The FCC asked for comment on a request by five small Georgia telcos for regulatory adjustments to recover $121,774 they said they were unable to collect in 2012 from Halo Wireless, which went into Chapter 7 bankruptcy (see 1601060013). Initial comments are due Jan. 27, replies Feb. 8, a Wireline Bureau public notice said Friday.

Lifeline USF rules in a June FCC order will become effective as early as Feb. 4, said a Wireline Bureau public notice posted Friday in docket 11-42. The rules strengthen document retention requirements, ensure only Eligible Telecom Carriers directly serving low-income customers receive Lifeline reimbursement, and require ETCs to use a uniform snapshot date to request reimbursement, the PN said. Related FCC information collection requirements were modified and approved by the Office of Management and Budget Jan. 5 after a Paperwork Reduction Act review, the PN said, noting parties should expect 10 listed rules “to become effective on or after" Feb. 4. Rural telco groups recently urged the FCC to reconsider the snapshot rule that requires ETCs to report their Lifeline subscriber numbers as of the first of each month. The requirement will at times prevent rural ETCs from being reimbursed for providing Lifeline benefits, said John Staurulakis Inc., NTCA and WTA in a filing posted Wednesday. “To eliminate the need for costly billing system changes or the use of burdensome manual processes ... the Commission should allow RLEC ETCs to take a ‘snapshot’ of their number of subscribers as of their carrier-specific billing dates,” they said. Addressing the FCC’s current rulemaking to modernize Lifeline, the rural groups voiced concerns about proposed use of a third party to verify consumer low-income eligibility. Saying rural consumers were accustomed to ETCs taking care of such administrative details, they asked the commission to allow them to collect and forward eligibility documents to any third-party verifier. In a filing posted Friday, Public Knowledge repeated support for expanding Lifeline to broadband coverage and further explained why it believed the FCC has legal authority to allow service to be provided by non-ETCs. FCC officials have said they could act soon on the rulemaking. “We’re hopeful for February, and if not February, then we’re very hopeful for March,” Phillip Berenbroick, PK counsel-government affairs, told us.

Applications are due March 14 for Distance Learning and Telemedicine grants offered by the Rural Utilities Service, said an agency notice in the Federal Register Tuesday. The DLT program aims to give rural Americans access to education, training and healthcare resources. The grants, which are awarded through a competitive process, seek "to encourage and improve telemedicine and distance learning services in rural areas through the use of telecommunications, computer networks, and related advanced technologies that students, teachers, medical professionals, and rural residents can use," RUS said. "Grants are intended to benefit end-users in rural areas, who are often not in the same location as the source of the educational or health care service." The minimum grant level is $50,000 and the maximum is $500,000 for this fiscal year.

The FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee plans its first meeting of the year for Feb. 5, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at FCC headquarters, the agency said in a public notice Wednesday. “The Committee is expected to consider a recommendation regarding the modernization of the Lifeline program to include broadband services and to improve administration presented by its Universal Services Working Group,” the notice said. The committee will also be briefed by FCC staff “and/or outside speakers” on various issues, the agency said.

Smart home device sales will nearly double over the next 12 months on wider adoption, said an ABI Research report Wednesday. Recurring service revenue is projected to be close to a quarter of total smart home revenue by 2020, driven by providers including ADT, AT&T, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Lowes, Staples and Vivint, ABI said. A new generation of do-it-yourself smart home devices and systems from startups and from tech giants Google and Samsung is driving recurring revenue through data collection and storage, it said. Analyst Jonathan Collins said that security providers lead in the deployment of smart home systems now, but by 2020, cable companies, telcos and retailers will share similar subscriber bases.

Garmin completed its buy of PulsedLight, a privately held optical distance measurement technology. PulsedLight’s sensor boards complement Garmin’s core competencies of location and positioning, said Garmin CEO Cliff Pemble. Garmin will retain the PulsedLight office and its design associates based in Bend, Oregon, it said. Garmin brings to PulsedLight the resources and manufacturing expertise to integrate its technology into new devices that serve multiple markets, PulsedLight President Dennis Corey said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau authorized $569,796 to fund a Skybeam rural broadband experiment in 265 census blocks in Iowa. "The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is directed and authorized to obligate and disburse from the Connect America reserve account the support amounts identified ... to Skybeam," said a bureau public notice Tuesday. "Because Skybeam elected to receive 30 percent of the total support upfront in exchange for meeting accelerated deployment obligations, USAC shall disburse 30 percent of the total support amount with the first monthly payment and disburse the remaining 70 percent of its support in 120 equal monthly installments over the 10-year term."

The FCC sought comment on a Department of Justice Antitrust Division request to view confidential phone number utilization data to assist the DOJ investigation of Atlantic Tele-Network's proposed buy of Caribbean Asset Holdings. "The Department has requested access to information contained in the June 2013 Numbering Resource Utilization and Forecast (NRUF) reports (and any updates that become available during the pendency of the investigation) filed by wireless telecommunications carriers, by carrier and by rate center, and to disaggregated, carrier-specific local number portability (LNP) data related to wireless telecommunications carriers, by carrier and by rate center, from June 2013 forward," said a Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday. Affected carriers have until Jan. 22 to oppose disclosure of the data; if the commission receives no such opposition, it will release the data, the bureau said.

Industry groups and wireless carriers blasted the FCC's draft broadband deployment report (see 1601070059) Friday, with some saying it's meant to pad the commission's accomplishments, and others saying it lacks credibility. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft of the report -- which was critical of the current speed of broadband deployment and found it isn't happening fast enough to meet a statutory mandate of the 1996 Telecommunications Act -- to the other commissioners, and added it to the tentative agenda of the commission's Jan. 28 meeting. USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a statement Friday that because more than $75 billion per year is invested by broadband providers, network capacity is "burgeoning" and a recent FCC report shows broadband speeds are increasing (see 1512300037), "no one actually believes that [broadband] deployment in the U.S. is unreasonable." McCormick said the annual process of the broadband deployment report "has become a cynical exercise" that "eschews dispassionate analysis, and is patently intended to reach a predetermined conclusion that will justify a continuing expansion of the agency's own regulatory reach." NCTA said the report's findings "continue an alarming trend of ignoring objectivity and facts in order to serve political ends and maximize agency power," and U.S. broadband deployment has been "reasonable and timely." That the FCC released its Measuring Broadband America report during the "quietest week of the year while trumpeting" its deployment draft report "confirms that this report is more theater than substance," NCTA said in a news release. Wireless carriers also criticized the report. "It's bad enough the FCC keeps moving the goal posts on their definition of broadband, apparently so they can continue to justify intervening in obviously competitive markets," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior vice president-external and legislative affairs, in a statement Friday: "But now they are even ignoring their own definition in order to pad their list of accomplishments." It's beginning to look like the FCC "will define broadband whichever way maximizes its power under whichever section of the law they want to apply," Cicconi said. "This cannot be what Congress intended." Public Knowledge lauded the FCC's draft report in a news release Friday. "It appears that the 2016 Broadband Report undertakes a comprehensive examination of the state of broadband deployment in the U.S.," said Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Meredith Rose. "This finding ... will allow policymakers to take an honest look at the broadband landscape and what needs to be done to ensure" all Americans have access to quality broadband.

The Defense Information Systems Agency gave Level 3 a multiyear Global Network Services contract, Level 3 said Wednesday. The GNS contract allows Level 3 to bid on and provide communications services to support DISA’s goal of providing a wireless/wireline single global network by 2020, Level 3 said. The GNS contract will last at least five years with five optional one-year extensions.