A total of 505 short-form applications were received for the Rural Digital Opportunities Fund Phase 1 auction, with 121 deemed complete and 384 incomplete, said a public notice Tuesday. Corrected, completed applications for the Oct. 29 auction must be submitted by Sept. 23 to participate, the notice said: “Late resubmissions will not be accepted.” The Office of Economics and Analytics also denied five requests for waivers of the short-form deadline, from Native Network, SmartSky Networks, Affinity Technology Solutions, Elektrafi and Little Miami Gig. “None of the Petitioners has met the essential requirement of showing that waiving the deadline will serve the public interest,” said an order Tuesday. “Enforcing the deadline, not waiving it, is fundamental to the public interest in an effective auction mechanism for distributing universal service support.”

The FCC cleared Windstream to emerge from bankruptcy. In one notice in Monday's Daily Digest, the Wireline, Wireless and International bureaus granted applications to transfer licenses to the reorganized company, and conditionally granted a request for temporary and limited waiver of sections 1.948, 1.5000(a)(1), 63.03, 63.04, 63.18 and 63.24 of FCC rules. The Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics granted a conditional waiver of sections 1.2105(b)(2), 1.2107(c) or 1.927(h), “to permit it to complete a transaction that amounts to a transfer of control prior to filing a long-form license application and/or prior to the grant of such licenses to the winning bidder.” Another PN let Windstream transfer 3,966 fiber route miles of fiber assets to Uniti. Windstream “is positioned to emerge in the coming weeks from restructuring following FCC approval of our application, which came on the heels of the successful completion of our exit financing,” said CEO Tony Thomas. “Windstream will have a strong balance sheet and liquidity position when we emerge to continue to invest in our business.”

Syndeo Networks' ask to take control of Aero North under Section 214 of the Communications Act was granted effective Saturday, per an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Monday.

The National Lifeline Association (NaLA) petitioned the FCC for a waiver to keep the minimum service standard for Lifeline mobile broadband at 3 GB (see 2008240024), said the petition posted in docket 11-42 Thursday. Under the current rules the standard will automatically increase to 11.75 GB in December, and a proposal on circulation at the FCC would change the way the MSS is calculated and set it at 4.5 GB. The NaLA petition also wants the agency to keep Lifeline voice support at $7.25 instead of decreasing it to $5.25 as planned. “While the record contains no evidence to demonstrate that any increase above 3 GB would be affordable, there is ample evidence in the record that any increase above 3 GB would mandate service offerings that are not affordable and would result in less access to Lifeline,” NaLA said. The reasons that led to the FCC issuing a similar waiver in 2019 are still in effect, said the petition. In 2019, the agency “improperly” dismissed record evidence about Lifeline rates and shouldn’t do so again, NaLa said. “All Lifeline stakeholders, including the service providers, public interest, civil rights and consumer advocates and policymakers of both parties are in agreement that the Commission should pause the mobile broadband MSS at 3 GB.” The agency should grant the waiver pending the results of the planned 2021 State of the Lifeline Marketplace Report, NaLA said. “We agree with the Chairman that the cycle of annual mobile broadband MSS crises must come to an end.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved a transfer application under which Great Plains Communications will acquire full ownership of Miles Enterprises and various subsidiaries. The assets include Sunman Telecommunications, an ILEC serving southeast Indiana, Miles Communications, which provides facilities-based competitive LEC services in the same area, and Sunman Long Distance, which provides competitive resold long-distance services in Indiana. The bureau imposed a condition, that “the combined operating expenses of the post-consummation company’s rate-of-return affiliates shall be capped at the averaged combined operating expenses of the three calendar years preceding the transaction’s closing date for which the operating expense data are available," said a Friday order in docket 20-193.

Frontier Communications raised concerns about proposals for 8YY overhaul that would eliminate 8YY access charges (see 2008250033). The change “would result in revenue losses and … Frontier would not enjoy any offsetting reduction in payment of access charges associated with such traffic,” the company told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-156. Due to continued rate regulation at the state and federal level and federal caps on rates imposed by the 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation Transformation Order, Frontier said it "cannot simply raise overall rates to compensate for lost revenues.”

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York permanently barred two individuals and two companies that allegedly transmitted hundreds of millions of fraudulent robocalls from operating as intermediate VoIP carriers, DOJ said Wednesday. “As alleged in a civil complaint filed earlier this year,” spouses Nicholas and Natasha Palumbo of Scottsdale, Arizona, and their companies, Ecommerce National, doing business as TollFreeDeals.com, and SIP Retail, doing business as sipretail.com, “received millions of internet based calls every day from other entities, often located abroad,” DOJ said. “The defendants transmitted those calls first to other carriers within the United States, and ultimately to the phones of individuals, knowing that the calls were fraudulent government and business-imposter robocalls.”

Oak Hill Capital Management, which is buying Otelco (see 2007270024), asked the FCC International Bureau to approve the transfer of control of assets under Section 214 of the Communications Act, they said in a joint application Tuesday. They said Oak Hill's current portfolio also includes Metro FiberNet, Vast Broadband, Vexus, CMN-RUS and Jaguar Communications.

Comments are due Sept. 7, replies Sept. 14, on a proposed transfer of wireline assets in Oregon from Comspan to Douglas Fast Net. The docket is 20-253, said an FCC Wireline Bureau notice in Tuesday’s Daily Digest.

USTelecom and its members urged the FCC to act on a February consensus proposal on toll-free access rates (see 2006080002). Representatives spoke with aides to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-156. “USTelecom explained that it represents a wide variety of stakeholders in this proceeding and accordingly filed a negotiated compromise resolution to move forward with 8YY reform in a manner that is consistent with the principles of the 2011 USF/ICC [intercarrier compensation] Transformation Order, reduces arbitrage, and is legally sustainable,” the group said: Each component of the compromise “including the transition timelines, rates, and ability to recover revenues” is “necessary to get sufficient member support amongst various stakeholders to move forward.” Carriers on the calls included Verizon, Frontier and Windstream. NTCA discussed the issue in a call with Wireline Bureau staff. “Make explicit in any upcoming order … that, in the absence of mutual agreement, no party may force a change to any RLEC’s existing interconnection points that define financial responsibility for interconnection and transport of calls pursuant to any tariff, contract, or other arrangement even if the intercarrier compensation rates applicable under such vehicles may be altered by a Commission order,” the group said.