The FCC upheld several Enforcement Bureau orders resolving a pole attachment complaint filed by AT&T against Florida Power and Light, in an order Wednesday (see 2109160054). The order denied AT&T's challenge of the bureau's finding on the average number of attachers and space occupied and granted its challenge on the calculation of the rate of return. "We find that the parties should apply the rate of return prescribed by the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) for FPL’s intrastate services rather than ... the commission’s default rate of return," the order said. The PSC voted Tuesday affirming its authority to reverse preempt the FCC on complaints (see 2206070071). The FCC also denied AT&T's application for review of the bureau's decision to dismiss with prejudice its complaint regarding a joint use agreement.
Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia and West Virginia will receive a combined $582.8 million for broadband projects connecting more than 200,000 homes and businesses, as part of the first tranche of money from the Treasury Department-administered $10 billion American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, Treasury said Tuesday. The department approved $219.8 million in broadband money for Virginia, $176.7 million for Louisiana, $136.3 million for West Virginia and $50 million for New Hampshire. The COVID-19 pandemic “turned so many aspects of life online from work to school and laid bare the urgency of closing the digital divide for all Americans -- especially those living in rural, Tribal, and low-income communities,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. “Treasury’s broadband funding represents a significant step in the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented investment to increase access to high-speed internet and reduce broadband bills for every American household and business.” The White House highlighted the Treasury money as part of a combined $25 billion in broadband funding included in ARPA. ACA Connects, Incompas and New America’s Open Technology Institute hailed Treasury’s approval of the money.
The National Opinion Research Center asked the FCC to require that voice service providers use session initiation protocol 607 or 608 for call blocking analytics, in meetings with Wireline and Consumer and Governmental Affairs staff (see 2202010031). There are "no guarantees that SIP 603+ standardization will not face the same implementation delays as those the telephone industry has claimed would plague SIP Code 607/608 standardization," the group said, per an ex parte posted Tuesday in docket 17-59. NORC asked the FCC to "completely ... sunset" SIP code 603's use once codes 607 and 608 are fully standardized.
Annual location certifications for rate-of-return Alaska Plan carriers Adak Telephone Utility, Arctic Slope Telephone Cooperative and Matanuska Telephone Association are due by July 15, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 10-90. The bureau waived the March 1 deadline for the carriers until the Universal Service Administrative Co. completed certain modifications to the high-cost universal broadband portal.
Verizon asked the FCC to "defer consideration of any new high cost support" until funding from the new federal broadband programs have been "fully awarded," in a meeting with Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff. The FCC can then identify unserved areas to "assess whether new high cost support is needed," Verizon said, per an ex parte posted Monday in docket 21-476. It also asked the FCC to seek additional funding for the affordable connectivity program and emphasize the Lifeline program's "distinct and important role" in its report to Congress on the future of the Universal Service Fund. Verizon backed expanding USF's contribution base "absent direct appropriations" by including "the most significant enterprises operating within the broader internet economy" (see 2203180062).
American Broadband & Telecommunications agreed to pay $16.6 million to settle an FCC investigation of Lifeline violations from 2014 through 2016, said an Enforcement Bureau order Friday (see 1810230037). About $15 million has already been paid, the order said, and American Broadband CEO Jeff Ansted will also pay $67,050 to the U.S. Treasury. The company also agreed to implement "enhanced compliance measures" as part of its continued participation in Lifeline. Ansted didn't comment.
The ATIS and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) joint task force's work to standardize response codes for SIP code 603+ is "advancing most quickly" compared with SIP codes 607 and 608, USTelecom said in separate meetings with FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff and aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, per an ex parte posted Friday in docket 17-59 (see 2202010031). SIP code 603+ would be used "only for analytics-based blocking and indicate to callers which provider blocked the call," USTelecom said, adding the FCC should require the code's use to "provide the industry with the certainty needed to fully operationalize it."
The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition asked the FCC to raise the rural healthcare program's overall funding cap and improve the application process, said an ex parte posted Friday in docket 17-310. SHLB, Broadband Legal Strategies and Mitchell Law told an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that "processing delays and program uncertainties appear to be driving participants from the program." The groups asked the FCC to consider eliminating the Healthcare Connect Fund's internal funding cap or at a minimum removing multiyear funding commitments from the cap. They also asked that the rates database be discontinued (see 2204250008).
FCC commissioners will consider an NPRM during their June 8 meeting that would seek comment on rules for data collection of price and subscription rates of service offerings through the affordable connectivity program, said a sunshine notice Wednesday (see 2205170082). The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act mandated an annual data collection.
IP captioned telephone service provider Hamilton Relay backed Telecom Relay Service Fund administrator Rolka Loube's proposed per-minute compensation formulas for the multistate average rate structure, in comments posted Wednesday in FCC docket 03-123 (see 2205160065). Hamilton asked that the current IP CTS rate be extended until either June 30, 2023, or when the FCC adopts a rate "based on a sustainable, long-term rate methodology." It also asked the commission to refresh the record on a "long-term IP CTS rate methodology."