While a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling rejecting the FCC’s USF contribution methodology calls the entire USF into question, it also offers an “opportunity” for change, Joe Kane, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy, blogged Tuesday. Some experts say the case is likely headed for U.S. Supreme Court review (see 2407260044). “For years, policymakers have acknowledged the need to overhaul the USF because of its ballooning fees, potential for waste, and outdated priorities,” Kane said in a Broadband Breakfast blog: “Now, with its legal foundation in question, Congress has a clear mandate to reallocate funding to vital broadband programs like the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), while eliminating outdated and redundant initiatives.”

Forty-four Florida and twenty-seven South Carolina counties remain in the disaster area of Tropical Storm Debby, the FCC said in Tuesday’s disaster information reporting system report (see 2408050040). The alert encompasses Tampa, Tallahasee, Jacksonville and Charleston. No public safety answering points were reported as down. In the affected counties, .9% of Florida and .4% of South Carolina cellsites were reported down, a slight improvement from Monday, and 22,422 cable and wireline subscribers are without service, a large improvement from 82,858 Monday. One Florida TV station and one FM station were reported down, along with one FM station redirected. Monday’s report listed two TV stations down.

The USF quarterly contribution factor for Q4 2024 will likely increase from 34.4% to 34.6%, analyst Billy Jack Gregg wrote in an email Saturday (see 2408020048). Gregg said overall projected demand will jump by $6.7 million to $2.114 billion, caused by increases in demand for the rural health and E-rate programs. Gregg also noted that annual revenue in 2023 was the lowest in USF history.

The FCC initiated the disaster information reporting system (DIRS) for 44 Florida counties in anticipation of Hurricane Debby making landfall, a public notice said Sunday. The alert encompasses much of northern Florida, including Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Tampa. In addition, it activated the mandatory disaster response initiative (MDRI) for facilities-based mobile wireless providers in the affected area, which requires companies to allow reasonable roaming and cooperate in service restoration during disasters. On Monday, the commission expanded the DIRS and MDRI requirements to 27 counties in South Carolina. Monday’s DIRS report shows 1% of cellsites down in the affected counties, and 82,858 cable and wireline subscribers without service. Two TV and one FM stations were reported down; no AM stations were listed as out of service and one FM station redirected. The FCC also issued public notices on priority communications services and emergency contact procedures for licensees that need special temporary authority. The Public Safety Bureau issued a reminder for entities clearing debris and repairing utilities to avoid damaging communications infrastructure. Hurricane Debby became Tropical Storm Debby Sunday. T-Mobile issued a statement that they're working with FEMA and local emergency operations centers to prioritize restoration efforts.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Appeals Court affirmed a lower court ruling Friday in response to Core Communications' appeal against AT&T concerning an access service charges dispute (docket 23-3022). The district court "gave effect to the plain and unambiguous terms of the tariff," the ruling said, and Core's "right to fees thereunder have been left entirely undisturbed." The court said that Core may recover such fees "to the extent that Core provides services covered by the tariff" (see 2405230009). "In this case, however, as the district court correctly concluded, Core did not provide such covered services," the ruling said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau wants comments by Sept. 3, replies Sept. 16, in docket 03-123 on a petition from accessibility organizations regarding IP-captioned telephone service. TDIforAccess, the National Association of the Deaf and Hearing Loss Association of America sought a reversal of a previous FCC decision letting IP CTS providers "rely exclusively on automatic speech recognition" (see 2406030062). The groups also asked that the FCC require all IP CTS providers give users the option at any point during their call to have a communications assistant generate captions.

The FCC announced on Thursday it plans to recharter its Disability Advisory Committee for a two-year term and sought nominations for membership, due Sept. 30. The announcement didn’t provide specifics on DAC's focus in the new term. The current DAC is still working, with its next meeting slated for Oct. 18. DAC last met in May (see 2405160051).

Representatives of Incompas and the Cloud Communications Alliance urged the FCC to restructure an NPRM as a notice of inquiry. The NPRM considers consumer protection against AI-generated robocalls. The draft doesn’t “identify or propose any specific technology, making it virtually impossible to meaningfully weigh costs and benefits,” the groups said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-363: If, based on comments received, the FCC "commits to specific implementation requirements in a subsequent Report and Order, the two-week window for comment on a public draft would provide industry with insufficient time to respond to detailed proposals or to weigh the costs and obligations associated with deploying AI technologies in their voice service networks.” In addition, the groups said they discussed the importance of IP interconnection to the success of FCC-adopted robocall mitigation and call authentication efforts. The associations met with aides to the five commissioners and staff from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Wireline bureaus. Commissioners will vote on it Wednesday (see 2407170055).

The FCC's budget for the Lifeline program for calendar year 2025 will increase roughly $100 million to reach $2.9 billion, a Wireline Bureau public notice said Tuesday in docket 11-42. The bureau noted its July order extending for another year the current minimum service standards for fixed broadband data usage, mobile broadband and mobile voice telephony (see 2407050016).

The FTC offered the FCC an update on its recent “Voice Cloning Challenge” and other work as commissioners consider a draft NPRM on consumer protections against AI-generated robocalls. The NPRM is set for a vote Aug. 7 (see 2407170055). “The four FTC Voice Cloning Challenge winning submissions demonstrate the potential for cutting edge technology to help mitigate risks of voice cloning in the marketplace,” an FTC filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-362 said: “They promote approaches that tap American innovation to help protect the public. The results of the Challenge also highlight that there is no single solution to this problem.”