The Q4 USF contribution factor is 29.1%, said an FCC Office of Managing Director public notice Friday. This was expected (see 2109010077).

NTCA, Incompas, Public Knowledge and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition will release a "USForward" report Monday that "highlights the need for USF contribution reform, analyzes options for doing so, and provides recommendations on how best to reform this essential support mechanism," said a news release Friday. Consultant Carol Mattey, who wrote the report, will join the groups for a news briefing at 11 a.m. EDT.

The FCC will issue the first round of Emergency Connectivity Fund funding commitments "in the very near future," said Wireline Bureau Telecom Access Policy Division Attorney-Adviser Molly O'Conor during an FCC Consumer Advisory Committee meeting Friday. The committee also heard updates on the emergency broadband benefit program, COVID-19 telehealth program and the commission's efforts to curb illegal robocalls. CAC expects FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to "assign specific topics" for the working groups to make recommendations about, said Chairman Steve Pociask.

Households participating in the free and reduced price school lunch or breakfast this school year are now eligible for the emergency broadband benefit, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice. Households with a student enrolled in a school participating in the community eligibility provision are also eligible.

Charter agreed to withdraw support for 161 census blocks in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin that it provisionally won during the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction if the agency agrees to waive all penalties, said a petition for waiver posted Wednesday in docket 19-126 (see 2108130061). Charter said it will meet all program requirements for the remaining census blocks listed in an FCC July letter (see 2107260044).

Emergency broadband benefit program providers have until Sept. 15 to certify reimbursement claims for services provided in July if they uploaded their claims but were unable to complete the certification of those claims by Aug. 16, said an FCC Wireline Bureau docket 20-445 order listed in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The bureau previously granted a similar waiver for providers that were unable to certify claims for services provided in May and June (see 2108100063).

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comment by Oct. 4, replies by Oct. 19, in docket 05-337 on National Exchange Carrier Association-proposed changes to the average schedule USF high cost loop support formula, said a public notice posted in Friday's Daily Digest. The new formula would take effect on Jan. 1.

Some proposed rules for withdrawing basic local exchange service (BLES) could be unlawful, phone and cable companies commented Wednesday. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) is weighing draft rules in docket 14-1554-TP-ORD to implement a 2019 state law and allow ILECs to forego carrier of last resort obligations (see 2108250050). The law lets ILECs withdraw or abandon BLES in exchanges where they get FCC permission to withdraw the interstate portion, provided they give 120 days' notice to affected customers, who can petition PUCO for relief if they can’t find a “reasonable and comparatively priced service.” AT&T said PUCO’s proposal contains “fatal defects,” warning that the commission can't go beyond what the legislature required. One problem is a proposal to add a 30-day notice requirement for sole providers of voice service, which the legislature didn't require and is overbroad because voice includes more than BLES, AT&T said. It means VoIP could be improperly included, commented the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association: The law didn't authorize extending authority over voice providers. The Ohio Telecom Association said PUCO would exceed its statutory authority if it expands the law’s definition of “reasonable and comparatively priced service” to say that a service “is presumptively deemed competitively priced, subject to rebuttal,” if the rate doesn’t exceed either the ILEC’s BLES rate by more than 20% or the FCC’s urban rate floor. The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and other consumer advocates said PUCO’s proposed definition of the same phrase is “vague regarding which threshold would apply for determining that a service is presumptively deemed ‘comparatively’ priced.” Require customer notices to be clear and mailed separately from phone bills, advocates said.

Redwire received a one-year extension of the waiver of the letter of credit requirement for the Connect America Phase II auction, said an FCC Wireline Bureau, Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force, and Office of Economics and Analytics order Thursday in docket 10-90. Redwire must enter into at least one binding agreement with a service provider and that provider "must agree to assume all of the obligations associated with Redwire's Auction 903 support" within 90 days, the order said. The service provider must also seek eligible telecom carrier designation in Oklahoma and with the FCC to cover the areas Redwire was authorized to receive support and apply to transfer Redwire's Communications Act Section 214 authorization.

Apollo affiliate Connect will acquire nine of Lumen's winning Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction bids to serve 32,580 locations if the FCC approves the companies' proposed $7 billion sale, said a transfer of control request filed by Lumen Wednesday (see 2108030077). Lumen asked for a waiver of the prohibition on major changes to RDOF applications to facilitate the proposed transaction. The deal would also include the transfer of one international Communications Act Section 214 license. Lumen has started filing its state applications where required, emailed a spokesperson.