Letters urging the White House and congressional leaders to stay the FCC's 2020 Ligado authorization (see 2204250057) are "a transparent effort to politicize a robust and unimpeachable regulatory process based on scientific data," Ligado emailed us Monday. “The FCC thoroughly considered and rejected each and every frivolous assertion in this letter in their unanimous bipartisan decision two years ago. No federal agency has identified a single GPS device that needs to be repaired or replaced due to Ligado’s proposed operations. If there’s such an imminent threat, why isn’t there yet a single bit of evidence anywhere -- at the FCC or at the [National Academy of Sciences] -- showing harmful interference to GPS? It’s because the FCC got it right.”

NTIA wants comments by May 27 on its proposed information collection the agency will submit for OMB approval for its broadband grant programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, said a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register. Newly created forms for the application process "will provide structured questions and guidance concerning the kind of discrete and structured data required for successful applications," the notice said. They will also "likely result in enhanced timing and information accuracy."

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition asked the FCC Wireline Bureau to extend its recent waiver of the rural healthcare telecom program's rates database to all program participants, said a letter posted Friday in docket 17-130. The bureau previously extended its waiver for Alaska providers (see 2204120053). "Absent an extension of the waiver on a nationwide basis, health care providers will have to utilize the broken rates database in less than 90 days," SHLB said. The group said requiring applicants to rely on the database "would result in excluding rural health care providers ... from receiving any funding."

NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson asked small, medium, and rural companies to participate in the agency's communications supply chain risk information partnership (see 2007070023). These companies "often lack the resources available to larger firms to properly vet components and services to secure their networks," Davidson said in a letter last week, asking industry groups to encourage its members to "join the C-SCRIP community." NTIA also plans to "share classified information on supply chain risks in the information and communications technology sector with participants that meet the relevant security requirements," Davidson said. The Fiber Broadband Association shared the letter with its members Monday.

With multiple petitions for reconsideration of the FCC's April 2020 Ligado authorization pending (see 2005210043), scores of aviation interests and allies pushed the White House and congressional leadership "to work together with the FCC to stay and ultimately set aside" the order. In letters Monday, they said a stay "is necessitated by the clear bipartisan will of Congress." It said the independent technical review required by Congress and the mandated DOD briefings about the possibility of widespread harm should be enough to stay the order, so any new material information that comes up can be considered. A stay is also needed "to address the imminent harm" that could come from Ligado's announcement it intends to deploy as soon as Sept. 30, well before the FCC might address the recon petitions. The Ligado order "is legally and factually deficient ... but the FCC may not have the additional information regarding the full extent of harmful interference in advance of Ligado's planned launch," they said. Signatories include Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Air Line Pilots Association, Cargo Airline Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, National Weather Association and Resilient Navigation & Timing Foundation. Many were also signatories to similar April 2021 letters urging the order be set aside (see 2104220071). Ligado and the FCC didn't comment. Noting silence from federal agencies on GPS issues with its L-band use, "it seems clear that government agencies either have no legitimate concerns with their GPS devices or continue to disregard -- or disobey outright -- the Order’s mandate as well as the express directives of Congress," Ligado said in docket 11-109 Monday. It listed agreements with Nokia and Select Spectrum on its spectrum use in 5G and its efforts to get the L band planned for standardization for nonterrestrial networks as part of the 3GPP Release 17. It repeated that it plans to start operations in the 1526-1536 MHz band on or after Sept. 30 (see 2204010066).

Sixty-nine percent of American adults have heard little to nothing about the 988 three-digit suicide prevention hotline, per Trevor Project polling information Tuesday. Younger adults and parents are more prone to have heard something about 988, it said. The data "emphasize a clear need to continue raising public awareness on the upcoming activation of 988 in July and to use its launch as an opportunity to reimagine our nation’s crisis care system," said CEO Amit Paley. Polled were 2,210 adults in February.

Letters of intent from entities interested in heading the industry-led efforts to trace the origin of suspected unlawful calls are due by May 20, said an FCC Enforcement Bureau public notice Wednesday in docket 20-22. USTelecom, the current registered consortium, isn't required to file an LOI (see 2108250081). Comments are due by June 3, replies June 10, on the letters and whether to redesignate USTelecom.

The FCC committed an additional $37 million in Emergency Connectivity Fund support, totaling nearly $4.8 billion so far, said a news release Tuesday (see 2203230042). Funding will support more than 170 schools, 30 libraries and four consortiums. The third application filing window is April 28-May 13.

Verizon is raising its minimum wage to $20 an hour -- "when base salary plus target commission are combined" -- for new employees in customer service, retail and inside sales positions, and is boosting pay to that level automatically for workers already in those jobs, it said Monday. Verizon also is adding “premium pay differentials” for assistant managers who work on holidays, Sundays and for those who are bilingual, and will offer a “sign-on bonus” for “retail specialist” and assistant manager positions in “many markets” around the U.S., it said. It announced earlier this month “additional enhancements in compensation and incentives for its retail team members.”

The FCC authorized support for 1,345 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I winning bids, said a Wireline Bureau, Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force, and Office of Economics and Analytics public notice Friday in docket 19-126 (see 2202140053). The first deadline for these recipients to submit location data is March 1, 2023. Central Virginia Services, Centranet, Luminate Fiber, Mediacom, Midwest Energy Cooperative, Peoples Telecom, and Windstream were among the authorized bids.