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.
Two telcos didn't meet all deployment requirements for having gotten USF money from the federal government, they reported Thursday. That drew concern from some state officials.
State House Republicans floated a universal-service bill Tuesday to permit Indiana's Utility Regulatory Commission to require interconnected VoIP providers pay into state USF. Rep. J.D. Prescott and two others introduced HB-1304. It would authorize IURC to adjust the state USF surcharge percentage and make other rules to administer the fund. The bill adjusts broadband rules.
Rate-of-return carriers receiving Connect America Fund broadband loop USF support must report geolocated broadband information and send deployment certifications to the Universal Service Administrative Co. by March 1, 2021, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice for docket 10-90 and Tuesday's Daily Digest. The deadline applies to locations for which 25/3 Mbps or higher has been deployed since May 25, 2016.
Comments are due Feb. 13, replies March 16 on an FCC proposal to adopt new rules for the telecom relay service USF program and the national deaf-blind equipment distribution program, says Tuesday's Federal Register on docket 19-309. The rules are consistent with OMB guidelines on government debarment and suspension (see 1911260003).