Broadband service milestone deadlines for all auction support recipients in the Connect America Fund Phase II program will now be at the end of the calendar year, with annual location filing and certification deadlines on March 1, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Monday in an order in docket 10-90. The bureau said varied deadlines based on rolling authorizations that were in place "may create confusion" among participating providers. This action "does not in any way delay the ongoing disbursement of monthly support" to participating carriers, the order said. CAF II and New York's New NY Broadband Program recipients are to submit their first location reports by March 1, 2021. Both programs support broadband builds in rural America. A Rural Digital Opportunity Fund up for a commissioners' vote Thursday would replace the CAF II USF program (see 1912190073).
FCC restrictions on commission payments to Lifeline enrollment representatives "may have unintended consequences that warrant reconsideration or clarification," Sprint said in Wednesday meetings with commissioner aides and Wireline Bureau officials and in a filing posted Monday in docket 17-287. The agency wants to implement new policies to help curb waste, fraud and abuse in the USF program (see 1908190028).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is circulating a second order in Blanca Telephone v. FCC, according to a list posted Friday, involving ongoing disputes on USF overpayments to the provider (see 1803070031). Also new on circulation is an application for review of the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 (see 1703310018) on policy on opt-out notices for solicited faxes (see 1812170045).
A TeleQuality Communications petition for reconsideration in the USF Rural Health Care program, on behalf of Gonzales Community Health Center, is dismissed, ordered the FCC Wireline Bureau Telecom Access Policy Division Friday. The division also denied additional requests by TeleQuality on behalf of New River Valley Community Health Services, Timber Hills Mental Health Services and Family Healing Center.
House Democrats’ upcoming infrastructure bill package is expected to use composite broadband legislative language drawn from existing measures, communications lobbyists told us last week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced earlier this month Democrats would unveil the legislative package this week (see 2001160063). Lawmakers and industry observers question the extent to which Congress will be able to make substantial headway on infrastructure legislation this year given expectations of gridlock before the November presidential election.
There's much attention to an FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund vote Jan. 30 (see 2001230005). Speakers at a Next Century Cities conference Thursday urged policymakers not to neglect low-income urban and minority communities to address the digital divide. The event was closed to the media in-person, so we heard the webcast.
Allband Communications Cooperative is talking with the Rural Utility Service on options to restructure a loan that "may contribute toward resolution of financial issues faced by Allband and to a resolution with the FCC," said (in Pacer) a status report Tuesday for Allband v. FCC, No. 16-4059 before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Dec. 9 Allband filed a formal loan modification request with the RUS, which is pending, the company said. In 2017, Allband asked the FCC for heftier USF support partly to help repay its RUS loan (see 1707280028).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated an item on the Connect America Fund Alaska Plan last week, the agency posted Friday. Commissioners are expected to vote on an order about an April 1 application for review by GCI Communications of an FCC waiver denial order in broadband network mapping reporting deemed insufficient (see 1904170058), agency officials told us. GCI argued in the application "no valid purpose has ever been presented for a location accuracy standard as strict as 7.6 meters." The Alaska Plan directs USF dollars for broadband networks.
The 5G Spectrum Act, even if it doesn't become law, could benchmark how satellite communications incumbents get compensated for clearing part of the C band, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly told reporters Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview. S-2881 "does have weight," especially as there seemingly has been a general shift from Capitol Hill resistance to any incentives, said. If satcom incumbents receive a percentage of the $40 billion in auction proceeds, as the legislation says (see 2001090021), debate will likely center on between 30 and 50 percent, though compensation could be a hard number for incumbents, or a combination of percentage and hard number, he said.
A 2019 Alaska law deregulating telecom "reserves adequate authority” for the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s “core duties related to the authority granted by a certificate and the authority to designate and annually certify eligible telecommunications carriers,” and it retains RCA authority to oversee state USF, a rural telco coalition commented Friday in docket R-19-002. Regulators are mulling broad telecom rule changes due to the state law (see 1912190057). The RCA doesn't retain authority to adjudicate consumer complaints, though staff could convey "any complaints to utilities as a courtesy to consumers,” the RLECs said. The commission should reject staff proposals to adopt a new definition of basic residential local telephone service and more stringent outage reporting rules. Carriers report outages to the FCC, said Adak Telephone, Alaska Telephone, Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative, Ketchikan Public Utilities, Matanuska Telephone Association and others.