The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday approved an interconnected VoIP numbering authorization sought by DayStarr. The FCC sought comment on the application last month (see 2512020045).
In 2025 there were 15 new submarine cable systems, and 2026 is expected to add nearly 40 more, the highest annual total in more than a decade, Xona Partners said Wednesday in a white paper. It said investment is geographically broad, with intra-Asian routes attracting the most capital -- $1.2 billion over the past three years. More than 1.48 million kilometers of cable are in service today, and that number could grow 48% by 2040. Rather than financing new systems, the industry's big challenge is scaling repair capacity, governance and resilience at a pace that matches construction, Xona added.
The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, aka Team Telecom, told the FCC this week that it’s starting a review of Interactive’s proposed purchase of customers, network gear and other assets from TelNet. No one filed comments on the transaction when the Wireline Bureau requested them (see 2512050020). “The Committee will not be sending further Tailored Questions to the Applicant before starting the 120-day initial review period,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 25-189.
The FCC Wireline Bureau released Wednesday a final list of locations that are eligible for enhanced alternative Connect America cost model (A-CAM) support, as well as a final list of support amounts for carriers that reflects the updated locations. The locations list "incorporates all successful broadband speed and availability challenges" filed by Aug. 1, 2024, “along with all adjudicated challenges to the broadband fabric, including challenges to unit count totals,” the bureau said.
Consolidated Telcom filed this week in support of a petition to designate Griggs County Telephone Co. the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) for the Leonard and Kindred exchanges in North Dakota. In seeking the ILEC designation in August, Griggs said that after years of “deteriorating service quality and inadequate infrastructure investment by the legacy incumbent CenturyLink, Griggs invested substantially in comprehensive fiber-to-the-premises construction throughout” the exchanges. The network now serves some 95% of wireline subscribers and 66% of total subscribers in the exchanges, it said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday approved a request by Amherst Telephone Co. to transfer control of the company to the Amherst Communications Employee Stock Ownership Trust. The bureau sought comment in November (see 2511250013). The local exchange carrier provides service in parts of Portage, Marathon and Waupaca counties in central Wisconsin.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said Tuesday that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was chosen in a lottery to review the FCC’s recent controversial changes to rules for incarcerated people's communications services (see 2512300044). Industry officials said they expect that groups representing prisoners and their families will move to transfer the case to the 1st Circuit, which heard the appeal of the original 2024 order.
The FCC Wireline Bureau last week approved the National Exchange Carrier Association’s annual average schedule company high-cost loop support (HCLS) formula modifications. The bureau found that NECA’s results and cost-per-loop calculations “appear to be accurate and complete, and the proposed HCLS formula should reasonably approximate the CPL of the sample average schedule companies, and thereby allocate funds appropriately.”
A recent filing at the FCC from state attorneys general on wireline infrastructure changes confirmed that the states remain concerned about federal preemption of state AI laws, Robinson & Cole’s Linn Foster Freedman said in a blog post Wednesday. “Ultimately, there will be a battle between the federal government and state legislatures over AI regulation,” she wrote. “It is clear that the Trump administration seeks minimal regulation, despite the known risks, and state Attorneys General, charged with protection of consumers, feel very differently. I suspect we will see how it plays out in court.”
The FCC has signed off on modifying the cable landing license for the Hawaiki Submarine Cable System to authorize a new branch stretching to Vava’u, Tonga, according to a notation this week in the agency's International Communications Filing System. BW Group's Hawaiki system began operation in 2018 and connects Sydney, Australia; Mangawhai Heads, New Zealand; Tafuna, American Samoa; Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii; and Pacific City, Oregon. BW said the Tonga branch is expected to be operational in the first half of 2026.