A federal court in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment Monday and announced arrest of John Comito, CEO of AutoExec Computer Systems, for allegedly defrauding E-rate. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York alleged Comito overbilled the program and schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn $426,000 2013-17.

USTelecom and members met with FCC Wireline Bureau and Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force staff last week on "the substantial risk that inaccurate location counts in a ten-year program create for all parties, both if the counts are too high as well as too low," the group posted Monday in docket 19-126. The association suggested a "hold harmless provision" or possibly adjusting location counts later. Representatives from AT&T, CenturyLink, Consolidated, Frontier, Verizon and Windstream attended.

Incompas opposes an AT&T FCC application to discontinue providing certain Ethernet services on a common carriage basis and reoffer them as private carriage. It asked to remove the application from streamlined processing because "AT&T fails to provide information necessary for the commission to assess the impact on the public convenience and necessity." Incompas said, posted Friday in docket 19-323, FCC's business data services order requires service reclassification decisions reflect "nuanced analysis."

The FCC asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to grant an unopposed motion, without prejudice, to hold in abeyance for six months its proceedings in Great Lakes Communication v. FCC, case 19-1233, in a petition filed Wednesday (in Pacer). The FCC said it's reviewing an Aureon Network Services petition for reconsideration on the access stimulation case (see 1911270062). The FCC issued a public notice on the Aureon petition Tuesday. The company wants the FCC to rescind its recent intercarrier compensation regime rules on access arbitrage and replace them with more narrowly focused rules. Commissioners voted on its new rules in September (see 1909260055).

The Lifeline carrier application programming interface that went live Tuesday (see 1912100065) is available for use in states where the Universal Service Administrative Co. has launched the program's national verifier, a USAC spokesperson emailed. "Any provider interested in using the API can do so upon signing an Interconnection Security Agreement with USAC," she said. "Use of the API is optional." There's a single national API, she added. "Service providers cannot customize it." The Wisconsin Public Service Commission has planned for the transition to the NV under the FCC's schedule, said Matt Sweeney, the PSC's communications and legislative director. "We have been in communication with Lifeline carriers and working across state agencies to ensure our systems are ready for this transition," he said. "We do not anticipate that any eligible customers will lose service." Wisconsin is scheduled to soft launch the NV Monday (see 1910230057). USAC has a map with NV launch status by state.

Don't expect material changes to a draft remand and declaratory ruling on the VoIP symmetry rule when commissioners vote at Thursday's meeting, FCC officials said this week. Over-the-top VoIP providers disagree with national interexchange carriers about whether and how the former should be compensated for terminating calls they originate (see 1912050034). The agency ruled on functional equivalency for VoIP services in 2015, allowing them to be compensated for certain end-office billing elements for OTT or VoIP-originated traffic, with some exceptions (see 1502120030). David Aldworth, CEO of Teliax, said his company was in litigation with a national IXC over related tariff disputes after that. Courts referred the proceeding back to the FCC as a matter of primary jurisdiction. IXCs have dealt in self-help for years and chose not to pay end-office bills as they awaited the next decision, Aldworth said. If there's a silver lining in the declaratory ruling, even if commissioners side with IXCs, Aldworth said, it's that "if there is retroactivity, there are not a whole lot of refunds to be paid" from VoIP providers to IXCs because the IXCs hadn't been paying the OTT providers for call terminations. The draft addresses a CenturyLink petition (see 1805180073). CenturyLink, both an IXC and a VoIP services provider, argues the draft "is confused when it asserts that its approach better 'promotes competition in the voice marketplace' than the rule endorsed in 2015."

Competitive bidding for revisions to the USF Rural Health Care Program's funding year 2020 open Jan. 1, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday on docket 17-310. Changes became effective Nov. 12. FY 2020 starts July 1. Competitive bidding for FY 2021 also starts then. Commissioners voted this summer to overhaul the program's rules (see 1908010041). Some groups have concerns (see 1911130022).

The FCC Wireline Bureau adopted E-rate 2020 funding year eligible services list as proposed in August (see 1908020016), said an order for docket 13-184 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. It declined "several requests that are beyond the scope of this proceeding." The bureau asked Universal Service Administrative Co. to open the FY 2020 E-rate application filing window in 45 days. Recommended changes to E-rate applications are a separate proceeding (see 1911180012). Last week, the FCC 5-0 made permanent a five-year budget cycle for E-rate category 2 (see 1912030065).

Windstream updated its home network security offering, Kinetic Secure, providing endpoint as well as modem-level security, said the company Monday. Windstream invested in cybersecurity company F-Secure to enable the service upgrade. Features of the service include internet browsing protection and parental controls; internet anti-virus security for mobile devices; identify theft protection; 24/7 home agent tech support; and app-based Wi-Fi management tools. Several service tiers are available in the subscription-based service.

The average schedule cost per loop formula proposed by the National Exchange Carrier Association Aug. 28 for high-cost-loop support is effective Jan. 1, said an FCC Wireline Bureau order in Monday's Daily Digest for docket 05-337.