The legal counsel for Rural Alaska School Districts spoke with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on a pending request for waiver of FCC E-rate rules. The counsel discussed a Wireline Bureau declaratory ruling from last year, said a filing posted Monday in docket 02-6.

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has ordered voice service provider Flowroute to immediately stop carrying spoofed jury duty scam calls on its network, said a news release and letter Friday. “The company faces a permanent block of all traffic on its network if it does not comply,” the release said. Flowroute allegedly transmitted spoofed calls to Cook County Illinois residents from someone impersonating an employee of the county sheriff’s office. “A law enforcement imposter told residents they had missed jury duty and must send money to the caller via a Coinstar kiosk at a local grocery store,” the release said. “Between July 23 and August 2, 2024, Flowroute originated 240 spoofed calls using the Cook County Sheriff’s Number,” the release said. The FCC’s traceback consortium, the Industry Traceback Group, tracked the calls to Flowroute, and Flowroute told the agency the calls came from “an entity named Llama Soft Pty. located in Sydney, Australia,” the release said. “The apparently illegal calls are the subject of the FCC’s ongoing investigation.”

Alaska Telephone Co. notified the FCC that it plans to drop its wireline broadband internet access service (WBIAS) offerings, including consumer broadband-only loop service, effective July 1. “Upon discontinuance of the tariffed offerings, the Company will provide WBIAS on a permissive detariffed basis,” said a filing Friday in docket 02-33.

Verizon told the FCC it’s working with NATE, which represents infrastructure builders, on concerns the group has raised about pricing and other issues as the agency considers the carrier’s proposed $20 billion acquisition of Frontier (see 2409050010). “Verizon agrees to include line items in its pricing matrix that allow for site specific conditions to be added, including explanations as to what they represent,” said a filing Thursday in docket 24-445.

Voice on the Net Coalition representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on concerns the group has about know-your-customer obligations as part of robocall rules (see 2505120034). VON is worried “about the lack of clarity” around the obligations “and the potential for significant fines for violations of what is obviously a vague standard,” it said in a filing posted Wednesday (docket 17-59).

The FCC Wireline Bureau on Wednesday granted a limited waiver of the support reduction schedule for some recipients of Connect America Fund high-cost support that missed a July 1 network performance testing certification deadline. The waiver applies to more than 20 companies.

USTelecom urged OMB to ease permitting for broadband deployment on federal lands and loosen requirements for the BEAD program, in comments filed Monday in response to OMB’s April request for information on deregulation opportunities. Permitting processes “are the single most time-consuming aspect of a broadband build and create unnecessary delays,” USTelecom said. OMB should work with other federal agencies to create uniform categories, so such permits would be deemed granted if they satisfy consistent conditions, such as when permits are sought for previously disturbed land. “Requiring further review for previously disturbed or analyzed areas simply squanders the resources of government and businesses, while needlessly driving up costs and delaying broadband deployment."

Keep the 25-year licensing term for submarine cable systems, and don't extend licensing requirements to non-owners such as cable capacity lessees, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the FCC Monday in docket 24-523. It said subsea cable licensees need a clearly established process for license revocation, and the agency should make clear that new cable landing license regulations won't retroactively apply to existing licenses.

Representatives of WTA, Lict and Totah Communications met with Wireline Bureau staff on the enhanced-alternative connect America cost model, seeking an update. The representatives “raised concerns about some ambiguities in how this adjustment process would be applied, and the potential for significant adverse consequences,” said a filing last week in docket 10-90. Bureau staff “indicated that they are on track to complete the adjustment determinations by the end of the year, and that they intended to issue a preliminary data set of the changed locations and support adjustments for the rural broadband providers to review (and seek to correct) before the process is finalized.”

NCTA representatives downplayed USTelecom's objections to new rules on pole attachments in a meeting with FCC Wireline Bureau staff (see 2504220015). USTelecom's claims are “either factually inaccurate and/or incorrect,” cablers said. Representatives of NCTA, Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Enterprises attended the meeting.