AI-driven growth in fiber capacity points to a clear need "to rapidly expand both route miles and fiber miles to meet the new needs," the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) and consultancy RVA said in a white paper Thursday. They forecast that roughly double the route miles of fiber will be needed by 2029, from 95,000 today to 187,000, and more than double the fiber miles, from 159 million last year to 373 million by 2029. "Meeting this need will be far from easy," the FBA and RVA said, adding that it will require such steps as permitting relief, as well as fiber and power providers collaborating on joint easements.
The FCC Wireline Bureau is seeking comment on a waiver allowing the creation of a study area for UP Fiber as part of the company’s proposed acquisition of 40 wire centers in 42 exchanges and the associated customers from AT&T’s Michigan Bell. Comments are due Sept. 2, replies Sept. 17 in docket 25-181, said a notice Thursday. The companies said in a May application that the assets in the deal include more than 9,000 miles of copper lines and 1,500 miles of business fiber and network infrastructure providing voice and internet service to more than 9,000 residential and business customers.
A collection of operators hope to start commercial operations on a submarine cable system connecting Boca Raton, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, with multiple other Caribbean locations starting in Q4 2027, they said in an FCC application posted Wednesday. The Celia system would also go to Martinique, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Barts, Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, the filing said. The applicants -- Telxius, Antigua Public Utilities Authority, Orange Carriers USA and Servicio di Telecomunicacion di Aruba -- said they would operate the Celia system on a non-common-carrier basis.
The 100% bonus depreciation provision in the revised budget reconciliation package, which was signed into law earlier this month (see 2507030056), could significantly benefit some broadband network owners, Keller & Heckman communications lawyers Casey Lide and Jackson Cherner wrote Wednesday. The legislation makes permanent a bonus depreciation rate that was going to phase out in 2027, allowing companies to continue to deduct the entire cost of a fiber-optic network or telephone distribution plant in the year that asset was acquired, they said. But the bonus depreciation's availability to fiber network owners depends on the accounting methods they follow, the lawyers noted.
The draft submarine cable order on the FCC's Aug. 7 agenda (see 2507170048) needs to clear up potentially confusing language about the scope of the security risk management plan certification requirements, CTIA said in a filing posted Wednesday (docket 24-523). It called for the draft order's requirements to apply only to submarine cable systems, not all an operator's systems.
The FCC has logged more than 3,000 comments complaining about a Wireline Bureau decision to delay some deadlines for incarcerated people’s communications service until April 1, 2027 (see 2506300068). “The FCC's sudden reversal" on regulations that passed unanimously last year is "plainly shameful,” said a filing by Caitlin Bambery posted Wednesday in docket 23-62. “It delays more than four decades of necessary relief for those who need it most, families with incarcerated loved ones.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Monday on Corn Belt Telephone’s application to buy Templeton Telephone’s assets and customers. Comments are due Aug. 11, replies Aug. 18 in docket 25-163, the notice said. Templeton Telephone provides local, long-distance and other services in the Templeton local exchange in Iowa and has been designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier, the bureau said.
Representatives of Communication Service for the Deaf met last week with aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on the potential benefits of direct video calling (DVC). “DVC allows individuals who use American Sign Language to communicate directly in real-time with businesses and government agency customer service agents who are also fluent in ASL and have been trained by their respective enterprises to provide call center assistance,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 03-123. “DVC can provide the most effective, accurate and cost efficient way to provide telephone access to customer call centers, crisis and health assistance hotlines, and 911 public safety answering points for over 1.5 million ASL users.”
Lumen's and Commnet Four Corners' former Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) census block groups in numerous states are open to other funding programs, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday. Lumen and Commnet both defaulted on their RDOF obligations and could face penalties, it said. The states with open census block groups are Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington.
The FCC is launching an effort to encourage operators of multiline telephone systems (MLTS) to bring their systems into compliance with agency rules for calls to 911, Zenji Nakazawa, acting chief of the Public Safety Bureau, said in a Monday blog post. In 2019, the FCC adopted rules to ensure that MLTS users can call 911 and obtain assistance from first responders (see 1908050045).