Uniti Group and Windstream agreed in principle to resolve claims of action that Uniti had against Windstream, the companies announced Monday. Uniti will invest $1.75 billion in fiber and related capital improvements in some Windstream ILEC and CLEC properties. Windstream sought mediation last summer after it filed for bankruptcy protection; talks broke down by the fall (see 1911120043). Wells Fargo senior analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said the announcement removes "a long awaited overhang" warning that Uniti's high customer concentration in Windstream "keeps us on the sidelines" on Uniti stock. Those shares closed up 5.84% at $10.33.

Telecom groups withdrew a 2014 emergency petition for waiver, said a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90. Parties are NTCA, WTA, NECA, Eastern Rural Telecom Association, Frontier Communications and Windstream. They had asked for a pause in intercarrier compensation rates for originating intrastate toll VoIP traffic "until full implementation of Connect America Fund phase II" (see 1407090083). "With five-plus years having passed now and those universal service reforms having been put into effect in the intervening period, the request was somewhat moot," emailed an NTCA spokesperson.

Zayo will be acquired by affiliates of Digital Colony Partners and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund in a deal set to close March 9, after it received all regulatory approvals, the company said Thursday. The deal is worth about $14 billion.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and eight other senators urged the Department of Agriculture Wednesday to change a requirement that bars ISPs in rural communities that received FCC Connect America Fund Phase II funding from applying for the Rural Utilities Service's ReConnect rural broadband funding program. “USDA can, and should, fix this,” Wyden and the others said in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. The department “is neither statutorily required to eliminate FCC grant recipients from ReConnect eligibility, nor does it consider satellite service as sufficient broadband service for the purposes of awarding ReConnect funding.” Also signing: Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.; Doug Jones, D-Ala.; Angus King, I-Maine; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Patty Murray, D-Wash.; and Tom Udall, D-N.M. USDA didn’t comment.

Letter of credit requirements in the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund to help telecom providers rebuild and harden networks are a barrier to small companies' ability to compete for the USF support and are "more onerous" than those in the FCC's new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 2001290018), Critical Hub Networks President Carlo Marazzi and Senior Vice President Karen Larson told Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. That was during Friday's Starks-hosted field hearing in San Juan (see 2002200021), said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-143. Marazzi said none of the territory's three banks is eligible to issue a LOC under the fund's rules. "U.S. banks are generally hesitant to conduct business with entities in Puerto Rico" due to its government debt crisis and recent natural disasters, he added. "Banks typically require cash or securities collateral in order to issue a LOC, which would tie up a significant portion of assets, and such assets may be necessary to meet the FCC's milestone and deployment schedule."

CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom had meetings with aides to all FCC commissioners to discuss a broad safe harbor as part of robocalling rules. “Adopting a broad safe harbor based on reasonable analytics will give voice service providers the clarity and certainty needed to meaningfully advance the Commission’s goal of protecting consumers from the scourge of illegal and unwanted robocalls while protecting legitimate calls,” the groups said, posted Monday in docket 17-59.

An item on a proposed rural healthcare (RHC) support mechanism circulated on FCC's eighth floor Tuesday, said a circulation list posted Friday on the agency's website. The item could address a funding year 2019 shortfall allocating unused RHC money from the prior funding year, an official said. It would also address funding year 2019 funding requests for multiyear payments that exceeded a budget sub-cap. Industry also wants the FCC to clarify new certification rules for its rural telehealth program set to take effect July 1, USTelecom said in a filing posted Friday to docket 17-310 and in meetings Tuesday with Wireline Bureau staff and commissioner aides. The commission voted in August to change the way it subsidizes its rural healthcare program despite widespread concerns (see 1908010041).

Comments are due March 23, replies April 7, on a petition for pre-emption and declaratory ruling filed Feb. 13 by Bluebird Network and Uniti Leasing asking the FCC to declare it unlawful for several Missouri cities to require right-of-way fees they consider duplicative, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 20-46 Thursday.

An FCC order doesn't explicitly supersede interexchange carriers' obligation to pay access charges on intraMTA calls when IXCs use LECs' tariffed access services, said appellees CenturyLink Affiliates and LECs in a Tuesday supplemental brief in IntraMTA Switched Access Charges Litigation case no. 18-10768 (in Pacer) before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral argument was heard Feb. 4 in New Orleans. The court should reverse its judgment in the case "because all intraMTA traffic is local traffic, and local traffic is not subject to access charges," said Sprint, MCI and Verizon. They argue the FCC "explicitly superseded the access charge regime for all traffic." Both sides can file replies by Feb. 28.

Telecom carriers and interconnected VoIP providers must file annual certification documenting compliance with Customer Proprietary Network Information rules by March 2, the FCC's Enforcement bureau said in an advisory in docket 06-36 in Wednesday's Daily Digest.