Slic Network Solutions' winning bid for Connect America Fund II support is ready to be authorized, the FCC Wireline Bureau announced in a public notice Friday. The provider has until 6 p.m. Jan. 8 to submit letters of credit and an opinion from its legal counsel. Slic won $2.4 million to serve 906 locations. The Wireline Bureau also sought comments Monday on Slic's request to acquire Crown Point's 1,150 customers. Comments are due Jan. 4, replies Jan. 11.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai joined the Orleans Parish Communications District to push businesses to comply with the New Orleans commission's Jan. 6 deadline to transition their phone systems to support direct-dial access to 911 from multiline systems. "These reforms will save lives," Pai said Friday. The new law will also require businesses to identify dispatch locations for emergency responders because "they know their building the best, what doors to enter, how to get there quickly, any barriers like keys or access that will be needed," OPCD Executive Director Tyrell Morris told us: "They can have all that ready when the responders get there, so we're not delaying service even more." Morris applauded Pai's efforts and noted the next obstacle is overcoming the lack of awareness about the change. "I think a lot of it has to do with we were really waiting to see if the deadline would hold true, but now that we know that it is, the expectation is that businesses step up to communicate to their customers and this is now a requirement," Morris said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau granted a limited waiver of performance testing requirements for recipients of alternative connect America cost model I (A-CAM) support, said an order in Monday's Daily Digest. A-CAM recipients will be required to pretest 70% of Universal Service Administrative Co.-selected samples during each quarter in 2021. The order was "very welcome news for smaller companies" that are still figuring out how to do pretesting for performance requirements in Q1 2021, said Mike Romano, NTCA senior vice president-industry affairs and business development. NTCA backed the waiver, noting in an ex parte letter last week that nearly 90% of its members indicated delays in the supply chain.
The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau gave Hamilton Relay and Sprint partial waivers of FCC rules prohibiting early termination of telecom relay service calls, said an order in Friday's Daily Digest. The companies sought waivers due to operational changes during the pandemic in which some communications assistants had to end a call before a new assistant can replace them.
Connect America Fund recipients are subject to the final performance testing milestone at the end of a carrier's support term, the FCC Wireline Bureau clarified in an order Friday. Carriers have one year after the final milestone to address any shortcomings to ensure they're fully compliant. CAF Phase II auction winners must fulfill deployment obligations by the end of 2025 but will be subject to performance testing until 2029 and have an additional year to come into compliance before being subject to permanent support withholding. The order clarified that compliance for carriers participating in multiple high-cost programs will be determined separately.
Prohibitions on the use of artificial or prerecorded voice calling without third-party consent under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act applies to calls made by live agents using soundboard technology, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau ordered Friday. CGB denied a petition by NorthStar Alarm Services to exclude prerecorded messages played by a live agent and a retroactive waiver from Yodel Technologies for calls made using soundboard technology.
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on NDS Technologies' request to transfer control of Baltimore-Washington Telephone to Voxology Group by Dec. 31, replies Jan. 7 in docket 20-415.
The FCC Wireline Bureau extended replies to Jan. 15 for a Further NPRM on inmate calling services, a docket 12-375 order said Thursday (see 2011250048). The Wright Petitioners, Prison Policy Initiative, Public Knowledge, the Office of Communication at the United Church of Christ and Worth Rises filed a petition for the extension, citing limited resources amid the pandemic and holidays. The deadline had been Dec. 22.
Rate-of-return carriers may include their actual rates for consumer broadband-only lines for the first three months of 2019 instead of revenue based on the maximum rate, the FCC Wireline Bureau ordered Wednesday. Forms are due Dec. 31.
Alaska Communications Systems got a takeover bid of $325 million. If ACS agrees to the new proposal, it will be required to pay a $6.8 million fee to Macquarie Capital to terminate their deal, whose price recently was increased (see 2012100010).