The FCC concluded that education and outreach are the "best ways to facilitate voluntary adoption" of best practices issued by the commission's hospital robocall protection group, said a public notice in Monday's Daily Digest. The working group identified a "risk mitigation framework" for hospitals, voice service providers and governments to block and prevent suspected robocalls.
Edison Electric Institute told FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's staff that "confusion persists" on pole attachment refund rules, said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-84. It asked the commission to consider its petition for declaratory ruling on the statute of limitations for pole attachment complaint proceedings and that refunds "are not 'appropriate' for any period preceding good faith notice of a dispute" (see 2104210046). EEI said there's no opposition to its request and it has spoken with other commissioners' staff.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau granted Communication Services for the Deaf's application to access the telecom relay services numbering directory as a qualified direct video entity, said a public notice Friday.
The Q3 USF contribution factor is 31.8%, confirmed the FCC Office of Managing Director Thursday.
The revised inmate calling services database is now available, said an FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest. The database includes new ICS rates the commissioners adopted in May (see 2105200044).
Conexon is willing to default on winning Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction bids in some areas and withdraw its pending eligible telecom carrier designation if the FCC waives default requirements and penalties, said a petition posted Wednesday in docket 19-126. Conexon said the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe expressed concerns that the census blocks Conexon won may preclude the tribes from receiving NTIA funding to build a fixed wireless broadband network using 2.5 GHz.
The FCC Wireline Bureau OK'd 56 petitions for eligible telecom carrier designation Monday, said an order in docket 09-197. Such designation is required for winning Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction bidders to complete their long-form applications and be designated as ready to receive support.
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comment by July 8, replies July 23, in docket 10-90 on Yukon-Waltz Telephone's waiver of certain USF rules, said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Yukon-Waltz asked to convert its current cost-based ratemaking and revenue settlements to average schedule methods.
Telecom relay services providers must submit summaries of their consumer complaint logs by July 1, said an FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Tuesday on docket 03-123.
Arizona Corporation Commission members criticized Frontier Communications' 911 reliability, at a hybrid livestream and in-person meeting Tuesday. Commissioners voted 5-0 to investigate the carrier on recent 911 service outages (see 2106020063). “This is an urgent situation,” said ACC Chairwoman Lea Marquez Peterson (R). Commissioner Sandra Kennedy (D) said she isn’t surprised by Frontier's problems. When the probe is done, the commission should act “very strongly and not just do something to be doing it,” she said. Frontier must acknowledge this is a “public relations problem of enormous proportion,” said Commissioner Jim O’Connor (R). “Your house is burning down.” Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Allison Ellis apologized for the company’s recent service issues and said the company is reviewing its network and systems to better support 911, with one strategy to find ways to increase redundancy. Public safety officials calling in later appeared unsatisfied. “To hear that they're going to do something is, I guess, OK,” but the problems are a “severe public safety concern,” said Saint Johns Police Department Chief Lance Spivey. He cited eight 911 failures there since 2017. Rural Arizonans “shouldn't have to worry about [if] 911 is going to work,” he said. In the past three years, the Navajo County Sheriffs Office submitted about 150 service tickets to Frontier about problems, said Lt. Alden Whipple. Outages affecting all of northeastern Arizona lasted hours, he said: “It’s just unacceptable.”