The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau granted eight slamming complaints against Tele Circuit Network, said an order Friday. It said Tele Circuit claimed it received authorization to change the complainants' telco service providers through third-party verification, but that verifier doesn't confirm the person is authorized to make a carrier change. It ordered Tele Circuit to remove charges incurred during the first thirty days after the alleged unauthorized change. The company didn't comment.
April 25 is the deadline for parties in the USTelecom forbearance petition proceeding and business data service proceeding to object to certain interested parties getting access to confidential information, said FCC Wireline Bureau notices in Friday's Daily Digest (see here and here) on dockets 18-141 and 16-143.
Iowa Network Services (Aureon) asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to vacate the FCC's February decision making it change its rate tariff for interstate switched transport in its centralized equal access service delivering long-distance traffic to small telcos throughout the state (see 1903010004). In a petition for review to be posted, Aureon said the FCC ordered it to provide additional cost support under rules applicable only to ILECs even though it had previously decided Aureon isn't one. That goes against the court's previous finding that CLEC and ILEC regulations are mutually exclusive, Aureon said. The FCC didn't comment.
The wireline orders approved Friday by FCC commissioners eliminating the rural telco rate floor and granting part of USTelecom's forbearance petition (see 1904120058) are now posted in dockets 10-90 and 18-141, the FCC said Monday (see here and here).
Incompas objected to incorporating any party's highly confidential and confidential business data services information collected in BDS proceedings into the USTelecom forbearance petition proceeding. Tuesday was the deadline for lodging an objection (see 1904030061). “Doing so would be inconsistent with and undermine the Commission’s forbearance rules, and would violate basic principles of procedural fairness,” Incompas said in a Tuesday posting in docket 18-141. “Allowing this additional data to be used in support of the Petition would violate the ‘complete-as-filed’ rule. … USTelecom could have proposed a modification of the BDS Protective Order at the time it filed its petition, but did not do so, even though it bore the burden of production.”
Rules requiring intermediate providers to register with the FCC before offering to transmit covered voice communications under a rural call completion order are effective May 15, says a notice set for Monday’s Federal Register. It says OMB OK'd Jan. 28 for three years related information collection.
The Rural Utilities Service is amending a funding opportunity announcement and solicitation of applications issued in December for the broadband loan and grant pilot program ReConnect (see 1812130064). The amendments revise the definition of broadband loan and change data used in the protected broadband borrower service areas mapping layer and criteria for applicants to challenge service area eligibility, says a notice for Friday’s Federal Register. The changes take effect with FR publication.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit clarified it didn't reject all of an FCC tribal Lifeline order in February when it sent the 2017 limits on such government subsidies back to the agency (see 1902010051). Wednesday's one-page per curiam order (in Pacer) amended the earlier ruling to say that "because the Commission's adoption of the Tribal Facilities Requirement and Tribal Rural Limitation was arbitrary and capricious, the court grants the petitions and vacates the 2017 Lifeline Order as challenged in the petitions, and remands the matter to the Commission for a new notice-and-comment rulemaking proceeding." Industry lawyers and others watching the proceeding noted it's a somewhat procedural matter, rather than a new ruling on the merits. The FCC is "pleased that the DC Circuit granted our unopposed motion and amended its opinion to make clear the Court vacated only the challenged portion of one section of the five-section item,” emailed an agency spokesperson.
Smart glasses maker Vuzix teamed with VSee Lab on telehealth technology for its M300XL and Blade smart glasses, it said Tuesday. VSee CEO Milton Chen called telemedicine video conferencing through smart glasses a “natural progression from tablets and computers” for its customers, and it plans to begin offering smart glasses for applications including remote training on imaging technology for CT scans and ultrasounds, telesurgery and augmented-reality-enhanced video visits. VSee’s video conferencing, used by more than 1,000 companies worldwide, is used on the International Space Station. Medicare is adding more telehealth benefits (see 1904080031).
The FCC should adopt only Prong 1 in its NPRM on access stimulation, AT&T filed Tuesday in docket 01-92. While 1 would address some underlying causes of access stimulation and “benefit consumers, ensure reasonable rates, and serve the public interest,” Prong 2 would be ineffective and “would exacerbate the ‘whack-a-mole’ problem that has allowed these schemes to fester for more than a decade,” the telco said. "Act promptly to either complete its stated goal in the 2011 Transformation Order of finishing the transition of switched access traffic to bill and keep, or, in the context of access stimulation traffic," adopt only Prong 1 on the NPRM, it asked. "Prong 2 would allow these schemes to continue to flourish, because access stimulators would simply chose to operate in even more remote areas where direct connections would be either prohibitively expensive or infeasible."