Rural Americans' access to fiber is already increasing swiftly and will accelerate due to BEAD spending, said Meg Corriveau, manager-strategy and analytics at Cartesian, which conducted the Fiber Broadband Association's annual fiber deployment study, released Thursday. The fiber industry is "at an encouraging point," with record levels of fiber deployment going on despite economic headwinds, Corriveau said. Deployments "aren't going to slow down anytime soon."
AT&T Alabama and Alabama Power have settled AT&T's 2019 pole attachment complaint alleging that the utility was seeking "egregiously high" rates (see 1904250010), they said in a joint motion to dismiss posted Wednesday (docket 19-119). The motion didn't provide terms. The proceeding has been stayed since 2019 as the sides pursued arbitration (see 1908080034).
The National Sheriffs’ Association and ViaPath, a provider of incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS), separately filed in support of challenges to the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 (see 2501280053) in briefs filed this week at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The order reduces call rates for people in prisons while establishing interim rate caps for video calls (see 2407180039).
While there's a tendency in the media to see any subsea cable fault as the result of an attack, faults are common and long have been so, said Tim Stronge, vice president-research at telecommunications market research firm TeleGeography. Between 2010 and 2023, there were four a week on average; most were accidents caused by fishing and transport vessels, Stronge wrote Monday. Most never get publicly disclosed, he said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday sought comment by Feb. 19 on parts of AT&T's requests last week as it shutters more of its legacy copper network. The bureau created dockets for comments about moving customers off DS1 and DS3 services (docket 25-45) and retiring remote call forwarding services (25-46) and VoIP calling (25-47). AT&T plans to move aggressively in the new Donald Trump administration to cut costs by closing parts of its legacy network (see 2501310046).
Logista asked the FCC to overrule a Wireline Bureau decision rejecting the company’s pursuit of a waiver on a deadline for filing a Form 499-A revision, as well as late filing fees, penalties and interest. The form reports actual revenue billed during the prior calendar year, in this case for interconnected VoIP service. Logista also asked that parts of its filing remain confidential. The company said it filed its Form 499-A for 2023 in March and then in June sought to file a revised form. “Logista respectfully submits that it is not in the public interest to require it to pay an assessment calculated on the basis of a clerical error,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 06-122. The clerical error placed "a revenue amount in the wrong column,” which “significantly overstated Logista’s assessable telecommunications revenue.”
Brightspeed is more than halfway to its commitment to a 17-state fiber network that passes 3 million homes and businesses by fall 2027. In a docket 21-350 status report posted Monday, Brightspeed said that as of the end of 2024 the number of premises passed represented "more than half of the total commitment, in less than half the time." Data about states reached and the number of premises passed were redacted. The 17 states/3 million locations commitment was part of the FCC's 2022 approval of Brightspeed buying Lumen's incumbent local exchange carrier business (see 2208220049).
In an FCC filing on its proposed buy of Frontier, Verizon committed to comply with all USF requirements and related rules if regulators approve the deal. Verizon agreed to buy Frontier in a $20 billion all-cash deal announced in September (see 2409050010). “Verizon will, consistent with the continuation of Authorized Parties’ USF-related obligations post-transaction, assume all risks and consequences of noncompliance with program requirements, regardless of whether such noncompliance pre-dates or post-dates the consummation of the transaction, including default recovery of support and potential forfeiture penalties, in all supported areas,” said the filing, posted Friday in docket 24-445. Verizon said it will comply "regardless of any preexisting or reasonably foreseeable conditions that could impact the relevant Authorized Parties’ ability to meet USF-related obligations, including technical, marketplace, and on-the-ground conditions." It filed the commitments at the request of FCC Wireline Bureau staff, Verizon added.
As previewed during a recent financial call, it appears AT&T in recent days has been moving more aggressively to shut additional parts of its legacy copper network (see 2501270047). In December, in what AT&T executives saw as a model for future retirements, the FCC took no action, allowing AT&T to initially halt sales and then discontinue residential local service in nine Oklahoma wire centers (see 2412230066). AT&T CEO John Stankey said on the call that the carrier plans to file applications at the FCC to stop selling legacy products in about 1,300 wire centers, or about a quarter of the AT&T footprint. On Friday alone, the FCC posted retirement proposals for AT&T wire centers in Alliance, Ohio; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Easley, South Carolina; and Milwaukee.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Wednesday approved ZP Better Together’s request to continue providing video relay service (VRS) supported by the interstate telecommunications relay services fund following the acquisition of indirect ownership and control of ZP by Teleperformance Group. The bureau noted it sought comment in December, and none was filed. “Applicants state that ‘ZP currently meets or exceeds all mandatory minimum standards that are applicable to VRS and have not been waived by the Commission, and will continue to do so’ after the Teleperformance acquisition is consummated,” the bureau said.