The Foundation for Rural Service, Purdue University and Center for Regional Development reported Friday small-town NTCA member communications providers in 44 states created and supported more than 77,000 jobs. The study was sponsored by NTCA. Technology Policy Institute Senior Fellow Sarah Oh said municipal broadband didn't drive economic benefits.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins is excited about the role space can play in bringing digital communications and telemedicine to remote areas worldwide, she told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel during a podcast released Thursday. "Improving the lives of people who aren't fortunate enough to live in neighborhoods with broadband connections is really a great place to go for us." Rosenworcel agreed: "As we move away from strictly terrestrial networks to having more nano-satellite constellations, we are going to be able to deliver the capacity to more people in more places around the globe."
Verizon Fios subscribers will have access to Altice USA news content, including local news from New York-area News 12 Networks, starting in November, Verizon said Wednesday. It said content from its Altice's i24News global news network and from its Cheddar business news network will become part of the Fios offering in 2020.
Uniti Group acquired about 178,000 fiber strand miles in the Midwest from Bluebird Network and is leasing it to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners on a long-term basis, they said Tuesday. Uniti and Bluebird announced the $319 million deal in January (see 1901150052).
Junk faxes "are a nuisance that can cost recipients potentially significant time and money" and "should be prevented," said Mastercard, backing AmeriFactors's July petition to find faxes from online fax services aren't the same as those received on phone fax machines. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act "is only meant to prevent the sending of junk faxes to traditional fax machines, as evidenced by the plain language of the statute," Mastercard reported its lawyers telling Chief Patrick Webre and others in the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. Most who receive faxed documents get them via online fax services, viewing them "via email, mobile applications, or via an online portal," the company said, posted Friday. Harms TCPA was "designed to address -- the shifting of advertising costs to consumers in the form of the costs of paper and ink/toner and the tying up of telephone lines ... have been eliminated," it said in docket 05-338: Granting the petition will "curb rampant litigation abuse." AmeriFactors also supports other such liability limitation requests (see 1904090049).
The FCC should grant an NTCA petition for waiver of a Dec. 1 update to minimum standards and voice support for the Lifeline program, said comments posted in docket 11-42 late last week by rural LEC consulting firm TCA. Increasing the minimum broadband service requirement to 20 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream could force consumers to buy more-expensive packages, TCA said. The Oregon Public Utility Commission also supported the waiver (see 1908290039). Don't "force Lifeline consumers’ to bear a higher cost of service by forcing them to subscribe to more expensive broadband service tiers to retain their Lifeline support,” TCA asked. The FCC should take up NTCA’s proposal to grandfather current speeds, while allowing customers to voluntarily shift to higher ones, the firm said. “Granting this waiver will ensure participants of the Lifeline Program remain connected by either voice or broadband as well as help RLECs be the link for keeping low-income customers connected.” The National Lifeline Association and Q Link Wireless spoke with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in support of a CTIA petition seeking a pause of the Dec. 1 change to minimum service standards. “If left unchanged, the December 2019 minimum service standards will effectively impose a $30/month price increase on Lifeline subscribers -- a price increase that these subscribers cannot afford,” they filed. NaLA and Q Link urged ensuring the national verifier doesn’t proceed to hard launch in any state “until a robust” application programming interface and access to state/federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid databases are in place. State regulators said similar last week (see reports, Aug. 30 and Sept. 3).
FCC caller ID anti-spoofing rules adopted at commissioners' Aug. 1 meeting (see 1908010062) take effect Feb. 5, says Friday's Federal Register.
Comments are due Sept. 30, replies Oct. 15 on Convo Communications' petition for clarification of FCC rules prohibiting video relay service providers from offering incentives to VRS users to register for or use the provider’s service, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Thursday on docket 10-51.
About 73 percent of occupied U.S. census blocks had three or more ISPs providing 25/3 Mbps broadband service by the end of 2017, said an FCC Office of Economics and Analytics report on internet service in Thursday's Daily Digest. It also released a similar voice report, both based on Form 477 data. The internet report said 23 percent of occupied census blocks had two or more providers of 25/3 service, 5 percent have three or more providers of 100/10 Mbps broadband. It said total internet connections grew about 4 percent in 2017 to 421 million, with mobile connections up 4.5 percent to 313 million, while fixed connections rose about 2 percent to 108 million. Form 477 data has been criticized for overstating broadband connectivity, and the report said since a provider reporting offering service to a particular census block might not offer service to all locations there, such data doesn't necessarily reflect choices available to a particular household. The voice report said over three years ending in 2017, interconnected VoIP subscriptions grew from 54.3 million to 66.6 million, mobile voice subscriptions 322.6 million to 340.1 million, and retail switched access lines 72.8 million to 49.7 million.
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants nominations by Oct. 28 to replace six Universal Service Administration Co. board members, it said in docket 97-21 and Wednesday's Daily Digest. Board members will serve a three-year term. Current members are Robert Bocher, consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, representing libraries eligible for USF discounts; Beth Choroser, Comcast vice president-regulatory affairs, representing cable operators; Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, representing schools eligible for USF discounts; Matt Gerst, CTIA director-regulatory affairs, representing commercial radio service providers; former Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Cynthia Kinser, representing state consumer advocates; and Joel Lubin, a consultant for AT&T, representing ILECs.