The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the National Lifeline Association's petition for a writ of mandamus (in Pacer) for FCC Lifeline minimum service standards in case 20-1460 (see 2101130061). The court cited "insufficient evidence of irreparable harm" Monday. The decision was disappointing, NaLA said, but it's "optimistic that the FCC, under new leadership and with a renewed focus on ensuring affordable access to broadband services for Lifeline-eligible subscribers, will finally address the problems created by an [MSS] rule and formula that fails to consider affordability," emailed John Heitmann of Kelley Drye.
Let ISPs offer bundled services as part of the $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit program, "Emergency Broadband Benefit Carriers" asked staff for FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, per a filing Friday in docket 20-445. Bundled offerings "that include talk and text is critical to the success of the EBB program"; otherwise it would "unnecessarily complicate matters for mobile carriers," the letter said. It didn't say which carriers participated. Members are UScellular, Smith Bagley, Cellular South and Cellular South Licenses, Union Wireless, Viaero Wireless and East Kentucky Network, according to past filings provided to us by agency officials. Lukas LaFuria, the law firm representing the carriers, didn't comment.
Frontier Communications is closely monitoring the winter storm events and power outages in several states, the company said Thursday. “Broadband service depends on local electric power and may be disrupted any time commercial power is out,” the telco said. “Commercial power companies maintain a hierarchy of customers -- such as hospitals, police and emergency responders -- which get priority restoration.”
The Biden administration should take more action on universal broadband access, trade groups wrote the White House Thursday. Reports about children doing their homework in parking lots due to a lack of broadband access are a "national tragedy," and the federal government should invest more in broadband and 5G infrastructure, per Incompas, NTCA and the Wireless Infrastructure Association. The groups asked the administration to increase "transparency and accountability by relying on verifiable maps that comply with Congress’ recently passed Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act." They support "any effort" to build on the $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit program.
The FCC will re-charter the North American Numbering Council for two years starting in the fall, a public notice said Tuesday. NANC membership nominations are due March 18.
The FCC extended the Rural Health Care program application filing deadline for FY 2021 until June 1, a Wireline Bureau order said Friday. "Hospitals and health clinics have been overwhelmed since the coronavirus,” said John Windhausen, executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, in a statement. Extending the filing deadline allows these institutions to “focus their attention and energy on what matters most: keeping Americans healthy throughout this crisis.”
The FCC granted Verizon's request for an extension waiver of its 180-day reserve number rule, said an order in Friday's Daily Digest.
The FCC is seeking comments by March 15, replies by March 30, in docket 20-425 on the National Exchange Carrier Association's proposed modifications to interstate average schedule formulas for settlement disbursements, a public notice said Friday.
Revisit the FCC 2011 rulemaking on videoconferencing requirements of the Communications and Video Accessibility Act, accessibility advocates asked FCC staff, per a filing posted Thursday in docket 10-213. Representatives of the Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, National Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America, Gallaudet University Technology Access Program, American Council of the Blind and American Foundation for the Blind attended. "As people move from conversing over phone calls to video conferences, users who are accustomed to connection through relay services cannot participate in this mode of calling as they previously did," they said. Open a docket to facilitate wireline real-time text and interoperability between wireless and wireline RTT, because calls to emergency numbers, for example, can't accept RTT messages, they said: "Especially in light of the prevalence of mental health issues over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is frightening that deaf and hard of hearing people cannot access 988 and 911 services" (see 2101270051).
Reverse unbundling network element rules based on "material errors in fact and law, omissions, and unsupported findings," Sonic Telecom asked the FCC in a petition for reconsideration in docket 19-308 posted Tuesday (see 2101070021). The rules were "based on data it knew is untrustworthy and unsubstantiated theories and predictions," Sonic argued, and its compromise proposal didn't include any fiber-to-the-home builder serving urban areas. The regulations were a product of "many months of good faith negotiations and significant give and take on both sides" and endorsed by the FCC in a bipartisan manner, a USTelecom spokesperson emailed: "At the eleventh hour a single company is seeking to upend this historic agreement and clog the FCC’s busy docket on what is a settled matter. That is their right, but we have a solid framework in place.”