The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition urged the FCC to support managed internal broadband services (MIBS) in comments on a Wireline Bureau public notice asking about the proposed eligible services list for FY 2026. Filings from SHLB and others were posted last week in docket 13-184 after the federal government reopened.

The FCC Wireline Bureau on Thursday approved Vero Broadband’s proposed purchase of BendTel, a locally owned and operated telecom provider in central Oregon (see 2508290059). In an order in docket 25-188, the bureau noted that it didn’t receive any comments or petitions opposing the deal.

Consumers’ Research and its allies urged the FCC to zero out the proposed USF contribution factor for Q1 (see 2511100035), despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer that the factor is constitutional (see 2506270054). “Several important arguments remain for why the USF, either in whole or in part, is unlawful, including in its application by the Commission,” said a filing Thursday in docket 96-45. The group makes a similar filing each quarter.

The main new information in the final version of the FCC’s incarcerated people's communications services order, released last week (see 2511070027), is that the inflation factor has added 1 or 2 cents to most of the rate caps, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative said in an email. “We didn't know before what the final impact of that factor was going to be.” The group updated an earlier blog post on the order to reflect that information.

The Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy urged the FCC on Monday to adopt policies making it easier for carriers to retire legacy copper lines (see 2510010031). Discontinuance rules were crafted in the Communications Act of 1934, noted the center's filing in docket 25-209. The rapid spread of AI technologies “will inevitably drive essentially all businesses to seek to both reduce costs and improve the quality of the goods and services they provide,” it added. The move from narrowband copper to broadband “has facilitated consumers’ ability to consume voice, data, and video services with speeds and quality that [were] unthinkable only a few short years ago.”

The National Emergency Number Association filed reply comments in the FCC's copper retirement proceeding last week, urging the agency to require carriers to continue supporting time-division multiplexing (TDM) as it moves to IP-based services. Next-generation 911 deployment “remains uneven, and many jurisdictions continue to rely on TDM for 9-1-1 today,” said a filing Thursday in docket 25-208. “During the transition to NG9-1-1, there is an interim period where both TDM-based Enhanced 9-1-1 and IP-based NG9-1-1 networks need to be maintained.”

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation urged the FCC this week to move forward on proposals making it easier for carriers to retire legacy copper lines (see 2510010031). Maintaining legacy networks is “becoming untenable, and consumers are best served when ISPs use resources to upgrade and deploy next-generation networks instead of sinking them into propping up a worse technology,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-208. The broadband market today is competitive, and “outdated” regulations put in place when incumbent local exchange carriers “dominated the market are no longer relevant and should be eliminated.”

Amazon said this week that it's building a submarine cable network, Fastnet, to connect Maryland and County Cork, Ireland. It's expected to become operational in 2028, it said.

The American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research urged the FCC to forbear from enforcing Communication Act Section 214 requirements in reply comments in the agency's copper retirement proceeding (see 2510010031). Carriers continue to build new networks “but are slowed by … outdated regulations,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-208. The FCC should update requirements “to bring them in line with the modern communications marketplace.” Industry has abandoned copper lines following the development of faster and more reliable technologies, but regulatory requirements remain, the group argued.

A nationwide transition to next-generation 911 “can’t wait another day,” 911 consultant Mark Fletcher said Wednesday in a "blog" filed in docket 25-208. “Each passing day widens the gap between what’s possible and what’s being delivered. The longer we continue to fund repairs on copper lines and patchwork solutions, the more we drain resources that could have been building the resilient, data-rich, and fully interoperable networks NG911 demands.” The U.S. emergency communications network “is itself on the brink of an emergency,” Fletcher said. “The choice before us isn’t whether to modernize -- it’s whether to do it before the next crisis makes that decision for us.” The country should move forward “with deliberate speed and informed caution” on transitioning to NG911, he added.