The FCC Wireline Bureau granted Ace Telephone Co. of Michigan's petition for waiver to consolidate four study areas into one, said an order in Thursday's Daily Digest. The bureau also granted Ace's petition to combine the 2011 interstate access revenue requirements and base revenue periods for the four study areas into a single base period revenue.
The FCC seeks comment by April 19, replies by May 3 in dockets including 12-38 on an NPRM to expand the contribution base for internet-based telecom relay services, says Friday's Federal Register (see 2011240019). The commission proposed including intrastate revenue of telecom and VoIP service providers.
About 100 noneligible telecom carriers and 65 ETCs have indicated an interest in participating in the FCC's emergency broadband benefit program, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told reporters Wednesday (see 2103040049). Rosenworcel hoped to release a list of participating providers "soon" and begin the program at the end of April.
The eligible locations adjustment process filing window is April 1-Aug. 3 for FCC Connect America Fund Phase II auction recipients seeking a "reduction in their deployment obligations," a public notice said Tuesday on docket 10-90
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the FCC requirement Blanca Telephone to repay $6.75 million in USF support. The court previously denied Blanca's petition for a writ of mandamus (see 1801020038). "Blanca was apprised of the relevant law and afforded adequate opportunity to respond to the FCC’s decision, and the FCC was not arbitrary and capricious in its justifications for the debt collection," said a three-judge panel in an order posted on the commission's website Tuesday. Blanca didn't comment.
The FCC seeks comment by April 15 on a modified matching agreement with Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration Division of Family Resources, says Tuesday's Federal Register. It will allow officials to verify the eligibility of emergency broadband benefit program applicants beginning April 15 by "determining whether they receive Medicaid or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits." The agreement ends 18 months after going into effect.
NTCA rejected the Wireless ISP Association's criticism of its recommendations for vetting Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction winning bidders, in a letter to acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, posted Friday in docket 20-34 (see 2102230044). WISPA "goes to awkward lengths and great pains" to characterize NTCA's recommendations as "untimely and unjust changes."
The Ensuring RDOF Integrity Coalition doubled down on its request the FCC do a third-party review of a limited number of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction winning bidders, said a letter posted in docket 20-34 Thursday (see 2103080042). The group asked staff for acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to include LTD Broadband, Charter and SpaceX in the review.
The Education and Library Networks Coalition asked FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to prioritize school districts in E-rate's Category I discount matrix if demand exceeds available funds to "ensure that urban and rural areas with the lowest income students are first in line," a filing said Thursday in docket 21-31. Participating in the conversation were the American Federation of School Administrators, National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, National School Boards Association, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and others. The groups backed allowing funds to be used for home internet access services and said the commission will need to determine what's considered a reasonable reimbursement for costs associated with eligible equipment. They "noted that costs for hardware may have increased in particular regions of the country or throughout the country as a result of scarcity." Waive competitive bidding and bid evaluation rules because "state and local procurement rules are sufficiently rigorous to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the program," the groups said.
IP captioned telephone service providers disagreed on whether the FCC should grant T-Mobile's petition for reconsideration on behalf of Sprint on parts of a November FCC order cutting IP CTS rates, per comments posted Wednesday in docket 13-24 (see 2011190026). Grant the petition because the rate cuts "adversely affected providers’ ability to provide functionally equivalent service to individuals with hearing disabilities," said Hamilton Relay: "The commission cannot ignore the fact that the decision to slash compensation rates and authorize [automatic speech recognition] has incentivized providers to either cut costs or offer lower-quality services." ClearCaptions disagreed: ASR is "more accurate, more consistent, and faster than what is generally available in the IP CTS industry today." If the commission isn't going to continue granting conditional approval for IP CTS providers to use ASR, "should reconsider the rate cuts that were based in part on providers’ ability to use ASR to achieve cost efficiencies" (see 2012110020), the company asked. Deny the petition because "Sprint continues to press the commission to adopt a tiered rate methodology that would increase compensation to Sprint," said CaptionCall: The petition "offers no new evidence."