The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau is granting Casey Mutual Telephone’s petition in docket 10-90 for waiver of a credit commitment deadline as part of a Phase II auction for the agency’s Connect America Fund. Auction 903 allocates up to $1.98 million over 10 years to help ISPs deploy voice and broadband services in underserved, high-cost areas. Winning bidders were required to submit an official letter of credit from their bank by last November. Casey submitted its paperwork in January after missing the filing deadline. It stands to receive nearly $245,000 over 10 years to deploy service in Iowa. Allens Communications was assigned more than $1.77 million under the program for use in Louisiana. Allens had petitioned the FCC for a waiver from certain credit requirements, claiming special circumstances for operating in a hurricane-prone area. Staff denied the Allens petition, in the order in Thursday's Daily Digest.

FCC broadband maps “lack sufficient and meaningful detail” (see 1905010089) to properly allocate a $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 1904160057) proposed last month by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “because carriers only report broadband deployment at a census block level,” Windstream CEO Tony Thomas said Wednesday on a Q1 webcast. Thomas is pleased that the Connect America Fund has helped drive rural broadband upgrades but added current data doesn’t demonstrate whether specific locations are served or unserved. “We simply can’t solve a problem that we do not fully understand,” Thomas said. “It would be reckless to spend tens of billions of dollars over a decade on the back of the current broken mapping system.” The telco reported sales fell about 9 percent to $1.32 billion from the year-ago period but it had the best residential broadband subscriber growth since 2011. It projects it will add 30,000 such subs in 2019. Windstream added 11,400 consumer broadband subscribers in Q1. Windstream continues to replace copper with fiber in parts of its ILEC market but is restrained by the limits of copper in some of the real estate it leases from Uniti, the CEO said. Windstream considers the rent it pays Uniti to be “significantly above market” value, Thomas said. As part of its bankruptcy proceeding (see 1902280017), he said Windstream will evaluate all options for its Uniti lease, “including renegotiation, recharacterization, unwinding the lease,” and “outright rejection of the lease.” Uniti stock closed down 5.6 percent Wednesday at $10.21. Uniti didn't comment. Thomas said it's too soon to say when Windstream will emerge from Chapter 11 protection.

The FCC Wireline Competition Bureau extended the deadline by 12 days to May 28 for replies to an April public notice regarding supplemental data tables on price caps to business data services amid consideration of a USTelecom forbearance petition. Incompas asked this week for the additional time (see 1905140017). The bureau also extended in a public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest, regarding dockets including 18-141, access to April data tables until June 30 “to allow interested parties additional time to access the data and supplement the record” in their replies or in ex parte communications. USTelecom seeks forbearance from requirements to provide broadband transport as an unbundled network element to competitive LECs.

AT&T reiterated its position in a dispute with four Alabama 911 districts over what constitutes interconnected VoIP and whether the FCC should prohibit state and local governments from requiring interconnected VoIP customers pay more in total 911 fees than comparable non-VoIP customers (see 1903290030). That came in a meeting with FCC Wireline Bureau staff. “Declare that where a voice service is transmitted over the last mile in a format other than IP (such as Time Division Multiplexing [TDM]), it cannot qualify as interconnected VoIP,” AT&T asked in Tuesday posting in docket 19-44. “While the Alabama Districts have abandoned their previous position that certain TDM voice services are actually interconnected VoIP, Phone Recovery Services and other plaintiffs in 911 charge litigation have maintained that position.” The FCC should “preempt state and local 911 charge statutes and ordinances that adopt discriminatory rules for billing 911 charges to customers of interconnected VoIP service and non-VoIP telephone services,” the carrier said.

Three telecom groups sought a graduated, escalating FCC response to noncompliance with Connect America Fund speed and latency requirements. Currently, "even a one percent miss" results "in suspension of funding," ITTA, USTelecom and the Wireless ISP Association reported telling an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. That makes it "more difficult for CAF recipients to meet buildout milestones and performance obligations going forward," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. Such a compliance gap below 5 percent would have no consequences, under their plan; 5-10 percent would mean quarterly reporting mandates; and 10-15 percent would also mean withholding CAF support unless it narrowed to 5 percent or less within a year.

