The FCC Enforcement Bureau reminded telcos serving the incarcerated of their obligations under federal inmate calling service rules. “Failure to comply ... may subject providers to enforcement action, including monetary forfeitures,” the bureau advised Friday.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment Thursday on Sorenson and CaptionCall’s application for certification to provide IP captioned telephone service supported by the TRS Fund. Comments are due Dec. 21, replies Jan. 5 in docket 03-123.
Comments are due Dec. 21, replies Jan. 11 on feasibility and cost of including an automatic dispatchable location that would be conveyed with calls to the 988 suicide prevention hotline, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday. The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 requires a report to Congress on location identification, the bureau said. The PN said the July 2022 implementation date for 988 is unchanged, but the Oct. 16, 2020, effective date of 988's designation as the three-digit hotline number was superseded by the effective date set by the Suicide Hotline Act -- Oct. 17, 2021.
The exemption for voice service providers found to meet certain implementation benchmarks from the June 30 caller ID authentication implementation deadline is effective Nov. 17, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The exemption was part of the caller ID authentication order adopted Sept. 29 (see 2009290052).
Citing the need to extend online connectivity in Montana's Blackfeet Reservation, the FCC Wireline Bureau signed off on a 3 Rivers Telephone Cooperative/Siyeh Communications petition for a waiver of FCC rules to apportion 3 Rivers' current Connect America Fund intercarrier compensation base period revenue between 3 Rivers and SiyCom. The order in Tuesday's Daily Digest also initialized SiyCom’s tariffed rates at 3 Rivers’ current rates and let SiyCom immediately join the National Exchange Carrier Association and NECA’s traffic-sensitive tariff. The waivers will let SlyCom go through with its 3 Rivers purchase without putting more burdens on the USF or raising rates, it said.
All eligible price cap carriers currently getting Connect America Fund Phase II support based on the Connect America cost model have opted for an additional seventh year of such support, as was allowed in February's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund order (see 2002070031), the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Monday. It said the Universal Service Administrative Co. now must disburse USF amounts to carriers starting in January.
ITalk Global Communications CEO Jack Zhao of Potomac, Maryland, and a former Harvard College fencing coach face charges of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery for an alleged scheme to get Zhao's sons admitted to the school as fencing team recruits in exchange for $1.5 million in bribes, DOJ said Monday. Virginia-based iTalk didn't comment.
The FCC Wireline Bureau authorized Montana’s SiyCom to receive alternative Connect America cost model II-based support for an eight-year period starting Jan. 1, subject to its designation as an eligible telecom carrier. The authorized support is $1.5 million per year, said a Friday order in docket 10-90.
The tariff rates the FCC set for Aureon Network Services in its rate dispute with AT&T are a form of rate regulation "not found anywhere within the Communications Act or the FCC’s legislative rules," upending the law's goals of "predictability, stability, and balanced interests." That's according to petitioner Aureon in an opening brief Friday (docket 18-1258, in Pacer) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Aureon and AT&T are challenging the FCC's 2019 order eliminating access arbitrage (see 1909300023). The FCC had a much simpler option of setting rates that covered Aureon's regulated costs and earning the agency-prescribed rate of return, and the agency never explained why rate-of-return regulation wasn't sufficient by itself, the brief said. The FCC didn't comment.
The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee meets virtually Dec. 17 at 11 a.m. EST, the FCC said Thursday. The BDAC “will consider and vote on a report and recommendation from the Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities working group,” it said. It last month couldn't finalize a report from that WG (see 2010290057).