The FCC released guidance for applications to the agency’s $100 million Connected Care Pilot Program, said a news release and public notice Thursday. The PN includes information on how healthcare providers can prepare for the application process and will be followed by a subsequent PN with detailed application procedures and timing for an application window, a release said. “This year, our country has pivoted to a newer model of delivering health care, one that finds connectivity at its core,” said Chairman Ajit Pai. He thanked Commissioner Brendan Carr for leading here. “We worked to stand up this Pilot Program to support the delivery of care directly to patients,” Carr said in a separate release, calling it “Carr’s Connected Care Pilot Program.” The program is open to eligible nonprofit and public healthcare providers, the PN said. To prepare to apply, providers will need an eligibility determination and healthcare provider number from Universal Service Administrative Co., the PN said. The program will use USF funds “to help defray costs of connected care services for eligible health care providers, providing universal service support for 85% of the cost of eligible services and network equipment,” not including devices.

A total of 505 short-form applications were received for the Rural Digital Opportunities Fund Phase 1 auction, with 121 deemed complete and 384 incomplete, said a public notice Tuesday. Corrected, completed applications for the Oct. 29 auction must be submitted by Sept. 23 to participate, the notice said: “Late resubmissions will not be accepted.” The Office of Economics and Analytics also denied five requests for waivers of the short-form deadline, from Native Network, SmartSky Networks, Affinity Technology Solutions, Elektrafi and Little Miami Gig. “None of the Petitioners has met the essential requirement of showing that waiving the deadline will serve the public interest,” said an order Tuesday. “Enforcing the deadline, not waiving it, is fundamental to the public interest in an effective auction mechanism for distributing universal service support.”

Lifeline providers are looking to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly as a potential avenue for shifting a draft order circulated last month (see 2007300064) that would change the formula setting the minimum service standard to produce an MSS of 4.5 GB per month, said an industry attorney and an FCC official. That’s lower than the 11.75 GB the MSS will require starting in December without FCC action but higher than the freeze at the current 3 GB requested by virtually all Lifeline docket commenters. “We want them to do something, but we want it to be something that won’t harm Lifeline subscribers," said Public Knowledge Senior Policy Counsel Jenna Leventoff. “Vulnerable low-income Americans shouldn’t be left behind during this COVID-19 pandemic,” said attorney Judson Hill, who represents Lifeline provider TruConnect.

Some lawmakers and advocates believe Capitol Hill’s inability to agree on an additional COVID-19 aid bill that includes broadband funding presents an opening for the issue to become a focus during the presidential and congressional campaigns this fall, they told us. Congress provided some related funding in March via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (see 2003250046).

Some lawmakers and advocates believe Capitol Hill’s inability to agree on an additional COVID-19 aid bill that includes broadband funding presents an opening for the issue to become a focus during the presidential and congressional campaigns this fall, they told us. Congress provided some related funding in March via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (see 2003250046).

Some lawmakers and advocates believe Capitol Hill’s inability to agree on an additional COVID-19 aid bill that includes broadband funding presents an opening for the issue to become a focus during the presidential and congressional campaigns this fall, they told us. Congress provided some related funding in March via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (see 2003250046).

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and state legislators expect to talk broadband, after the governor set a goal of 100 Mbps download speeds through executive order Friday, said the governor’s office and an aide to Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) this week. Legislators are weighing two bills to raise the state standard from 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload for the California Advanced Services Fund. The executive order put legislative negotiations in flux, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and state legislators expect to talk broadband, after the governor set a goal of 100 Mbps download speeds through executive order Friday, said the governor’s office and an aide to Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) this week. Legislators are weighing two bills to raise the state standard from 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload for the California Advanced Services Fund. The executive order put legislative negotiations in flux, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon.

The FCC cut Sioux Falls School District 49-5, in South Dakota, a break after it saw its E-rate funding slashed for funding year 2016 because it entered the wrong dollar amount on one application line. The district “unsuccessfully made several attempts to correct the error” with Universal Service Administrative Co. and sought FCC review, said an order released Monday. The Wireline Bureau initially rejected the request. “Consistent with Commission precedent, we find good cause to waive our rules to allow Sioux Falls’ appeal of the USAC decision to be filed outside the 60-day filing deadline and to permit the correction of the clerical error,” the FCC said.

The Tanana Chiefs Conference of Fairbanks, Alaska, urged the FCC Tuesday to take “expedited action" to review a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision denying its request to file three FCC Form 466 USF Rural Health Care Program funding applications outside the FY 2016 filing window. TCC cited President Donald Trump’s Monday executive order, which made permanent for rural communities an expansion of Medicare recipients’ eligibility to receive 135 types of services via telehealth (see 2008040068). The White House “tasked” the FCC “to work with other government agencies to ‘develop and implement a strategy to improve rural health by improving the physical and communications healthcare infrastructure available to rural Americans,’” TCC counsel Ronald Quirk said in a filing in docket 02-60. “Granting TCC’s Waiver Request comports with” the EO since “failure to grant … would result in the communities served by TCC suffering serious hardships if funding for the subject health clinics is denied.”