Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia and West Virginia will receive a combined $582.8 million for broadband projects connecting more than 200,000 homes and businesses, as part of the first tranche of money from the Treasury Department-administered $10 billion American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, Treasury said Tuesday. The department approved $219.8 million in broadband money for Virginia, $176.7 million for Louisiana, $136.3 million for West Virginia and $50 million for New Hampshire. The COVID-19 pandemic “turned so many aspects of life online from work to school and laid bare the urgency of closing the digital divide for all Americans -- especially those living in rural, Tribal, and low-income communities,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. “Treasury’s broadband funding represents a significant step in the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented investment to increase access to high-speed internet and reduce broadband bills for every American household and business.” The White House highlighted the Treasury money as part of a combined $25 billion in broadband funding included in ARPA. ACA Connects, Incompas and New America’s Open Technology Institute hailed Treasury’s approval of the money.
Verizon asked the FCC to "defer consideration of any new high cost support" until funding from the new federal broadband programs have been "fully awarded," in a meeting with Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff. The FCC can then identify unserved areas to "assess whether new high cost support is needed," Verizon said, per an ex parte posted Monday in docket 21-476. It also asked the FCC to seek additional funding for the affordable connectivity program and emphasize the Lifeline program's "distinct and important role" in its report to Congress on the future of the Universal Service Fund. Verizon backed expanding USF's contribution base "absent direct appropriations" by including "the most significant enterprises operating within the broader internet economy" (see 2203180062).
The ATIS and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) joint task force's work to standardize response codes for SIP code 603+ is "advancing most quickly" compared with SIP codes 607 and 608, USTelecom said in separate meetings with FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff and aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, per an ex parte posted Friday in docket 17-59 (see 2202010031). SIP code 603+ would be used "only for analytics-based blocking and indicate to callers which provider blocked the call," USTelecom said, adding the FCC should require the code's use to "provide the industry with the certainty needed to fully operationalize it."
American Broadband & Telecommunications agreed to pay $16.6 million to settle an FCC investigation of Lifeline violations from 2014 through 2016, said an Enforcement Bureau order Friday (see 1810230037). About $15 million has already been paid, the order said, and American Broadband CEO Jeff Ansted will also pay $67,050 to the U.S. Treasury. The company also agreed to implement "enhanced compliance measures" as part of its continued participation in Lifeline. Ansted didn't comment.
The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition asked the FCC to raise the rural healthcare program's overall funding cap and improve the application process, said an ex parte posted Friday in docket 17-310. SHLB, Broadband Legal Strategies and Mitchell Law told an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that "processing delays and program uncertainties appear to be driving participants from the program." The groups asked the FCC to consider eliminating the Healthcare Connect Fund's internal funding cap or at a minimum removing multiyear funding commitments from the cap. They also asked that the rates database be discontinued (see 2204250008).
FCC commissioners will consider an NPRM during their June 8 meeting that would seek comment on rules for data collection of price and subscription rates of service offerings through the affordable connectivity program, said a sunshine notice Wednesday (see 2205170082). The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act mandated an annual data collection.
IP captioned telephone service provider Hamilton Relay backed Telecom Relay Service Fund administrator Rolka Loube's proposed per-minute compensation formulas for the multistate average rate structure, in comments posted Wednesday in FCC docket 03-123 (see 2205160065). Hamilton asked that the current IP CTS rate be extended until either June 30, 2023, or when the FCC adopts a rate "based on a sustainable, long-term rate methodology." It also asked the commission to refresh the record on a "long-term IP CTS rate methodology."
Inteliquent's challenge to the FCC's 8YY access reform order "rests upon weak data and an outdated approach to price regulation," wrote U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg in an order Friday denying its petition in case 20-1471 (see 2111010049). Ginsburg said Inteliquent failed to show the rate cap was "below cost for itself or for any other provider," noting that USTeleccom's suggested cap was "reasonable and would not set prices below providers’ costs." The "decision to uphold the FCC’s order on 8YY access charges is a big win in support of the commission’s continued efforts to rationally reform the intercarrier compensation system and eliminate wasteful arbitrage schemes," said USTelecom Senior Vice President-Policy and Advocacy Patrick Halley. An attorney for Inteliquent declined to comment.
The National Tribal Telecommunications Association and WTA backed NTCA's request to waive FCC rules regarding the affordable connectivity program's uniform 30-day non-usage tracking requirement for small providers offering fully subsidized plans to households on tribal lands. It's "expensive for small service providers on a per-customer basis, and discourages small provider participation," said WTA, in comments posted Friday in docket 21-450 (see 2205180062). The rule may also harm consumers who were "away from their homes for extended periods" due to "innocent and legitimate causes," the group said. NTTA said its members' ability to track usage this way "does not currently exist outside of a labor-intensive, manual process." It supported a "billing month basis" instead. NTTA also backed delaying the rule's implementation until Sept. 15.
The FCC is ready to authorize 88 winning bids from Cyber Broadband North Texas Fiber in its latest round of the Rural Digital Opportunity Phase I auction, said a public notice listed in Thursday's Daily Digest (see 2205030052). Letters of credit and bankruptcy code opinion letters are due by June 9 at 6 p.m. EDT. Cyber Broadband received a waiver of the June 7, 2021, deadline to obtain eligible telecom carrier designation. The FCC also identified Farmers Mutual Cooperative Telco, GigaBeam Networks, Newport Utilities, Terral Telco, Trailwave Fiber and Windstream with bids in default.