Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner Andrew Place shares stakeholder worries from initial comments to the FCC NPRM on capping the USF at $11.42 billion. The “hard cap” could reduce "needed support for the continuous deployment of broadband access networks and services," he replied in docket 06-122, on his behalf and not the PUC's. It could "create an artificial and unnecessary competition for funding resources between the constituent programs," he said. Place noted the FCC's plan came without "finalizing its long-standing proceeding on the reform of the federal USF contribution base and methodology in conjunction with the corresponding referral to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service." Other replies posted earlier this week raised similar points (see 1908270053).
An Arizona municipality apparently seeks U.S. funding for facilities served now by local ISPs. FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly asked Cochise County Schools Superintendent Jacqui Clay for answers by Sept. 21, copying Universal Service Administrative Co. CEO Radha Sekar. The county’s Education and Technology Consortium issued a request for proposals last August, under the FCC E-rate program, to build a wide area network to deliver fiber-based broadband to all the locality's schools and libraries, O'Rielly wrote Monday, in a letter released Tuesday. The consortium now seeks funding for new fiber buildouts to the county’s 46 school and library locations, "even though most of these schools and libraries already have a fiber-based" connection, he added. The RFP also sought bids for eight county government locations ineligible for E-rate, he said. The consortium apparently seeks "an astronomical level of funding for fiber construction to the private residence of the Cochise Technology District Superintendent," he wrote: The contract for $29 million of public funding "appears to lead to wasteful and duplicative" spending. After bids from two national providers, the consortium gave the contract to "a provider with barely any facilities in the area and will need to either overbuild existing fiber networks or lease capacity from incumbent providers," O'Rielly wrote. The companies weren't identified, and O'Rielly's office didn't ID them upon our request. Clay's deputy and USAC didn't comment.
CenturyLink asked the FCC to tell states and localities they must not discriminate against interconnected VoIP services when they adopt 911 charge regimes, said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-44 (see 1906100039). It responded to Alabama 911 districts on a petition about the meaning of interconnected VoIP and the prohibition of 911 charges on VoIP customers. The company said the FCC need not resolve all questions of 911 service implementation, such as prioritization between VoIP and TDM lines and the ability to increase capacity to temporarily deal with high call volume, "to conclude that states cannot discriminate" by charging more for 911 service on VoIP lines.
Lack of rural broadband access extends beyond communities focused on farming, the American Action Forum reported. AAF found 21 percent of people in rural farming counties lacked broadband, compared with 13 percent in rural counties that claimed recreation a key employer. Regions immediately surrounding "micropolitan" cores are among the most likely to struggle with broadband access, the group said Wednesday. AAF said it was challenged getting data because different groups define broadband differently (see 1707210036). It said recent FCC reports define broadband as fixed terrestrial services 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up, excluding satellite that's "advanced in recent years." It said that when satellite is considered, "official statistics jump up," and then just 14 million Americans lack access: "If the FCC were to shift the broadband speed threshold slightly" to 24/2 Mbps up instead of 25/3, "then nearly 1.5 million more people would have access." Some policymakers want minimum performance standards raised (see 1908090012).
The FCC authorized $121 million to expand rural broadband to 36,579 unserved rural homes and businesses in 16 states in a fourth round of support from last year's Connect America Fund Phase II auction, per docket 10-90. Overall, last year's CAF II auctions allocated $1.49 billion to expand broadband to more than 700,000 unserved rural homes and small businesses over the next 10 years (see 1907150030). With Monday's announcement, the FCC has authorized $924 million in support and plans additional rounds in the next few months, it said. A recent NPRM asks about a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to replace CAF II auctions (see 1907110031). Also Monday, posted in docket 10-90, the FCC authorized nearly $16.2 million in CAF support over the next decade to expand broadband to 8,088 unserved rural New York homes and businesses, in a second round of matching funds in a partnership with the New NY Broadband Program (see 1801310030). Recipients are Armstrong Telecommunications, DTC Cable and Haefele TV.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed legislation establishing a state Blockchain Initiative Task Force to review opportunities and risks associated with using blockchain and distributed ledger technology and types of blockchains, both public and private, plus consensus algorithms, said a Thursday news release.
The Commerce and Transportation departments announced more than $109 million in grants to 33 states, Washington, D.C., and two tribal nations to help 911 call centers upgrade to next-generation 911 capabilities. “These grants will boost public safety through 911 systems enhanced with new capabilities such as text message, image and video processing, advanced mapping and other improvements,” said Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in a Friday news release. Grants range from $13,191 for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation in Oklahoma to $11.4 million for California, it said.
2020 Democratic presidential hopeful and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg backed telehealth investment improvements as part of a rural healthcare policy platform. Buttigieg urged doubling annual funding for the FCC's USF Rural Health Care Program to $1 billion. The platform also proposed to “massively expand” broadband coverage across the U.S. and “expand the types of care settings that can receive reimbursement for telehealth services.” Release of Buttigieg's plan Friday was two days after a trio of other 2020 Democratic hopefuls -- Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts -- issued competing rural-focused policy platforms that propose major investments in broadband deployments (see 1908070070). Much of the tech-focused debate during the 2020 campaign until last week was on the antitrust implications of the growth of major tech companies, including Warren's proposal to break up big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon (see 1904170046 and 1906270010).
The National Association of Attorneys General urged streaming services to protect young viewers from tobacco imagery in video content. In a letter released Wednesday, 43 state and territory AGs said the companies should eliminate or exclude tobacco imagery in future original streamed content for young viewers; designate as such tobacco-free content for all ages; allow controls to restrict access to content with tobacco imagery, regardless of rating; and stream “strong anti-smoking and/or anti-vaping Public Service Announcements, as appropriate, before all content with tobacco imagery.” The letters were sent to 13 companies, including Amazon.com, Comcast, Discovery, Google and Viacom, NAAG said. The companies didn't comment.
The federal government could to more to lower the cost of deploying fiber across the country by reducing the costs of digging up roadways for the fiber, said a BroadbandNow report released Wednesday. Last year FCC Chairman Ajit Pai supported dig-once laws (see 1812040007). BroadbandNow praised cities and states that future-proof public rights of ways during road construction projects to mandate the inclusion of broadband conduits in the form of flexible plastic pipes that would allow telecommunications providers to more easily install fiber. The policy was proposed for the federal level as recently as the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2018 (see 1803290046), but it didn't pass. BroadbandNow said shortsighted governmental budgeting and lobbying from incumbent telecom providers that don't want potential competitors to get easy access to local fiber are obstacles to implementing dig-once laws. Eleven states have dig-once policies: North Carolina, Utah, Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, Maryland, Georgia, West Virginia, Maine, Illinois, and California, the report said.