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.
The FCC Wireline Bureau rejected arguments by Blackburn Technologies, a wholesale provider operating in Puerto Rico, for a waiver of the requirement that only facilities-based providers offering voice and broadband service to end users there are eligible for post-Irma and Maria support. Last year, the FCC adopted an order providing nearly $500 million to “expand and deploy fixed networks in order to give every American in Puerto Rico access to the same high-speed broadband service as those living on the mainland,” the bureau said in a Monday order in docket 18-143: “Based on the record before us, we find that the petitioner has not established good cause for us to deviate from the rule and, therefore, deny the requested relief.”
Comments are due Sept. 7, in docket 20-160, on a request by interconnected VoIP provider WhiteSky Communications for access to North American Numbering Plan phone numbers directly from the numbering administrators, said a Friday notice.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and former President Bill Clinton noted major broadband connectivity hopes Tuesday, if Democratic 2020 presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the November election. A Biden administration will “rebuild our infrastructure and make sure every home from inner city to rural America has broadband,” Schumer said during the Democratic National Convention’s Tuesday session. Clinton noted Biden’s plans for “a modern infrastructure that brings small town and rural America the connectivity and investment others take for granted.” Montana DNC delegate Rachel Prevost said during the event that “rural broadband can be a game changer for rural communities like mine, and [Biden] has a plan to make it happen.” Republican ex-officials and politicians with ties to the tech sector spoke in favor of Biden Monday (see 2008180053).
Comments are due Sept. 2, in docket 20-131, on a request by interconnected VoIP provider Voxtelesys for access to North American Numbering Plan phone numbers directly from the numbering administrators, said a Tuesday notice.
USTelecom representatives sought changes to proposed broadband data collections rules, in calls with FCC Wireline and Wireless bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff. “Require only a single category of reporting such as ‘mass market services’ as opposed to requiring providers to distinguish between residential and residential-and-business locations,” asked a filing posted Monday in docket 19-195: “This distinction is not relevant from a service availability standpoint and it would be unduly burdensome because providers do not currently code services in that way for business purposes or for FCC Form 477 reporting.” Data verification “can be achieved via the challenge and crowdsourcing resources alone and additional measures are not necessary,” the group said: Hold off on enforcement actions “for at least one full year after service providers begin reporting availability.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau updated a report Monday on the legacy support for competitive eligible telecom carriers offering service to fixed locations to include AT&T in California. The amount of annual support is $38,340. The carrier was “inadvertently omitted from the previous version,” the bureau said in docket 10-90.
CenturyLink settled with DOJ over claims it violated a divestiture plan related to approval of CenturyLink’s 2017 acquisition of Level 3, the Antitrust Division said Friday. U.S. District Court in Washington in 2018 approved the plan aimed at remedying antitrust concerns under Clayton Act Section 7 (see 1803080024). The company violated provisions barring it “from soliciting customers that switched to the buyer of the divestiture assets” by “initiating contact on over 70 occasions over more than a year with former Level 3 customers who elected to switch to” Syringa Networks, “the divestiture buyer in the Boise City-Nampa, Idaho” metropolitan area (see 1805310066), DOJ said. “CenturyLink does not deny the United States’ allegations.” The FCC also cleared the DOJ-required communications license transfers to Syringa and companies in two other metropolitan areas (see 1805010017). CenturyLink agreed to pay the federal government to “defray the costs of” DOJ’s “investigation of CenturyLink’s violations of the court order,” the department said. The company agreed to extend by two years its non-solicitation commitment period for the geographic area and allow appointment of an independent monitoring trustee. “When a defendant violates the terms of a settlement decree, it must be held accountable to its obligations,” said Antitrust Division head Makan Delrahim. “Today’s motion to amend the Final Judgment ensures that consumers get the benefit of competition otherwise lost by” CenturyLink/Level 3. “Although our views differed from the DOJ's on some issues, we are pleased to have reached an amicable resolution,” CenturyLink said in a statement. The FCC declined to comment; Syringa didn’t comment.
The FCC approved Embarq's sale of CenturyLink Public Communications to Inmate Calling Solutions (ICSolutions). The subsidiary of Embarq, which itself is a subsidiary of CenturyLink, provides inmate calling services to correctional facilities in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. “Because CenturyLink Public Communications relies on ICSolutions as its subcontractor for the correctional facility contracts ... we are persuaded by Applicants’ assertion that incarcerated individuals and their families will continue to receive all services post-merger without disruption and without the potential loss of an independent competitor,” the Wireline and International bureaus said in the order in docket 20-150 in Wednesday's Daily Digest: “ICSolutions will be better positioned to more effectively competitively bid for service contracts, especially for larger state department of corrections contracts.” The bureaus received no opposition to the application or other comments on its June 25 public notice (see 2006260002).
FirstLight Fiber's request to take control of BestWeb under Section 214 of the Communications Act was granted, effective Wednesday, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 20-176