Telecom companies and healthcare providers in Alaska continued their push over the past week for changes in a rural telehealth draft report and order the FCC is scheduled to address at Thursday's commissioners' meeting (see 1907230005). In a filing to docket 17-310, USTelecom said Thursday that the rate setting mechanism described in the report and order "creates a false median rate for Alaska" because all but a small number of locations served by the state's rural healthcare providers would be grouped in the same "extremely rural" tier and receive the same median rate "regardless of whether the location is on-road, off-road or served only by satellite." It said the methodology "would effectively cut off all of the highest cost Alaska locations" from service supported by the FCC's Rural Health Care program "and severely impair the public interest by de-funding telehealth services for the neediest rural Alaskans." Alaska is unique in the nation because 82 percent of its communities are inaccessible by road, said Alaska Communications in a Thursday letter. The company asked the FCC to create a fourth rural tier, carved out of the "extremely rural" tier, for the most rural parts of Alaska that aren't accessible by road. It said the state's Commerce Department publishes a list of communities indicating which have road access and which don't, and the list could be used to help inform the program. Alaska-based GCI Communications suggests in its letter four subcategories for the "extremely rural" tier: road-system/fiber-served, off-road-system/fiber-served, off-road-system/terrestrially (non-fiber) served, and satellite-only served. Among the healthcare providers that also contacted the FCC on the draft order was Yukon-Kuskokwim Health, which recommends in a Thursday letter that the agency do in-state analysis on "the wide variations of 'rural' areas in Alaska" to examine the additional gradations of remoteness required for accuracy.

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.

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.

AT&T, Comcast and Google were among several tech and telecom companies reporting major drops in their Q2 lobbying expenditures from the same period in 2018, though Facebook and others had major increases. Facebook was the top tech and telecom spender in Q2, reporting $4.1 million -- almost 12 percent up from 2018. Amazon said it spent $4 million, up more than 15 percent from the same period last year. AT&T said it spent $3.31 million during Q2, down more than 27 percent from 2018. Comcast spent $3.18 million in Q2, a decrease of 10 percent from 2018. Google said it spent $2.94 million, a drop of almost 50 percent from last year. Verizon spent $2.44 million, a drop of 17 percent. Charter said it spent roughly the same amount, an increase of 2 percent from the same period in 2018. Apple reported $1.8 million, up more than 11 percent. Fox said it spent $990,000, up more than 43 percent from what the former 21st Century Fox spent in 2018. Cox said it spent $910,000, up 30 percent. Disney said it spent $840,000, down 20 percent from 2018. Sprint spent $740,000, down 7.5 percent from the same period last year. Twitter paid $440,000, up more than 37 percent. NCTA was the top spender among communications groups. It said it spent $3.35 million in Q2, up more than 1 percent from 2018. NAB said it spent $2.96 million, a decrease of 17 percent from last year. CTIA said it spent $2.61 million, up 9 percent from last year. USTelecom reported $500,000 in spending, up 4 percent from 2018. The Information Technology Industry Council reported $370,000, down about 14 percent. NetChoice reported $60,000, up 50 percent.

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.

The FCC should equitably address discrepancies between the number of rural locations a broadband provider is funded to serve after alternative Connect America cost model (A-CAM) auctions and the number of actual locations the provider encounters during a network build-out phase, industry said in comments to FCC posted through Monday in docket 10-90, rather than impose penalties to providers when pre-bidding estimates turn out to be wrong (see 1907110003). The agency's Wireline Bureau "should study the impact of actual location discrepancies before deciding what measures are appropriate for A-CAM support recipients that experience location shortfalls," ITTA said.

Competitive LECs want more time to move away from regulated resale of voice-grade copper TDM phone services bought from incumbents if commissioners vote soon to proceed with a forbearance order as expected (see 1907020058). The draft addresses remaining aspects of a larger petition for regulatory relief USTelecom filed in May 2018 (see 1805040016). The draft proposes a three-year transition for CLECs or their customers to find new voice service arrangements or for CLECs to negotiate new contracts. CLEC allies are optimistic the agency will extend the time as they seek.

Karan Kapoor, ex-Clear Capital Advisers, rejoins Pagemill Partners, technology advisory practice of Duff & Phelps, as managing director ... Enterprise Wireless Alliance names Jennifer Garry, ex-Arlington (Virginia) Chamber of Commerce, as membership director ... AshLee Strong, ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., establishes Granite Peak Communications.

USTelecom renewed the contract for President-CEO Jonathan Spalter for three more years, through 2022, it said Thursday. Spalter started in January 2017 (see 1610040059). His reportable compensation that year was $1.43 million, according to the association's most recently available IRS Form 990.

The FCC Wireline Bureau begins a two-week quiet period Friday at 11:59 p.m. EDT on a forbearance petition USTelecom filed in May 2018 seeking relief from "outdated" mandates that "distort competition and investment decisions," said a public notice in Wednesday's Daily Digest on docket 18-141 (see 1907020058). The deadline starts two weeks before the Aug. 2 statutory deadline for action on the remaining forbearance questions. After the deadline, all presentations to decisionmakers on the petition are prohibited.