Smith Bagley asked the FCC to extend Lifeline's document requirements for reverification, recertification, general de-enrollment, and income for subscribers in rural areas on tribal lands, said a petition posted Thursday in docket 11-42. The Wireline Bureau previously extended its waiver of the requirements until June 30 (see 2203250065). Smith Bagley requested an extension through Sept. 30, saying "thousands of subscribers" are at risk of de-enrollment. Arizona's Department of Economic Security backed the extension and said the national verifier "lacks connectivity to critical program participation data" in the state. The department said "many Arizona families would lose their Lifeline-supported voice and broadband services" absent the extension.

The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council scheduled the fourth meeting in its current cycle June 15, starting at 1 p.m. EDT, says a notice for Friday’s Federal Register. The meeting will be virtual.

The Rural Utilities Service "set the bar high" on round three of the ReConnect program and is "digging deep" into the applicant pool, said acting Administrator Chris McLean during a livestreamed Broadband Breakfast event Wednesday (see 2110220040). McLean said most of the applications were to serve at least 100/100 Mbps speeds with fiber. "We really can't have a connected nation unless we have high quality bandwidth in rural areas," he said.

The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee will meet virtually June 28 at 1 p.m. EDT, the FCC said Tuesday.

The FTC wants comments by Aug. 2 on proposed amendments to the telemarketing sales rule, said a notice for Friday's Federal Register. The commission proposed additional recordkeeping requirements, a prohibition on "material misrepresentations and false or misleading statements" in business to business telemarketing transactions, and a proposed new definition of "previous donor." Also due by Aug. 2 are comments on whether the FTC should continue to exempt telemarketing calls to businesses, whether a "notice and cancelation mechanism with negative option sales" should be required, and whether to extend the rule to calls consumers make to a telemarketer.

The Universal Service Administrative Co. projected USF Q3 revenue will be $8.3 billion (see 2203020058).That's about $466 million less than Q2 and "the lowest quarterly revenue in the history of the USF," emailed analyst Billy Jack Gregg Wednesday, noting the quarterly contribution factor will be 33.0%.

Comments are due June 8, replies June 15, regarding a Competitive Carriers Association petition seeking FCC clarification that broadband data collection filings can be certified by a qualified engineer who isn't a licensed professional engineer accredited by a state licensure board (see 2205170073), says a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register.

Comments are due June 21, replies by July 18, on a record refresh on proposed rules enabling people with disabilities to access and use videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex. The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee approved a report on the item in February, seeking additional clarity (see 2202240064). In the notice, in Thursday’s Federal Register, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau seeks further comment on the kinds of services encompassed by the term ‘‘interoperable video conferencing service.’’

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced Thursday the commission signed memorandums of understanding to share information and coordinate on combating illegal robocalls with nine more states (see [Re:2204070067]). The FCC reached agreements with Iowa, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, said a news release. “With the majority of states now coordinating with our enforcement team, we are better positioned to help protect consumers from scammers than ever before,” Rosenworcel said.

Deaf and hard of hearing advocacy organizations asked the FCC to "quickly" act on its pending video relay service rates proceeding and set metrics for IP captioned telephone services, in separate meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, said an ex parte posted Thursday in docket 03-123. The FCC's "lack of oversight, coupled with rates that likely are too low to sustain human-captioner-based services and higher than needed to sustain [automatic speech recognition]-based services, appear to be fueling the trend of ASR-based solutions overtaking human-captioner-based solutions without the commission having a handle on the quality, privacy, and other tradeoffs involved in using ASR," said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America, Communication Service for the Deaf, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind and the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic at Colorado Law. The groups asked the FCC to implement the Disability Advisory Committee's recent recommendations on relay access to videoconferencing services and ensure multimodal services are "fully accessible to all people with disabilities." They also sought action on real-time text and device accessibility, accessibility for incarcerated individuals, and the "usability of closed captioning display settings."