The FCC Wireline Bureau approved a waiver for Indiana’s Rural Telephone Corp. (RTC) of the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund milestone and noncompliance rules to permit it to pay early a portion of the required support recovery for defaulting on eligible census blocks within census block groups (CBGs) in its RDOF-funded service area. “Our grant of this limited waiver serves the public interest because we are able to safeguard the public’s funds by recovering support early for CBGs RTC will not serve pursuant to its RDOF obligations,” said an order posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. The waiver also “enables RTC to come into compliance with its RDOF obligations in its remaining CBGs, allowing RTC to continue receiving support, so that RTC can serve consumers with voice and broadband,” the bureau said.
The FCC’s Wireline Bureau in a public notice Wednesday formally announced a host of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund defaults and said the defaulting companies will face RDOF penalties and, for one of them, possible enforcement action. The defaults -- by Mercury Wireless, PVT Networks, Cable One, Sparklight and Fidelity Cablevision -- were previously announced by the companies in letters to the Wireline Bureau, and encompass census block groups (CBGs) in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and New Mexico, the PN said. Mercury's defaults are being referred to the Enforcement Bureau “for further consideration,” the PN said. Mercury is defaulting on 9,082 model-estimated locations in Indiana out of the 13,529 it agreed to serve, and 55,175 of 77,925 locations in Michigan, the PN said. It also defaulted on all 8,398 locations it agreed to serve in Illinois, all 29 locations in Kansas and all 5,023 locations in Missouri. “We expect carriers to live up to their deployment commitments, and those who fail to meet their obligations can jeopardize the opportunity to bring broadband to the promised areas and undermine the integrity of the programs,” said the PN. “Such defaults are particularly regrettable when the carrier waits years after authorization to default, making it difficult to correct the problem and otherwise accommodate the defaulted areas in other deployment programs.” Many funding programs make areas ineligible for broadband deployment funding where a provider is already under an enforceable commitment to serve, the PN said. Formally announcing the defaults and informing other governmental entities “avoids leaving these areas unserved for the duration of the RDOF deployment terms because providers may now have access to alternative funding to serve these areas,” the PN said. “This was a very difficult decision for Mercury to make, as we continually strive to deploy highspeed broadband throughout rural America,” the company said in a letter Monday informing the FCC about some of the Michigan defaults. “Factors outside of the company’s control, including rising costs and competitive encroachment, have rendered deployment to many RDOF CBGs economically unviable and ultimately unachievable,” it added.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
A possible shakeup of the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) will be top of mind for state telecom regulators in the year ahead, NARUC Telecom Committee Chair Tim Schram said in an interview earlier this month at the association’s Anaheim meeting. USF is one of several areas of uncertainty in 2025, said three state consumer advocates in a separate interview at the collocated National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) conference.
The next FCC and Trump administration will place a major focus on deregulation of commercial space activities and streamlining the approvals processes, space policy experts tell us. In addition, some expect long-awaited clarity on what agency oversees novel space missions like in-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing, or asteroid mining. Moreover, the experts anticipate increased openness about the use of satellite communications in federal programs fighting the digital divide.
The extent to which the U.S. Supreme Court decides the USF challenge on theoretical rather than practical grounds could have major implications for whether the court issues a decision that overturns the program's funding mechanism. The court said last week it will hear a challenge to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision, which found the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.” Consumers' Research challenged the contribution factor in the 5th Circuit and other courts.
Caitlin Barbas, ex-FCC, and Morgan Schick, ex-Wilkinson Barker, join DLA Piper as associates in the firm’s Telecom Practice ... Information management software and services company OpenText appoints Fletcher Previn, Cisco Systems, to board.
Non-geostationary orbit startup Hubble Network is seeking authority for a four-satellite constellation that would operate in the UHF and S bands, providing Bluetooth Earth-to-space connectivity, according to an FCC Space Bureau application posted Tuesday.
SpaceX received the FCC Space Bureau go-ahead to provide commercial supplemental coverage from space services using its Starlink satellites, as expected (see 2410290033). In an FCC Space Bureau order issued Tuesday, the bureau said the direct-to-smartphone service -- in partnership with T-Mobile and using 1910-1915 MHz unlinks and 1990-1995 MHz downlinks on a secondary basis -- is unlikely to cause harmful interference with in-band terrestrial operations. In addition, the bureau said it's in T-Mobile's "best interest to ensure that SpaceX will not cause harmful interference." The bureau's "rigorous analysis" of SpaceX plans indicate the satellite company can adjust its equivalent isotropically radiated power in a way that won't cause interference with Omnispace, which had raised interference concerns with the agency (see 2410080045). The bureau said it also believes SpaceX can adequately protect adjacent-band users against interference from its downlinks. The bureau said it was deferring consideration of SpaceX's request for relaxed out-of-band power flux density limits (see 2408130008) but signed off on the company operating its second-generation satellites at a lower, 340-360 km orbital shell for D2D service (see 2403250003). And the bureau approved SpaceX's use of very high frequency beacons in that altitude range. The agency had signed off earlier this month on VHF beacons for second-generation Starlinks but not at those altitudes (see 2411210045).
Noting the lack of action on its 2019 applications for review (see 1905150057 and 1908020007), beIN Sports is urging that the FCC address the issue before the commission's January meeting. In a docket 13-384 filing posted Tuesday, it said carriage issues raised against Comcast that resulted in the applications for review still need addressing. The sports channel said the applications for review should be treated as reconsideration petitions, allowing the Media Bureau to make decisions about them.