Too many Americans are falling behind on access to high-quality healthcare and the FCC’s proposed USF pilot telehealth program will help (see 1807110053), Commissioner Brendan Carr said in a speech in Jackson, Mississippi, last week, posted Tuesday. Carr noted his mother is a nurse. “If adopted, this new program would target support to connected care deployments that would benefit low-income patients, including those eligible for Medicaid or veterans receiving cost-free medical care,” Carr said. “It would support a limited number of projects over a two- or three-year period with controls in place to measure and verify the benefits, costs, and savings.” Carr noted he has visited U.S. areas where healthcare is an issue, including the Mississippi River Delta.

The FCC took initial steps it believes will help pave the way for nationwide number portability, in an order released Friday and adopted 4-0 the previous day at commissioners' monthly meeting (see Notebook at end of 1807120033). The order eases an "N-1" rule to give carriers in call flows flexibility to determine which one will query a number portability database, and extended relief from long-distance dialing-parity duties to all carriers (ILECs received such forbearance in 2015). The Wireline Bureau announced a proposed North American Numbering Plan Administration fund of $7.06 million for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. If the FCC takes no action, the proposed fund size and related industry contribution factor will take effect within 14 days, said a public notice Friday in docket 92-237.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr will be in Mississippi Friday to discuss remote healthcare. In the morning, Carr will visit the diabetes telehealth program at North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville to see how the facility is using remote telehealth, his office said. In the afternoon, he will hold a news conference with Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Ridgeland.

Comments are due Aug. 10, replies Aug. 27 on Q Link Wireless' petition asking the FCC to direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to implement machine-to-machine application programming interfaces for its Lifeline national verifier, said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 17-287 and Thursday's Daily Digest (see 1807050046). "Q Link requests that the Commission order USAC to implement APIs immediately, prior to the 'hard launch' of the National Verifier in the first six states." Q Link and other Lifeline eligible telecom carriers seek the interfaces to exchange information with USAC, including to establish the eligibility of consumers for the low-income subsidy program.

Sprint asked the FCC to clarify or reconsider an IP captioned telephone service ruling authorizing automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology (see Notebook at end of 1806070021). While ASR advances are welcome, the declaratory ruling "defers the rate-related issues necessary to ensure 'efficiency' and relies on an inadequate record that falls far short of establishing that ASR is 'functionally equivalent,'" said the IP CTS provider's petition posted Tuesday in docket 13-24. "The Commission risks jeopardizing the health of the [Telecom Relay Service] Fund and 'puts the cart before the horse by introducing [ASR] into the IP CTS program before [the FCC] address[es] [its] most basic regulatory responsibilities,” Sprint said, citing Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel's concurring statement. "By effectively revising the Commission’s rules without affording parties notice and an opportunity to comment, the Declaratory Ruling is inconsistent with the Administrative Procedure Act."

Arlo has shipped more than 7.5 million connected devices, and its smart platform had over 1.9 million registered users as of April 1, said an S-1 SEC registration statement. Its Netgear spinoff was the consumer network connected camera systems market leader in the U.S. in Q1 with a 40 percent share by point-of-sale dollars, it said, citing NPD figures, and likely will remain a “controlled company” under the New York Stock Exchange rules, with Netgear as majority owner, said the filing. The document was signed by Matthew McRae, former chief technology officer of Vizio, named Arlo CEO in February. Patrick Lo will remain CEO of Netgear, it said. Revenue last year was $370.7 million, up from $184.6 million in 2016. Income from operations last year was $5.7 million compared with a $13.1 million loss from operations.

The FCC asked comment on a petition to clarify if life insurance agents may call their customers about life insurance policies while the policies are in effect and for 18 months after they expire. Comments on the petition by the Life Insurance Direct Market Association are due Aug. 6, with replies due Aug. 21, the Consumer Bureau said in a Friday notice in docket 02-278.

Convo Communications joined a group of "enterprise users" in opposing an ITTA petition that asked the FCC to ensure carrier telecom relay service fund costs can be passed on to consumers through specific line-item fees, while AT&T and Verizon continued to back it. "As a deaf owned and operated company which provides [TRS], Convo is of the view that ITTA’s request to identify TRS as a line item description in customer bills subverts the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) mandate of telecommunications as a universally available service and consequentially would segregate and stigmatize TRS as a 'special' need which adds cost to ratepayers, but is done to provide a 'social' service for the disabled," said the video relay service provider's filing posted Thursday in docket 03-123. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and other groups took no position on the petition proposal but said they "hope that the Commission, carriers, and other stakeholders will join accessibility organizations in making clear to the public that TRS is not just a regulatory fee, but a service that is beneficial to the general public because it allows all individuals to communicate with each other."

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr cited the growing importance of telemedicine after visiting the University of Virginia health system in Charlottesville Monday. The trend "is a movement from healthcare delivered inside brick-and-mortar facilities to connected care everywhere,” he said Tuesday. “Inside hospitals and clinics, patients now have access to the most cutting-edge, broadband-enabled technologies. And the FCC has played a significant role in helping to support and promote broadband deployments to these facilities. When patients leave the doors of those facilities, their access to high-tech healthcare services often drops off. Connected care technologies are helping to fill that gap."

The FCC set National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program allocations Monday for the funding year that began Sunday, said a public notice Monday. The $10 million annual program, also called "iCanConnect," will provide $9.65 million from the telecom relay service fund to certified parties in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five territories. The Perkins School for the Blind received 22 awards. The FCC set aside $250,000 for the Perkins School to conduct national outreach and it set aside another $100,000 to develop a database for reporting purposes.