Stakeholders favor the FCC Office of Native Affairs and Policy encouraging broadband deployment. Smith Bagley Inc. sought to enhance ONAP's role to encourage engagement between eligible telecom carriers and tribal governments, among comments posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. SBI said some tribal governments "have limited economic resources and lack the internal expertise in telecommunications necessary to conduct an assessment and provide feedback in a Tribal engagement process." MuralNet said ONAP must have a budget large enough "to hire sufficient staff to perform Tribal consultation activities, organize workshops, and attend meetings with Tribal leaders in their communities across Indian Country and at conferences." MuralNet supported a recommendation the tribal engagement requirement include Alaska native villages and Alaska tribal health organizations. ETCs need flexibility to meet the agency's tribal engagement obligations, said the Alaska Telecom Association. Clarify what constitutes good documentation and record-keeping on tribal engagement, urged the Montana Telecommunications Association. It wants to avoid appeals or penalties when "a provider believes it has complied with the guidance only to find out after the fact that the provider's documentation does not meet the [Universal Service Administrative Co.'s] interpretation of the guidelines." The Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority said lack of tribal government comments last month (see 1912060008) shows engagement isn't uniformly effective. OSTUA wants changes including that all carriers serving tribal lands, not just ETCs, engage with tribes. The FCC said Commissioner Brendan Carr plans to visit with Mescalero Apache Telecom and Mescalero Apache Reservation leaders in New Mexico this week.
The FCC Wireline Bureau is ready to authorize Connect America Fund Phase II support for Mid-Hudson Data alongside its participation in New York's state broadband program, said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest on docket 10-90. Mid-Hudson must file required documents including a letter of credit by Jan. 21. The FCC is authorizing more than $640,000 in CAF-II support for Mid-Hudson over 10 years for the 459 locations in 73 census blocks.
A Vermont agency asked electric utilities for broadband feasibility studies and business plans for rural unserved and underserved areas. Notices of intent are due Feb. 3, proposals March 9, the Department of Public Service said (login required) Thursday. It released a feasibility study of electric companies offering broadband. “Electric cooperatives are increasingly hearing from their memberships that broadband is an important but unmet need,” Commissioner June Tierney wrote Vermont Senate Finance Committee Chair Ann Cummings (D) and House Energy and Technology Committee Chair Tim Briglin (D). The report said “significant work by individual utilities interested in entering the broadband space will be required prior to becoming active participants.”
TDS bought the cable, broadband and business assets of Continuum, which had been owned by Mooresville and Davidson, North Carolina, for $80 million, the buyer said Thursday. It said Continuum employees were offered jobs with TDS and there are no immediate plans to change branding.
FCC Wireline, Wireless and International bureaus OK'd selling Frontier Communications' northwestern states telecom assets to Northwest Fiber. Thursday's order on docket 19-188 requires Frontier replicate operations support systems and offer OSS support for up to three years to help minimize service disruptions. Consumer advocates hope the deal leads to better rural broadband (see 1910040023). The companies announced the $1.35 billion transaction in May (see 1905290042). DOJ weighed in because some Northwest Fiber owners aren't U.S. citizens (see 1907010037). FCC approval is conditioned on Northwest Fiber's following a letter of agreement with DOJ. The order doesn't adopt Montana Sky's requests (see 1908090024).
Prioritize 5G buildouts in high-demand agriculture states, Deere asked the FCC in docket 10-90 Thursday and in meetings Wednesday with the Wireless and Wireline bureaus, Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and Office of Economics and Analytics. It sought improved data collection and mapping techniques that accurately identify gaps in mobile coverage areas. The company outlined potential mapping tools that would combine cell tower data from the FCC and publicly available crop information from the Agriculture Department. Deere shared a coverage analysis of several states using such tools. The FCC proposes $1 billion for precision ag (see 1912040027).
California privacy advocates plan to collect signatures for a ballot initiative to tighten the California Consumer Privacy Act, said Californians for Consumer Privacy. Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) released the title and summary for the California Privacy Rights Act Tuesday. It needs 623,212 registered voter signatures to get on 2020’s ballot (see 1909260013). State Senate Majority Leader Robert Hertzberg (D) supported the effort: “What we’ve realized is that we need to create a strong and effective privacy protection agency that will stand the test of time.” The AG collected comments for a CCPA rulemaking this month (see 1912160047).
Reps. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., led a letter with 52 other House members Tuesday urging FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to ensure the $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 1905010188) prioritizes “deployment of sustainable networks that are capable of meeting consumer demands now and into the future.” Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and 47 other senators wrote a similar letter earlier this month (see 1912090068). “If our rural communities are to survive and flourish, our rural constituents need access to services that are reasonably comparable with those in urban areas,” the House lawmakers wrote. “It would be an inefficient use of resources to promote services that cannot keep pace with consumer demand and the evolution of broadband in urban areas." The agency "received the letter" and is "reviewing" it, a spokesperson said.
The California attorney general’s office released privacy comments due Dec. 6 in its California Consumer Privacy Act rulemaking. The office posted more than 1,700 pages across seven PDF files on its CCPA website. We requested them Dec. 6 via the California Public Records Act, and reported on filings sent to us (see 1912060047). Monday, the office didn't say if more filings are to be posted later.
FCC staff is talking with officials in California, Oregon and Texas on agreements to check eligibility of those states' low-income subsidized broadband and phone service subscribers, Chairman Ajit Pai told us after a commissioners' meeting. "I expect those agreements will be reached and [the] verifier stood up in those states by the end of the year. We are making progress." FCC employees are working with other agencies so the national verifier can "ping," or check with, other databases to confirm subscriber eligibility, he said. An announcement, possibly by the FCC, is possible this weekor by Dec. 31 on continuing the national verifier's rollout, officials indicated Thursday. It could involve the three states, which are apparently the last where the NV hasn't been introduced in any fashion. Earlier this week, FCC staff said Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin are the next states to get the NV, without setting a hard-launch date. That prompted stakeholders to say the FCC appears to be backing down from a 2016 plan to require the NV in all states by the end of this year.