Lumen representatives sought reform of access charges for 8YY calls, in meetings with aides to FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. “The current regime creates incentives for inefficiency and abuse,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-156. “Almost a decade after the Transformation Order, in which the Commission declared its intent to reform all access charges, the Commission should seize this opportunity.”

E-rate support for broadband won’t matter in a security breach, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction said in a Tuesday letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai posted in docket 13-184. The state agency supported Cisco’s waiver petition to permit schools and libraries to use E-rate Category Two funding for network security costs (see 2009080026). Granting a waiver for the 2020 program year might be tricky, but the FCC could grant Cisco’s petition for 2021 and seek comments on a waiver for 2022, the department said.

Comments are due Oct. 13, in docket 20-248, on an application by interconnected VoIP provider Astro Telco for authorization to obtain North American Numbering Plan telephone numbers directly from the numbering administrators, said a Monday FCC notice.

A USTelecom proposal to exempt some small voice service providers from a proposed two-year extension of caller ID authentication requirements is raising ACA Connects concerns. The group said in a docket 17-97 posting Friday that it backs the goal of clamping down on providers that knowingly originate big volumes of illegal robocalls, but there's not enough time to see if the USTelecom proposal could also entangle legitimate voice providers that the FCC plainly is including in the small provider exemption in the draft order. It urged the FCC to get comment on the proposal. USTelecom, in meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and the commissioners, said the secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and secure handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) implementation draft order on Wednesday's agenda (see 2009090048) proposed the two-year extension exception for small voice service providers that originate a disproportionate amount of traffic relative to their subscriber base. USTelecom recommended the FCC expand its robocall mitigation program requirement to all domestic traffic and on intermediate providers and get more comment on restricting intermediate providers from taking traffic from foreign voice service providers while not disrupting legitimate calls. CTIA urged its own modifications. They included seeking further comment on barring providers from accepting voice traffic from foreign voice service providers that haven't registered or certified and extra time between the filing deadline for robocall mitigation program certifications and the effective date of not accepting traffic from providers that don't appear in the database.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 4-0 to clear Frontier Communications' bankruptcy reorganization but pledged to investigate the impact of the carrier’s “virtual separation.” Chair Katie Sieben was absent. Communications Workers of America raised concerns nationally about virtual separation, saying it could mean separating fiber deployment from copper operations, possibly to some areas’ detriment. Frontier sought to reassure policymakers it’s only an internal exercise (see 2009090055). At Thursday’s livestreamed virtual meeting, Commissioner John Tuma proposed an investigation as an “early warning system” to notify local governments if Frontier doesn’t invest in fiber in their areas. Frontier officials disagreed with requiring the inquiry in the same order clearing the reorg because they said it might prevent them from emerging from Chapter 11. Citing her experience with bankruptcy cases, Commissioner Valerie Means agreed that might be problematic. Tuma at first disagreed, saying it didn’t create a condition on the commission’s approval, but later agreed not to mention the probe in the decision. Instead, Tuma announced he was making a “clear signal” the “investigation will be opened ... before bankruptcy is completed.” Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Richard Dornfeld supported approving the deal despite no most-favored-state provision and lingering concerns about service quality, especially rural. Frontier earlier got OK from U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, plus several states. Reorg remains under review by others and federally (see 2009210055).

USTelecom supports a draft order set for a Wednesday vote (see 2009090048), asking the FCC to focus on “the status of currently pending referrals to Team Telecom that would not have been referred under the new rules” and the “treatment of referrals to Team Telecom between the time of Commission vote and the time the Report and Order is published,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 16-155. Team Telecom is DOD, DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security.

The FCC Wireline Bureau is giving customers in California and Oregon a break through June 22 by not reassigning discontinued phone numbers after 90 days under the “aging” rule. “Customers who have been displaced by the wildfires … may want to discontinue their service temporarily and reinstate it" later, said an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest: Due to “the catastrophic nature of the damage to telecommunications systems in California and Oregon, we expect that in many cases these customers may seek to reinstate their service after the 90-day period."

Hamilton Relay asked the FCC to extend the $1.58 per minute IP captioned telephone service rate until June 30 and “then initiate a rate that is no lower than $1.42 from July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022, followed by a rate that is no lower than $1.30 until June 30, 2023.” Hamilton representatives spoke with aides to the five commissioners, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-24. Commissioners vote Sept. 30 on revised rates (see Ref:2009090048]). “Despite the clear consensus in the record supporting a sustainable 4-tiered rate methodology for IP CTS, the Commission has instead proposed to adopt an archaic, single-rate, cost-based methodology approach that is unsupported in the record and was long ago discarded by state and federal regulators,” the company said.

Windstream exited bankruptcy after the FCC cleared the carrier to emerge (see 2008310053). Windstream reduced its debt by more than $4 billion, about two-thirds, and now can access about $2 billion in new capital, it said Monday. “We now have an enhanced balance sheet and a robust capital investment program to expand 1 Gig Internet service in rural America and maintain our product and software leadership in SD-WAN and UCaaS for enterprise customer,” said CEO Tony Thomas.

Frontier Communications’ bankruptcy reorganization faces foreign investment review by the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in U.S. Telecom Services, DOJ told the FCC Monday in docket 20-197. “The Committee is conducting an initial review to assess whether granting the Applications will pose a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests.” Frontier provided complete responses to first questions by the committee, which plans to complete initial review sooner than 120 days, it said. The deal remains under review by the FCC and several states (see 2009090055), with Minnesota Public Utilities Commissioners voting Thursday (see 2009110013). “The FCC review is progressing as anticipated," said Frontier Senior Vice President-Federal Affairs Ken Mason. "Today's letter from DOJ was one more expected step."