The FCC is ready to authorize more than $640 million in Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I support for bids in 26 states, it said Thursday. Letters of credit and bankruptcy code opinion letters are due March 24, said a public notice in docket 19-126. “As we approve this funding, we remain committed to making sure that this program serves areas that truly need broadband and funds carriers that can do the job, and our new Rural Broadband Accountability Plan will ensure just that," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2201280048). Aristotle United Communications, Centranet, Frontier, Luminate Fiber, United Services, and Windstream were among those ready to be authorized. The FCC also listed Bright House Networks Information Services, Charter, Gtek Computers & Wireless and Time Warner with bids in default.

Securus "stands ready to provide any additional information" that would be "useful" for the FCC to assess its inmate calling services pilot program, it told aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-375. The ICS suspended its subscription calling plan because of FCC rules requiring that jurisdictionally indeterminate calls be treated as interstate calls and assessed on a per minute basis, and sought a waiver to revive the program (see 2201100037). Securus said "subscribers saved about 60% per call using the subscription programs and saved 74% on a per minute basis," disputing the Prison Policy Initiative's calculated rate for the pilot program at the North Dakota Department of Corrections.

Dominion Energy and Xcel Energy asked the FCC to adopt a notice of inquiry instead of the draft Further NPRM "with a comment cycle of at least 120 days," in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 17-84 (see 2203080052). The companies "enthusiastically support" the FCC's efforts to "deliver broadband service to all Americans quickly and cost effectively," they said, but the proposed framework of the draft FNPRM "would eliminate every element of business certainty for utility pole owners." The companies said an NOI would give the FCC a "foundation" to "consider whether revisions to its current cost apportionment rules are needed."

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by March 18 on Frontier's application to discontinue its integrated services digital network-basic rate interface services in 26 states, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 22-106. Frontier said in its application the "majority of the market has already replaced these services with other communications services." The application will be deemed granted automatically April 2 unless the commission notifies Frontier otherwise.

The FCC repeated its request that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit hold Consumers' Research's challenge to the Q4 USF contribution factor in abeyance, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit's decision to proceed with a similar challenge, said a letter Friday in case 21-3886 (see 2203020033). The agency said the parties can "suggest how the case in this court should proceed" after the 5th Circuit's ruling and the FCC's USF report. It also asked the court to reject Consumers' Research's request that the FCC respond to the group's agency comment within 30 days, saying Consumers' Research "effectively seek[s] a writ of mandamus" without attempting to "justify such extraordinary relief" or providing a basis to "override the FCC's broad discretion to order its proceedings."

The FCC Wireline Bureau waived the FY 2022 E-rate application filing deadline for new tribal library applicants, said an order Friday in docket 02-6. The bureau directed the Universal Service Administrative Co. to treat applications filed by May 26 as timely. Commissioners approved an order amending the program's definition of a tribal library to clarify their eligibility in January (see 2201270030).

The Technology Channel Sales Professionals Association met with FCC Wireline Bureau staff on its petition for declaratory ruling seeking clarification on rural healthcare program rules that prohibit participants and service providers from hiring consultants that have a "sales commission arrangement or other financial stake" in a chosen provider, per an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 17-310. The group sought clarifying language that "more narrowly tailors the prohibition against 3rd party consultants" and excludes from the prohibition sales agents that aren't associated with a funding request but receive commission-based compensation from a participating service provider.

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by April 4, replies by April 19, on Viya's petition to waive the "current schedule for phasing down its support" following Broadband VI's Connect USVI Fund Stage 2 authorization, said a public notice Thursday in docket 18-143 (see 2106090059). Viya asked to keep its support at its current level until Dec. 31, 2024, then phase down until ending Dec. 31, 2026. The bureau also seeks comment on "whether extending the period of phase-down support beyond the current 24-month period is necessary in one or both of the geographic areas" in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Responses are due by June 30 for the FCC's third mandatory data collection for inmate calling services, said a public notice Thursday in docket 12-375 (see 2201180075).

The FCC Wireline Bureau extended the rural healthcare program's 2022 filing window until June 1, in an order Wednesday in docket 02-60, granting a request from the New England Telehealth Consortium and Connections Telehealth Consortium (see 2203010066). The bureau cited a "shortage and burnout of health care staff aggravated by the surge of Omicron cases" since the filing window opened. The bureau also directed the Universal Service Administrative Co. to file the program's gross demand estimate by Aug. 1 and extended the determination of unused funding available to carry forward to the current funding year until Q3.