FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said a telehealth inquiry's facilities-based focus is aimed at advancing broadband access through a pilot program, but is open to discussion. At a Wiley Rein event Wednesday, Carr outlined his views on a draft notice of inquiry to provide up to $100 million for "connected care" pilot projects slated for a vote Aug. 2, and agency efforts to make wireless regulation "5G ready" and modernize media regulation.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said a telehealth inquiry's facilities-based focus is aimed at advancing broadband access through a pilot program, but is open to discussion. At a Wiley Rein event Wednesday, Carr outlined his views on a draft notice of inquiry to provide up to $100 million for "connected care" pilot projects slated for a vote Aug. 2, and agency efforts to make wireless regulation "5G ready" and modernize media regulation.

A Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing to re-examine proposals to improve rural broadband deployments appears aimed in part at looking at what lawmakers can do in the next Congress given the limited legislative work time left this year, communications sector officials and lobbyists said in interviews. House Communications aimed to revisit the broadband proposals after recent FCC and congressional efforts (see 1807130065). A House Commerce Committee GOP staff memo notes language from several bills House Communications reviewed in January made it into the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986), which President Donald Trump signed into law as part of the $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (HR-1625). House Commerce also cleared other broadband legislation recently (see 1803230038 and 1807120063).

A Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing to re-examine proposals to improve rural broadband deployments appears aimed in part at looking at what lawmakers can do in the next Congress given the limited legislative work time left this year, communications sector officials and lobbyists said in interviews. House Communications aimed to revisit the broadband proposals after recent FCC and congressional efforts (see 1807130065). A House Commerce Committee GOP staff memo notes language from several bills House Communications reviewed in January made it into the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986), which President Donald Trump signed into law as part of the $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (HR-1625). House Commerce also cleared other broadband legislation recently (see 1803230038 and 1807120063).

The FCC plans a daylong workshop July 31 at the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in Wisconsin to discuss a challenge process on areas initially deemed ineligible for USF in the Mobility Fund Phase II reverse auction. “There will also be presentations on other Commission proceedings and programs of Tribal interest, including overviews of the Universal Service Fund, the Tribal Radio Priority, and the Tribal Engagement Obligation,” the FCC said. “There will be an opportunity for government-to-government consultations with Tribal leaders or their designees in a collaborative and constructive environment.” The workshop starts at 8:30 a.m.

The FCC should try harder to thaw the separations freeze, two state members of the Joint Board on Separations and the state chair of the Joint Board on Universal Service said in interviews ahead of NARUC's summer meeting. They complained that the federal side of the Joint Board isn’t engaging to update separations factors set more than 30 years ago and first temporarily frozen in 2001. NARUC members plan to vote next week in Scottsdale, Arizona, on asking the FCC to extend the freeze’s 2018 expiration by two years, and other draft resolutions related to the Lifeline national verifier, IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) and a precision agriculture bill pending in Congress (see 1807030052).

The FCC Friday released performance measurement rules for the Connect America Fund. They cover high-cost universal service support recipients, including price cap and rate-of-return carriers, rural broadband experiment support recipients, Alaska Plan carriers and CAF Phase II auction winners. The order offers “high-cost support recipients that serve fixed locations three options to afford flexibility in choosing solutions to conduct required performance testing,” the FCC said in docket 10-90. Those options are using: Measuring Broadband America program infrastructure; existing network management systems and tools, or off-the-shelf testing; or provider-developed self-testing configurations. Last year, the FCC sought comment on performance measures (see 1711060055). “By providing these three options, we ensure that there is a cost-effective method for conducting testing for providers of different sizes and technological sophistication,” the FCC said. “We do not require that providers invest in and implement new internal systems; instead, providers may perform speed and latency tests with readily-available, off-the-shelf solutions or existing MBA infrastructure.” The order was released by the Wireline and Wireless bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology. The FCC also said Friday it will conduct a single CAF II mock auction, for all applicants listed as qualified to bid in the qualified bidders public notice, on July 18-19. “Participants will be able to use and become familiar with all features of the CAF II Bidding System that they will use during the actual bidding,” the FCC said. “The mock auction is designed so that, within several rounds of bidding, bidders will experience key auction events.”

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."

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., urged the FCC Thursday to view the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Center for Telehealth and its partnership with C Spire as national models “for telehealth expansion across” the U.S. as the agency examines ways to provide rural telehealth access beyond the confines of the USF Rural Health Care Program. The FCC issued an order last month raising the RHCP cap to $571 million to account for 20 years of inflation and address a funding shortfall and rising demand. The Pai-proposed order got unanimous support from the commissioners (see 1806060057, 1806140017, 1806190063 and 1806250042). The UMMC-C Spire partnership “allows rural patients to take preventative steps and avoid hospital stays, reducing costs and greatly improving patient outcomes,” Wicker said in a letter to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. “Supporting this type of partnership will open access to critical telehealth services for the estimated 23.4 million rural Americans who lack broadband today.”

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., urged the FCC Thursday to view the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Center for Telehealth and its partnership with C Spire as national models “for telehealth expansion across” the U.S. as the agency examines ways to provide rural telehealth access beyond the confines of the USF Rural Health Care Program. The FCC issued an order last month raising the RHCP cap to $571 million to account for 20 years of inflation and address a funding shortfall and rising demand. The Pai-proposed order got unanimous support from the commissioners (see 1806060057, 1806140017, 1806190063 and 1806250042). The UMMC-C Spire partnership “allows rural patients to take preventative steps and avoid hospital stays, reducing costs and greatly improving patient outcomes,” Wicker said in a letter to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. “Supporting this type of partnership will open access to critical telehealth services for the estimated 23.4 million rural Americans who lack broadband today.”