information Center and Consumer Federation of America recommended to Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff that all prerecorded calls should include an automated mechanism to stop future calls and texts should include a "STOP" option to revoke consent, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 02-278. The groups also asked that consumers have a "right to revoke consent even if consent was provided as part of a contract."

GAO recommended NTIA provide "constructive feedback" to tribal broadband connectivity program applicants that received equitable distribution grants of up to $500,000 instead of the amounts they requested. In a report Thursday, it also recommended providing "another form of assistance" in the program's second round (see 2307270046). NTIA agreed with GAO about the "importance of providing constructive feedback" and said it did so for all 45 applicants that did not receive an award because they "did not pass merit review or successfully complete programmatic review" as required by the first notice of funding opportunity. The agency will "again conduct targeted outreach and host technical assistance webinars" as part of its second NOFO.