Telecom relay services providers must submit summaries of their consumer complaint logs by July 1, said an FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Tuesday on docket 03-123.
The FCC Wireline Bureau OK'd 56 petitions for eligible telecom carrier designation Monday, said an order in docket 09-197. Such designation is required for winning Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction bidders to complete their long-form applications and be designated as ready to receive support.
Arizona Corporation Commission members criticized Frontier Communications' 911 reliability, at a hybrid livestream and in-person meeting Tuesday. Commissioners voted 5-0 to investigate the carrier on recent 911 service outages (see 2106020063). “This is an urgent situation,” said ACC Chairwoman Lea Marquez Peterson (R). Commissioner Sandra Kennedy (D) said she isn’t surprised by Frontier's problems. When the probe is done, the commission should act “very strongly and not just do something to be doing it,” she said. Frontier must acknowledge this is a “public relations problem of enormous proportion,” said Commissioner Jim O’Connor (R). “Your house is burning down.” Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Allison Ellis apologized for the company’s recent service issues and said the company is reviewing its network and systems to better support 911, with one strategy to find ways to increase redundancy. Public safety officials calling in later appeared unsatisfied. “To hear that they're going to do something is, I guess, OK,” but the problems are a “severe public safety concern,” said Saint Johns Police Department Chief Lance Spivey. He cited eight 911 failures there since 2017. Rural Arizonans “shouldn't have to worry about [if] 911 is going to work,” he said. In the past three years, the Navajo County Sheriffs Office submitted about 150 service tickets to Frontier about problems, said Lt. Alden Whipple. Outages affecting all of northeastern Arizona lasted hours, he said: “It’s just unacceptable.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comment by July 8, replies July 23, in docket 10-90 on Yukon-Waltz Telephone's waiver of certain USF rules, said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Yukon-Waltz asked to convert its current cost-based ratemaking and revenue settlements to average schedule methods.
Tech and telco groups disagreed about USTelecom's petition for reconsideration of calling party notification and blocked call list requirements, in comments posted Monday in docket 17-59 (see 2105200074). Lumen said requirements should exclude legacy networks because it's "unclear whether those systems are technically capable of accommodating such a notification." The Voice on the Net Coalition agreed and said the FCC should confirm that calls blocked by a subscriber through anonymous call rejection or Do Not Disturb don't fall under the session initiation protocol (SIP) response code requirements. The Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee disagreed: "Introducing carrier discretion as to the type of notification will only increase confusion for legitimate callers." Incompas and the Cloud Communications Alliance said such flexibility "is exactly what the commission sought to avoid by prescribing standardized uniform notifications." The groups opposed extending January's deadline for notification implementation. USTelecom's petition "does not explain how a different form of notification would be superior to use of the SIP codes," said the American Bankers Association, National Retail Federation and others.
The FCC may use USF support to help carriers during an ongoing emergency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Friday as it denied Tri-County Telephone Association's challenge to agency orders to provide high-cost support to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricanes Irma and Maria. A per curiam order in case No. 20-1003 said the petitioner's USF contributions would have been increased regardless of whether the FCC used existing cash reserves or future contributions. Judges cited the commission's prior use of USF funds for disaster relief in its 2005 Hurricane Katrina order. Then-Judge Merrick Garland and Judges David Tatel and Harry Edwards heard oral argument in October (see 2010150042). An attorney for Tri-County didn't comment now.
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comment by June 18, replies June 25, on FirstDigital's buying Veracity Networks, said a public notice Friday in docket 21-226.
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by June 18, replies June 25 on Cox and MTN Infrastructure's transfer of control request, said a public notice Friday in docket 21-224. Cox would indirectly acquire MTN's Segra by buying all outstanding stock of Segra's parent MTN Infrastructure TopCo Blocker.
The FCC wants comments by July 6, replies by July 19 in docket 10-51 on an NPRM to continue using a tiered rate structure for video relay service compensation for FY 2021-22 (see 2105200044), says Friday's Federal Register. Commenters are encouraged to say whether the commission should modify or freeze current VRS compensation rates, and whether an emergent rate should be set up with the current tier structure. The dates are according to the original order commissioners approved May 20, as the FR notice didn't contain deadlines. The FCC didn't comment Thursday.
The FCC Wireline Bureau waived the application of the current budget control mechanism for rate-of-return carriers to 0%, July 2021-June 2022, as expected, said an order Thursday in docket 10-90 (see 2106020073).