Don’t misuse Maine USF to pay for a pole attachments database, a state senator and the cable industry told the Maine Public Utilities Commission. The PUC received mixed reviews by Friday’s deadline, in comments on a staff proposal to split the system’s costs 60-40 between pole owners and attachers, with the attachers and telephone pole owner Consolidated Communications able to recover the cost through state USF.

The California Public Utilities Commission should fine T-Mobile’s MetroPCS $10 million for insufficiently responding to a Sept. 27, 2021, data request in violation of CPUC rules, the agency’s Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division (CPED) said in a Thursday brief in docket I.22-04-005. The CPUC said in April that Metro faces up to $230 million in possible fines for failing to remit California USF payments for prepaid phone service, but Metro asked in May to dismiss the probe due to the pending court case (see 2207220067). "CPED has an absolute right to investigate MetroPCS’s compliance with the Prepaid Act and receive full, complete, and good faith responses to its data requests,” CPED said Thursday. "The Commission should find that MetroPCS’s failure to respond to the data requests denies the Commission the ability to conduct its investigation and enforcement by intentionally withholding information from CPED staff." The CPUC also should require the company to fully respond, CPED said. The company disagreed it should be penalized, in a separate brief Thursday. "MetroPCS’s reasonable, diligent, and good-faith conduct does not establish a violation of the Public Utilities Code or any Commission rule,” it said. "MetroPCS cannot be subject to a finding of liability (much less penalties) because CPED failed to comply with its obligations to timely advise MetroPCS of its purported concerns about the sufficiency of MetroPCS’s Response, thereby depriving MetroPCS of the opportunity to provide additional documents or to further explain its responses to individual CPED requests (many of which assumed incorrect facts and used vague terminology)." There was no material harm to consumers, property or the regulatory process, Metro added.

CTIA stood alone fighting to keep revenue-based contribution for California USF, in comments last week at the California Public Utilities Commission. CPUC members plan to vote Oct. 6 on a proposed decision to assess state public purpose program (PPP) fees based on a carrier’s number of access lines (see 2209060048). The wireless industry continued to staunchly oppose the change, but wireline and cable companies instead sought more implementation time and wording changes.

The FCC Wireline Bureau waived provisions of the E-rate, Emergency Connectivity Fund, Rural Health Care, COVID-19 Telehealth, Lifeline, and Affordable Connectivity Program rules for participants and USF contributors in Puerto Rico due to damage from Hurricane Fiona, said an order Thursday. The order includes extensions for E-rate, Rural Health Care and ECF deadlines, waivers of document retention rules for records destroyed by Hurricane Fiona, and increased flexibility for service substitutions. It also waives Lifeline non-usage, recertification and reverification requirements and ACP recertification and de-enrollment requirements for subscribers in Puerto Rico. “Given the damage caused by Hurricane Fiona to Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, strict compliance with these rules would be impracticable and would risk harm” to subscribers, the order said. The order also waives some USF requirements for affected contributors. “The extensive damage to property and facilities caused by Hurricane Fiona has rendered many providers unable to serve the Affected Disaster Areas.” The FCC disaster information reporting system showed 26.4% of cellsites down Thursday, and 703,576 wireline subscribers without service, compared with 741,451 Wednesday. The report shows five FM stations and four AM stations still out of service and no public safety access points down.

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by Oct. 14, replies Nov. 1, 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 Wednesday. The proposed formula would take effect Jan. 1.

Steve Berry, who is leaving the Competitive Carriers Association at the end of the year (see 2209130072) after 13 years as president, told reporters a top priority for the rest of the year is getting Congress to fully fund the rip and replace program needed to remove Chinese gear from small carrier networks (see 2209090053). The program faces a $3.08 billion shortfall. “We need to get that done, we need to secure our networks,” he said: “It was a decision made by Congress. Now we’ve got to make sure that they actually pay for it.”

Additional money to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and a short-term extension of the FCC’s expiring spectrum auction authority both remain under consideration as additions to a planned continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations past Sept. 30, but talks remain highly fluid, lawmakers and lobbyists told us last week. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and other committee leaders left open the possibility of a short-term auction authority renewal as a stopgap, telling us they hadn’t reached a deal during the August recess on a broader spectrum legislative package.

The California Public Utilities Commission may update USF contribution at its Oct. 6 meeting. Commissioners will consider assessing state public purpose program (PPP) fees “based on the number of active access lines a carrier operates,” said a Friday proposed decision in docket R.21-03-002. Customers would see one consolidated surcharge on monthly bills instead of six separate PPP fees, it said. Low-income LifeLine customers and incarcerated people wouldn’t have to pay surcharges, it said. Wireless companies and consumer groups last year panned a CPUC staff recommendation to shift to a flat, per-line surcharge (see 2112010014).

The FCC Wireline Bureau extended until Oct. 31 the deadline for high-cost USF recipients to submit annual use certifications, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 10-90. The waiver applies to eligible telecom carriers and states that are "not subject to the jurisdiction of a state."

The FCC won’t include funds for indirect full-time equivalents connected with aspects of the USF in calculating broadcaster regulatory fees but rejected many other broadcast proposals for reduced fees, said the FY2022 regulatory fees order and notice of inquiry released Friday. Radio stations that faced a 13% reg fee increase from 2021 will instead have an increase of 7% or 8%, broadcast industry officials said. Commissioners adopted the order unanimously Thursday. “Regulatory fees are not based on a precise allocation of specific employees with certain work assignments each year and instead are based on a higher-level approach,” said the order. Regulatory fees must be collected before the Sept. 30 end of the federal fiscal year.