Comments are due Aug. 29, replies Sept. 13, at the FCC on a petition for waiver by NTCA, on behalf of members and other operators, of the updated Lifeline minimum service speed standards applicable to fixed wireline broadband internet access, which is scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 11-42.

Rural consumers are better served by broadband network buildouts within their neighborhoods than by having the federal government allot funding to support satellite broadband deployment, said a blog posted Tuesday by CCG Consulting, which supports small telecommunications carriers. It said satellite providers "have a huge unfair advantage" over other bidders in reverse auctions to award broadband deployment contracts because companies like Viasat are already launching satellites and would have launched them with or without FCC grants. "Because of that, there is no grant level too low for them to accept out of the grant process" and they "can simply outlast any other bidder in the auction." Because rural customers "were already free to buy" satellite broadband systems before an FCC reverse auction, it said, the grant money does not bring new options to market (see 1907230018). A draft NPRM on a proposed $20.4 million Rural Digital Opportunity Fund explores what types of comments to seek on the issue (see 1907230061). The FCC is scheduled to consider the RDOF at its meeting Thursday.

The FCC Wireline Bureau granted two applications for domestic transfer of control, it said Monday in a public notice in dockets 19-178 and 19-181, for the transfer of Accipiter Communication (dba Zona Communications) to Wyyerd Group and of CCI Network Services to Network Services Holdings.

GAO asked the FCC to assess ways it can use federal funding to make internet connections more accessible to lower-income primary and secondary school students away from school to help confront the so-called homework gap facing underconnected families, it said in a report to congressional committees Monday. According to GAO's analysis, "among all school-age children, those in lower-income households are less likely to use the internet at home than those in higher-income households." In a July 15 letter to the GAO responding to its report, Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has already tasked the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics and the Wireline Bureau to "assess the potential benefits, costs, and challenges of making off-premises wireless broadband access eligible for the E-Rate program support." Monteith cautioned, however, that the E-rate program is authorized only to provide discounts for educational purposes and advanced telecommunications and information services for school classrooms. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel recently said the FCC needs to get creative in addressing the homework gap (see 1907080068).

Telecom companies and healthcare providers in Alaska continued their push over the past week for changes in a rural telehealth draft report and order the FCC is scheduled to address at Thursday's commissioners' meeting (see 1907230005). In a filing to docket 17-310, USTelecom said Thursday that the rate setting mechanism described in the report and order "creates a false median rate for Alaska" because all but a small number of locations served by the state's rural healthcare providers would be grouped in the same "extremely rural" tier and receive the same median rate "regardless of whether the location is on-road, off-road or served only by satellite." It said the methodology "would effectively cut off all of the highest cost Alaska locations" from service supported by the FCC's Rural Health Care program "and severely impair the public interest by de-funding telehealth services for the neediest rural Alaskans." Alaska is unique in the nation because 82 percent of its communities are inaccessible by road, said Alaska Communications in a Thursday letter. The company asked the FCC to create a fourth rural tier, carved out of the "extremely rural" tier, for the most rural parts of Alaska that aren't accessible by road. It said the state's Commerce Department publishes a list of communities indicating which have road access and which don't, and the list could be used to help inform the program. Alaska-based GCI Communications suggests in its letter four subcategories for the "extremely rural" tier: road-system/fiber-served, off-road-system/fiber-served, off-road-system/terrestrially (non-fiber) served, and satellite-only served. Among the healthcare providers that also contacted the FCC on the draft order was Yukon-Kuskokwim Health, which recommends in a Thursday letter that the agency do in-state analysis on "the wide variations of 'rural' areas in Alaska" to examine the additional gradations of remoteness required for accuracy.

Shareholders of Zayo agreed to the $14.3 billion acquisition by affiliates of Digital Colony Partners and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund (see 1905080021), the telecom firm announced Friday. The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2020.

Comments are due Aug. 8, replies Aug. 15 on Frontier Communications' selling to Northwest Fiber wireline assets in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington state that pass 1.7 million residential and business locations, some 500,000 fiber-to-the-premises capable (see this publication, May 30). The companies also seek declaratory ruling to allow foreign investment above the 25 percent benchmark. The cash deal is worth about $1.35 billion, three FCC bureaus noted in a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest on docket 19-188. The PN noted WaveDivision Capital will own 10 percent of Northwest Fiber, with Searchlight owning the rest. Searchlight Capital Partners will elect a majority of Northwest Fiber’s board and is "ultimately controlled" by founding partners: Eric Zinterhofer, a U.S. citizen; Erol Uzumeri, a Canadian citizen; and Oliver Haarmann, a German citizen. WaveDivision Capital's Steve Weed, a U.S. citizen, will be chairman of Northwest and his company "will manage the day-to-day operations," the bureaus reported. Weed founded and was CEO of Wave Broadband.

The FCC denied CenturyLink’s allegations “Verizon undercalculated the value of certain credits to which CenturyLink was entitled under two Verizon contract tariffs, and that Verizon acted unreasonably in administering these tariffs,” the Enforcement Bureau said Thursday in proceeding 18-33. CenturyLink buys services including special access from Verizon and alleged it miscalculated discounts and frustrated remedial efforts (see 1803140025). "We’re evaluating the decision," a CenturyLink spokesperson emailed.

Apple wants the FCC to tweak language when members vote on a draft order on direct dialing to 911 when non-fixed interconnected VoIP service is used. Add the words “to call 911” so the order reads: “The service provider must identify whether the service is being used to call 911 from a different location than the Registered Location,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-261. Cisco in the same proceeding said the FCC, if it adopts the order at Thursday's commissioners' meeting, should publicize multi-line telephone system requirements to business organizations. “While nearly all such organizations have members which operate facilities where MLTS is deployed, their members do not typically track Commission actions,” Cisco said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment by Aug. 23, replies Sept. 9 on a waiver request from Kellogg & Sovereign Consulting for missing a May 31 deadline to submit a funding year 2019 application for support in the Rural Health Care program, said a public notice Wednesday about docket 02-60. The company said it missed the deadline due to severe weather conditions affecting Oklahoma.