The FCC Wireline Bureau extended its waiver of Lifeline recertification and reverification requirements for subscribers residing on tribal lands through Jan. 31, said an order Friday in docket 11-42 (see 2209160042). The bureau also extended the waiver to Lifeline subscribers on tribal lands that are also participating in the affordable connectivity program.

The FCC Disability Advisory Committee will meet virtually Nov. 1 at 1:00 p.m. EST, said a Monday notice. DAC will take up a report by its IP Captioning Files Transmittal Working Group, presented in part at a June meeting (see 2206280060).

USDA awarded $502 million in additional ReConnect program support to 20 states Thursday (see 2207280054). The new funding will support "high-speed internet access for rural residents and businesses," said a news release. Additional awards are expected to be announced in the coming months. "High-speed internet will improve the rural economy," said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment Thursday on a petition by T-Mobile asking that telecommunications relay services rules be amended by deleting references to the ASCII format. “The requirement that [text technology]-based relay service be capable of communicating with ASCII format has outlived its utility,” the bureau said regarding T-Mobile's reasoning. Comments are due Oct. 24, replies Nov. 8, in docket 03-123.

NTIA awarded an additional $29.3 million in tribal broadband connectivity program support to the Native Village of Port Lions in Alaska (see 2208300064). The new funding will support fiber deployment with 1 GB symmetrical speeds to connect 930 unserved tribal households, businesses, and anchor institutions, said a Thursday news release. “Affordable and reliable high-speed Internet for these remote villages means access to jobs, health care and education," said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. Additional grants will be announced "on a rolling basis this fall."

If the FCC "does its job, we can help make sure everyone, everywhere has a fair shot at success in the digital age," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday at the Grace Hopper Celebration in Florida. The Emergency Connectivity Fund has helped reach "more than 100,000 schools and helped get more than 13 million students the devices and connections they need to succeed," Rosenworcel said. The FCC will use broadband mapping to "explore how this data correlates with access to maternal care," she said, and is looking at ways to help survivors of domestic violence access the Lifeline program "so they can call for help without fear of being monitored." Rosenworcel also encouraged attendees to "find a way to be a sponsor, be a mentor, and be someone who brings someone else along. In other words, pull up a chair for others."

CostQuest applauded the U.S. Court of Federal Claims' decision affirming its FCC contract to build the broadband serviceable location fabric. The court rejected LightBox's challenge of the award after the GAO dismissed and denied an earlier bid protest (see 2203110040). "We now have two separate rulings affirming the validity of the FCC’s selection process for the contract," said CostQuest attorney Anuj Vohra Wednesday: "That clearly puts this issue to bed.” The "halting of the work resulting from the protests led to delays in critical calendar-dependent updates to source data for the fabric," said CostQuest CEO James Stegeman: “I am glad that now we can put our full time and energy into further developing this data set and doing our part in what we came here to do."

The FCC committed nearly $55 million in additional Emergency Connectivity Fund Support, totaling more than $5.9 billion to date, said a news release Wednesday. The new funding will support more than 200 schools, 20 libraries and 2 consortiums. The Wireline Bureau also granted petitions from the Evans-Brant Central School District in Angola, New York; Lummi Nation School in Bellingham, Washington; and Naaleh High School for Girls in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, to waive the third ECF application filing window deadline, in an order Wednesday. The bureau said each petitioner faced technical issues when attempting to access the ECF portal, and remanded their applications to the Universal Service Administrative Co. for review.

The FCC intends to renew the charter of its Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, on or before Oct. 13, authorizing the committee to operate for two more years, said a Friday Federal Register notice. CSRIC meets Wednesday.

The U.S. needs to move beyond the status quo on border gateway protocol (BGP), DOD and DOJ said, responding to a February FCC notice of inquiry (see 2202250062). “As the record in this proceeding shows, BGP was not designed to include security measures, creating vulnerabilities in U.S. telecommunications systems,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 22-90: “Establishing an industry-wide baseline of BGP security measures would go a long way towards protecting the transmission of U.S.-person data and communications in a constantly changing threat environment. The status quo has not achieved -- and cannot achieve -- that objective.” DOD and DOJ said they “strongly encourage the FCC to consider the full range of technical, policy, and regulatory solutions, including technical standards and transparency measures, and implement an industry-wide approach to reducing the risks associated with these vulnerabilities in a measured yet expeditious way.”