Seven defendants pled guilty to defrauding the USF E-rate program, said Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, on Wednesday (see 1808300030). Sentencing is scheduled for May and June. As part of their plea agreements, defendants will forfeit millions of dollars in overpayments and restitution. The defendants were Peretz Klein, Susan Klein, Simon Goldbrener, Moshe Schwartz, Ben Klein, Sholem Steinberg and Aron Melber. Each pled guilty to one count of conspiring to steal E-rate funds intended for underprivileged schools in Rockland County, New York.

Amend proposed instructions to line 308 of FCC form 499-A on USF contribution methodology, NCTA asked, posted Wednesday to docket 06-122: Providers shouldn't have to report USF revenue directed to schools, libraries or rural healthcare providers. In its filing, Comcast also supported recent comments by USTelecom.

CenturyLink urged the FCC to adjust international bearer circuit fees, meeting with Office of Managing Director and International Bureau staff Tuesday, posted Friday in docket 19-105. "The commission recovers 87.6 percent of international bearer circuit fees from submarine cables and the remaining 12.4 percent" from satellite and terrestrial international bearer circuits "based on capacity data from a decade ago," the telco said. Imperfect data "should not be a reason to continue to divide fees on the basis of data that does not reflect today's reality," it said, suggesting terrestrial and satellite international bearer circuit providers "are paying fees far out of proportion to their share of the market."

The FCC International, Wireline and Wireless bureaus OK'd transfer of Zayo and subsidiaries to Front Range TopCo, said a public notice on docket 19-166 in Friday's Daily Digest. The companies sought a declaratory ruling on foreign investment above a 25 percent benchmark. They must follow commitments set out by DOJ (see 2001220050). The PN said "petitioners have an affirmative duty to monitor their foreign equity and voting interests, calculate these interests consistent with the principles enunciated by the commission."

CenturyLink pledged to work with the Arizona Corporation Commission after commissioners directed staff to prepare an order to show cause in the agency’s probe of the telco’s 911 outages (see 1901030011). “We believe litigation is counterproductive and hope the Commission agrees,” a company spokesperson emailed Thursday. Commissioners discussed the probe in docket T-00000A-19-0179 this week at their February meeting. “Evidence shows that lines belonging to [CenturyLink] have experienced service interruptions in Pima County on several occasions and most recently in Page, Arizona,” ACC said. On Jan. 3, Page’s 911 switchboard failed to process toll or 911 calls for 18 hours due to a radio issue on a local provider network, it said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau set procedures for spending $691.2 million over 10 years to support hardened fixed voice and broadband networks throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in a public notice Wednesday on docket 18-143. Winning applicants must offer voice and broadband and meet performance requirements for speed and latency. "Laying out this clear, manageable, and predictable process will ensure we get the best impact possible from this investment of funds," said Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith. Commissioners OK'd the funding plan in September (see 1909260032).

The FCC will take $31 million from TeleQuality Communications in repayments and forfeitures of USF payment claims to settle violations of competitive bidding and rate rules and for overbilling the rural healthcare program, the agency said Wednesday. Education Networks of America acquired the company in 2018. The Enforcement Bureau consent decree requires TeleQuality designate a compliance officer and file regular compliance reports for five years: The company admitted to giving improper incentives to healthcare providers to encourage them to award contracts to TeleQuality. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks called this "one of the most egregious" violations of USF he can recall. He said the FCC should have taken stronger enforcement action because "the company will simply repay a portion of its ill-gotten gains. In cases of fraud on the Universal Service Fund, it is imperative that the fund be made whole." He suggested the company should be debarred from further RHC participation. "According to the FCC, there were activities from 2015-2017 that were in non-compliance with rules," a TeleQuality spokesperson emailed. "TeleQuality was acquired in January 2018. The new ownership and management ran an internal review and found non-compliance in procedures, which were proactively reported to the FCC. The matter has been settled with the FCC through a consent decree, and TeleQuality looks forward to providing excellent customer service under new ownership."

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants to know whether to cap ancillary service charges for inmate calling services (ICS) when they're subject to both federal and state regulatory authority, said a public notice Tuesday on docket 12-375. The bureau wants to refresh the docket in response to a remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after Global Tel*Link v. FCC, when the court "could not discern from the record whether ancillary fees can be segregated between interstate and intrastate calls." A 2015 ICS order didn't address the question, the bureau said. "We now seek specific comment on whether each permitted ICS ancillary service charge may be segregated between interstate and intrastate calls and, if so, how." Staff wants to know how to proceed when such services are jurisdictionally mixed: "Should we simply apply the cap to jurisdictionally mixed services?" The bureau wants to make sure next steps are consistent with the D.C. Circuit's decision.

The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association asked the FCC to devote USF broadband support for block grants to Virginia "with the requirement that such funds flow through" state's telecom initiative. The Dec. 30 letter posted to docket 19-126 Monday.

Comments are due Feb. 14, replies Feb. 21 in docket 20-9 on a transferring of control involving Bluebird Network, said an FCC public notice in Monday's Daily Digest.