The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials opposed an ATIS petition for reconsideration or clarification of the agency’s January outage reporting order (see 2406120043). Oppositions were due Monday. The ATIS petition is confusing, APCO said in a filing posted Monday in docket 21-346. ATIS asked the FCC to clarify the application of its waiver of network outage reporting system filings during disaster information reporting system activations. “If ATIS’s request is to excuse service providers from their obligation to provide timely notifications” to 911 call centers “of network outages and disruptions affecting 9-1-1 calls, APCO opposes the request,” the filing said.

USDA Rural Utilities Service wants applications by Aug. 20 for its FY 2024 broadband technical assistance program, a notice for Friday's Federal Register said. "Late or incomplete applications will not be eligible for funding," the notice said.

The FCC asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss Consumers' Research's challenge of the agency's USF contributions methodology. Consumers' Research "made the same arguments before the Sixth and Eleventh Circuits," the agency said in a petition filed Monday (docket 22-60008), adding the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the decisions (see 2406110008). "Those decisions are thus final and not subject to further review," the FCC said, and "petitioners are precluded from raising the same claims here." Also, Consumers' Research filed a motion for the D.C. Circuit for a voluntary dismissal regarding one of its challenges to the USF contribution factor.

The FCC wants comments by July 17, replies Aug. 1, on a Further NPRM addressing border gateway protocol security practices in docket 24-146, a notice for Monday's Federal Register said. Commissioners adopted the FNPRM during the agency's June meeting (see 2406060028).

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez will host a listening session about incarcerated people's communications services on June 18 in Phoenix, a public notice said Wednesday in docket 23-62. Gomez will meet with current and former IPCS consumers for "first-hand accounts of the critical importance of affordable communications services to incarcerated people." The listening session will also offer "additional public comment regarding the commission's ongoing efforts" to establish new IPCS rates and charges. The event will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

The USF contribution factor for Q3 2024 will be 34.4%, an FCC Office of Managing Director public notice said Wednesday in docket 96-45. That's an increase from 32.8% in Q2 (see 2403150004).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on Wednesday on an ATIS petition for reconsideration of the agency’s January outage reporting order (see 2401250064). Comments are due June 24, replies July 5, in docket 24-341. ATIS sought clarification of the decision codifying the FCC practice of waiving network outage reporting system filings that would be due while the disaster information reporting system is activated. ATIS also sought clarification and reconsideration of the order’s requirements on submitting a final DIRS report. ATIS urged “reconsideration of the requirement that final reports include the estimated dates by which all issues will be resolved” given that “it may not be possible for providers to accurately determine such information within the 24-hour window provided.”

The "cascading levels of responsibility built into" NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program "open multiple doors through which devilish details ... might slip and cause havoc," Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long wrote in a blog Monday. Long warned of potential rate regulation, a bias for fiber technology and "other elements of the Biden Broadband Plan" that weren't included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 2405310050). The "multitiered process" creates "numerous opportunities for motivated mischief-makers to inject their policy biases ... into the day-to-day administration" of BEAD, Long said. All 56 eligible states and territories have submitted initial BEAD proposals and received approval for volume I.

The FCC’s rechartered Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will meet for the first time June 28, the FCC announced Monday. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Billy Bob Brown from the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Todd Piett of Motorola will serve as co-chairs. It will have three working groups: Harnessing AI/Machine Learning to Ensure the Security, Reliability and Integrity of the Nation’s Communications Networks; Ensuring Consumer Access to 911 on All Available Networks as Technology Evolves; and Preparing for 6G Security and Reliability. The group last met a year ago (see 2306260058).

The FCC Wireline Bureau Friday reminded recipients of funding through the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program that their next update to the FCC is due July 8. The last was due April 8. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote Congress last month urging full funding to close the more than $3 billion shortfall in the rip-and-replace program, which pays for replacing Huawei and ZTE communications gear and services (see 2405020071).