Comments are due Aug. 29, replies Sept. 30 for an FCC NPRM on a USF pilot program to support connected care for low-income Americans and veterans, says a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register and on docket 18-213. The three-year, $100 million program received broad support (see 1907100073).
Visiting the FCC eighth floor doesn’t have as much of a “dramatic impact” for the targets of enforcement proceedings as it can have in rulemakings, said Enforcement Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold in an FCBA brown-bag session Monday. Harold said she has regular meetings with commissioners and occasionally informs them of bureau proceedings to keep them from being surprised. Targets of enforcement actions only sometimes inform the Enforcement Bureau about eighth-floor visits, she said. “It doesn’t always happen,” Harold said.
California's Education Department opposes FCC-proposed USF changes (see 1905310069), saying a single funding cap would “not facilitate greater broadband access, promote operational efficiencies, or otherwise serve the public interest.” Establishing a single cap for E-rate and rural healthcare would violates Congress’ intent and slow schools’ progress on broadband connectivity, the department said, posted Friday in docket 06-122.
In the days before the sunshine period for August's FCC meeting, the eighth floor had a parade of parties urging tweaks or changes to the broadband mapping draft order on this coming Thursday's agenda. That's according to docket 19-195 postings.
The FCC boosting some standards for what type of broadband is eligible for Lifeline government subsidies caused some stakeholder confusion in the hours after Thursday's release at 3:13 p.m. EDT. Some state telecom and industry representatives were puzzled why the otherwise routine-looking staff action came as a CTIA et alia petition is pending (see 1906280012). The agency replied that the action was previously mandated. The Wireline Bureau public notice came a day after NARUC members approved a resolution asking the FCC to not make such changes (see 1907230040). The PN noted it's delivering on what a 2016 order envisioned.
Rural ISPs are optimistic on FCC plans to distribute up to $20.4 billion over 10 years through a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Chairman Ajit Pai floated earlier this year (see 1904150066). Sectors asked for modifications to a draft NPRM on rules on how to distribute the USF subsidies through a two-step reverse auction (see 1907110031). Commissioners are expected to vote at their Aug. 1 meeting on the NPRM.
Rural healthcare providers and the telecommunications companies that service them raised concerns in docket 17-310 about a draft report and order on promoting telehealth in rural America that the FCC has on its agenda for its Aug. 1 meeting (see 1907120003). Some are asking the agency to include recommended revisions before the commissioners vote, while others want to delay the vote altogether, until the September or October meeting, to give stakeholders more time to weigh in.
INDIANAPOLIS -- USF stakeholders scrutinized Viasat participation in an FCC auction of subsidies for voice and broadband to underserved rural America because they said the satellite provider indicates it could struggle to provide high-quality phone service. Viasat was such a major participant by some metrics it might have skewed the results, some said on a NARUC panel Tuesday and in follow-up interviews. The company seeks some related changes from the FCC. With the agency's members likely to vote next week on rules for the next high-cost auction, one consultant suggested Viasat not be included.
Proposed changes to how the FCC collects broadband deployment data should be some improvement over the oft-criticized Form 477-centric approach, though it also opens a potential can of worms with its crowdsourcing component, experts told us. Others see a catastrophic failure in the agency's not bringing retail pricing data into the mix. "It's tweaking a broken system," said Penn State telecom professor Sascha Meinrath. The proposal's on the FCC agenda for Aug. 1 (see 1907110071).
INDIANAPOLIS -- A now-combined state telecom commissioners' resolution asking the FCC to halt changes to the billion-dollar-a-year phone and broadband program for the poor passed its NARUC committee unanimously, in minutes. Such quick passage, while not atypical, shows lack of controversy among industry and state regulators for waiting on Lifeline revamps, attendees told us. There was no public discussion immediately before the vote and no one abstained, another sign stakeholders are on the same page, they noted.