The FCC Wireline Bureau Pricing Policy Division is investigating whether Lingo's proposed changes to its originating and terminating end office switched access rates are within bounds of the Communications Act and commission rules, said a docket 20-245 order in Friday's Daily Digest. The basis for the tariff revisions "are unclear," it said. The rate changes were scheduled to take effect Friday and the order suspended them for one day. Lingo didn't comment.
Network Communications International Corp. and Securus won't get USF contribution forbearance, FCC members ordered 5-0 Friday. That's "given the critical role" the fund "plays in bringing connectivity to rural and low income Americans, schools, libraries, and health care providers, and the statutory directive to collect equitable and non-discriminatory contributions from all providers of interstate telecommunications services." Both companies’ petitions were denied in an order saying inmate calling service providers must participate. "To exempt ICS providers from contributing to the Fund would undermine the broad funding base for universal service, would not be competitively neutral, and would not be in the public interest," said the order. “We’re basically taxing the people who should be benefiting from the USF,” said NCIC President Bill Pope in an interview. He was referring to those who are incarcerated and said he hasn’t decided whether he will try to challenge the FCC decision. A lawyer who has represented Securus didn't comment. NCIC wasn't expected to succeed in its request (see 2007170049).
The FCC won’t give broadband providers 90 more days to file annual 911 reliability certification. The online portal for receiving such filings is open, the Public Safety Bureau announced. The bureau denied waiver to USTelecom, which said COVID-19 is reason to delay the Oct. 15 deadline. The association “fails to state with sufficient particularity who needs relief from the Commission’s rule and why they need such relief,” the bureau said. “If USTelecom seeks an industry-wide or membership-wide waiver, the Waiver Request fails to establish that such broad relief is warranted.” The group didn’t comment Friday, the day the items were posted in the Daily Digest.
Comments are due Aug. 31, replies Sept. 29, on a July FCC in docket 17-59 on an NPRM implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (Traced Act), says Friday's Federal Register.
The FCC Wireline Bureau said comments are due Aug. 12, replies Aug. 19 in docket 20-184 on Syndeo buying Aero North, which provides competitive telecom services to businesses mainly in Stephenson County, Illinois, per Thursday’s Daily Digest.
Price-cap carriers getting Connect America Fund Phase II support based on the Connect America cost model have until Sept. 28 to tell the FCC whether they will get such funds for 2021, state by state. The companies would need to "continue providing broadband with performance characteristics that remain reasonably comparable to the performance characteristics of terrestrial fixed broadband service in urban America," under a previous order that Wednesday's Wireline Bureau public notice cited. The PN has other details for telcos' decisions.
An Incompas grandfathering proposal on dark fiber (see 2002060006) is “a reasonable path forward,” Uniti told the FCC. “The record in this proceeding conclusively shows competitive local exchange carriers continue to be impaired without unbundled network element access to dark fiber interoffice transport,” the company said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-308. “Recent AT&T and USTelecom filings ignore the evidence, which is replete within the Commission’s record, demonstrating the importance of unbundled Dark Fiber Transport to competitive last mile deployment" and a" lack of viable commercial alternatives."
Independent small LECs suggested ways to tighten proposed conditions in a California Public Utilities Commission plan to conditionally open 13 small LEC markets to wireline competition (see 2007060047). The CPUC may vote Aug. 6. CalTel and other rural telcos still disagree with opening the markets, but stronger conditions could help “avoid discrimination in build-out, prevent cream-skimming, ensure a level playing field ... and fulfill critical regulatory oversight and consumer protection functions,” they said Monday in docket R.11-11-007. Cable operators wanted the CPUC to open the markets, but the California Cable & Telecommunications Association condemned proposed conditions as “harmful to CLECs and ultimately to consumers.” They're “procedurally improper, discriminatory, overly burdensome” and will deter competitive entry, CCTA said. The Utility Reform Network “generally” supported the CPUC proposal. “It will remove entry barriers that currently prevent CLECs from expanding into the service areas of the Small LECs, while at the same time including appropriate protections to ensure that the benefits of competition are not so narrow as to undermine the public interest,” TURN said.
Affiliates of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital are buying Otelco. The telco has some 33,000 customers in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and South with an enterprise value of $105.6 million, the phone company said Monday. "We believe Oak Hill will provide the resources to speed up our network upgrade plan," said Chairman Stephen McCall. Q4 closing is expected.
FCC Form 481 is due Aug. 7 for some price-cap and competitive eligible telecom carriers getting legacy high-cost support, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Monday. The PN noted the previous deadline was delayed while Universal Service Administrative Co. changed its filing portal (see 2006260027). "USAC has now completed the changes" to "incorporate the rule from the 2019 Phase-Down Order," the PN said.