Frontier Communications CEO Dan McCarthy expects broadband subscriber losses to slow over the next four to six months as the company makes a concerted effort to improve network capabilities and address churn. “We’re looking at what bundles are profitable,” he told a webcast JPMorgan conference on Tuesday, noting that some of the systems Frontier acquired came with unprofitable video programming deals. Adoption of over-the-top video services is accelerating while linear video service rates are dropping. McCarthy said Frontier remains agnostic and wants to deliver the video experience that customers want, adding the company aims to protect the broadband experience. Wireline phone subscriptions continue to decline, and McCarthy said it’s too soon to say whether the decline will continue at its current pace or stabilize. The company acknowledges it must focus on new products in an attempt to offset an expected decline in voice. The telco seeks to reduce subscriber churn acknowledged in its Q1 report (see 1905010027) through focus on standardizing customer service and tech support practices. That could not only reduce customer wait times but also reduce the need for contractors, an often unpredictable expense, the CEO said.

Incompas wants the FCC to extend from Thursday to May 28 the reply deadline on an April 15 public notice (see 1905140005) with supplemental business data services statistics. ILEC comments "raised issues and arguments well beyond the scope requested" by the PN, "which was expressly limited to transport services," the group said in a docket 18-141 posting Tuesday. ILECs "focused extensively on forbearance from the loop unbundling requirements asked for in USTelecom’s petition," the competitive LEC group said. "AT&T and Verizon also expressly rely on 'newly available data' wholly unrelated to the April Data Tables and the record in the BDS proceeding generally to support their argument for eliminating loop unbundling." USTelecom seeks to remove a mandate that ILECs provide transport network services to CLECs as an unbundled network element, which the competitive providers oppose (see 1905130050). USTelecom declined to comment now.

Pointing to strong demand for dark fiber and small-cell deployment plus an uptick in new tower demand, Uniti said Thursday it still expected revenue this year of $1.07 billion to $1.08 billion. Announcing its latest quarterly results, Uniti anticipates Windstream, which is going through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, to continue making its full lease payments on time. Uniti said its fiber business is on track to finish multiple major network expansions by year's end and it just completed a "successful" E-rate season. Uniti stock closed Friday up 4.7 percent to $11.79.

Zayo is going private in a $14.3 billion deal that an analyst expects to get regulatory OK. It agreed to be bought by Digital Colony Partners and EQT Infrastructure IV fund affiliates, and "the Zayo team would continue to execute the Company’s strategy and remain headquartered in Boulder, Colorado." It appears CEO Dan Caruso and other management will remain, Wells Fargo's Jennifer Fritzsche wrote investors after Tuesday's announcement. Digital Colony Managing Partner Marc Ganzi said the takeover target's "highly-dense fiber network in some of the world’s most important metro markets" can "meet the growing demand for data associated with the connectivity and backhaul requirements of a range of customers." The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020. MoffettNathanson's Nick Del Deo doesn’t "anticipate any challenges to garnering shareholder or regulatory approval for this deal, nor ... a topping bid," he wrote. "Zayo’s business trajectory and valuation never hit the levels management or more bullish investors hoped for after its" initial public offering. The company continues having "E-Rate traction," said a presentation (see page 8) on the quarter ended March 31. Revenue of $647.2 million was little changed from the year-ago quarter, Zayo reported. Profit rose 48 percent to $34.7 million. The company canceled its quarterly conference call that had been set for this week. It didn't comment further.

Citing the U.S. "race to 5G," Incompas wants the FCC to "deny USTelecom’s petition" on unbundled network elements forbearance (see 1905060025), Incompas CEO Chip Pickering and a representative from Allstream told Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "Networks being built using unbundled network elements as a bridge to fiber support 5G, in addition to gigabit-speed broadband service to small businesses and residential users," Incompas wrote, posted Tuesday in dockets including 18-141. It said companies using UNEs as such a bridge "are building more fiber in the areas they operate than either the incumbent or cable." A USTelecom spokesperson emailed Wednesday that its senior vice president-advocacy and regulatory affairs “Patrick Halley’s most recent blog and filing on Monday reinforces the policy rationale and facts supporting USTelecom’s UNE forbearance petition.” Wednesday, Allstream owner Zayo agreed to be taken private (see 1905080021).