The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by Aug. 15 in docket 06-122 on proposed revisions to the 2023 annual and quarterly telecom reporting worksheets, said a public notice in Monday's Daily Digest.
An FCC order targeting gateway providers and foreign-originated illegal robocalls takes effect Sept. 16, said a notice for Monday's Federal Register. Comments on a Further NPRM proposing additional call authentication requirements are due by Aug. 17, replies Sept. 16. Commissioners approved the items in May (see 2205190023).
Support for 1,605 winning FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction bids was authorized Thursday. The first deadline for FiberLight, MEI Telecom, and Mercury Wireless, the authorized applicants, to submit location data is March 1, said a Wireline Bureau, Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force, and Office of Economics and Analytics public notice in docket 19-126.
A coalition of utility companies backed a request for the FCC to extend the deadline for reply comment on a Further NPRM on pole replacement costs (see 2207120078). The current deadline doesn't give "electric utility commenters sufficient time to meaningfully respond to the initial comments," said Southern Company, Oncor Electric Delivery, Entergy, Duke Energy, American Electric Power Service and Ameren Services, per a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-84. The companies noted Charter's comments and expert report are "extensively redacted, making it difficult for pole owners to adequately respond," and the FCC should "make a timely decision with respect to Charter’s request for confidentiality and to establish a process and timeline pursuant to which electric utility commenters can review the information redacted." The companies also asked the FCC to "immediately grant [the Edison Electric Institutes's] long-pending petition for declaratory ruling addressing the limitations period in pole attachment complaints" (see 2109090050). USTelecom also backed an extension, in a letter Wednesday, saying "as the existing pole attachment rules remain in place there is no urgency to the commission’s decision in this matter that would render an additional 60 days to develop the record detrimental to any stakeholders."
A coalition of utility companies asked the FCC to extend until Sept. 26 the deadline for reply comment on its Further NPRM on pole replacement costs (see 2206280066). The American Public Power Association, Edison Electric Institute, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Utilities Technology Council cited a "significant number of comments, the complexity of the issues raised and the sheer volume of the filings, significant number of comments, [and] the complexity of the issues raised and the sheer volume of the filings," in a motion posted Tuesday in docket 17-84. Many comments "raise new issues and propose new rules that were not considered in the FNPRM or elsewhere in the record," the companies said.
A coalition of consumer advocacy organizations told the FCC it was concerned about ISPs "refuting the existence of digital discrimination" in the commission's proceeding addressing the issue (see 2207050057). Said Common Cause, Communications Workers of America, Engine, The Greenlining Institute, MediaJustice, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Next Century Cities, Public Knowledge and the Utility Reform Network: the FCC "must use a discriminatory impact standard" to "rectify current and past discrimination," in a meeting with aides to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, per an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 22-69. The groups also asked the FCC to define the term "given area" as a "wide service area" and "granular enforcement area so that all instances of discrimination can be found." The FCC should update its consumer complaint process and "complaints must be acted upon," the groups said, suggesting the commission also engage in "proactive" outreach to determine if discrimination exists in certain areas.
The FCC Wireline Bureau denied petitions by small carriers to extend the June 30 deadline to implement Stir/Shaken for small non-facilities-based providers, in an order posted Monday in docket 17-97 (see 2111150042). A delay "unavoidably undermines the success of Stir/Shaken and would not be in the public interest," the order said. The petitioners, WWT, Miron, Vumber, Avaya, Yardi, DigitalPath, KDDI, Hypercore and CDN, "had two years to complete the work necessary" and "nothing in their petitions persuades us that was an insufficient amount of time for them to complete the tasks they state are still outstanding."
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by July 25 on Core Communications' proposed tariff refunds, said a public notice Friday in docket 21-191. Core submitted its revisions in June after the bureau rejected its previous revisions (see 2112080051).
A coalition of consumer advocacy groups sought FCC guidance on the fixed service challenge process for the new broadband availability maps. The FCC "must take a leadership role that coordinates the fragmented policies within the federal government and ongoing broadband data gathering efforts that are well underway in many communities across the country," the groups, which include Next Century Cities, Access Humboldt, the National Association of Counties, the National Broadband Mapping Coalition and the California Community Foundation, said in a letter posted Thursday in docket 19-195. They asked for local officials and consumers to have access to information on the "types of evidence and details allowable in a challenge submission" and on how the FCC will evaluate evidence when "the challenger’s evidence and provider’s evidence rely on different methodologies."
ZipDX told FCC Enforcement Bureau staff it should be chosen as the registered consortium to head industry efforts to trace unlawful robocalls because it can do so "more nimbly and more dynamically" than USTelecom's industry traceback group (see 2206230055). "We will more readily and fully meet the objectives of the Traced Act and the FCC," said an ex parte filing Wednesday in docket 20-22. ZipDX said Congress "would not have directed the FCC to annually revisit the selection" if it "intended to anoint USTelecom as the gatekeeper of traceback always and forever." USTelecom hasn't "cited any specific or general flaw in our efforts," ZipDX said: "If anybody has misgivings about ZipDX, it would and should be those parties that play an outsize role in the initiation and facilitation of illegal robocalls." USTelecom didn't comment.