President Joe Biden's administration should do more to bridge the "widening digital gender divide," said Kim Keenan, Internet Innovation Alliance co-chair, in an Essence column Thursday. Nearly 327 million fewer women than men worldwide have access to mobile internet or a smartphone, Keenan said. Require companies like Facebook and Google contribute to Lifeline because they "make money through the internet," Keenan said.
The FCC "overstepped a bit" on the role that state and local governments play in pole attachments, said Public Knowledge Director-Government Affairs Greg Guice during a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar Wednesday. FCC policies have "made it easier for contractors, oftentimes less qualified contractors, to do some of these attachments and put at risk the reliability of broadband lines that are being attached." Recent rules and legislation left local officials confused and undermine community initiatives, said Corian Zacher, Next Century Cities policy counsel-state and local initiatives. "The FCC and an increasing number of states have enacted rules and legislation that treat these communities as homogenous, without allowing local officials a meaningful opportunity to contribute to that decision-making process." The cost of deployment and last-mile installation could be drastically reduced if pole location was made publicly available on a "surgical map," she said. Attachment agreements are a big challenges, said Merit Vice President-Strategy and Research Bob Stovall. "We've had cases where it's taken over two years to just get an attachment agreement, and you can’t even start to get permits until you get your agreements." Pole owners' construction standards should be reasonable and based on "genuine safety and engineering rationale," said Crown Castle Managing Counsel-Utility Relations Rebecca Hussey. "If a pole is in good condition … there's no reason that the pole has to be replaced just because there's a standard that says so."
The United Church of Christ asked staff for acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to rein in "inappropriate ancillary fees" associated with inmate calling services, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-375. Site commission payments are "not mandated by either federal law or court precedent," and FCC precedent "requires the opposite," said Cheryl Leanza, UCC policy adviser.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau wants letters of intent by May 27 from entities interested in coordinating industry-led efforts to trace the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls, a public notice said Monday in docket 20-22. USTelecom's Industry Traceback Group was put in charge of the consortium last year (see 2007270068). EB will pick the next consortium by Aug. 25.
Point Broadband may receive Casair's remaining Connect America Fund Phase II support and assume the company's deployment and service obligations, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Friday. Casair won $27.3 million over 10 years to serve 17,619 Michigan locations.
Frontier expects to emerge from bankruptcy April 30 (see 2103250059), the company announced Friday. It's forming a new eight-member board (see personals section for board members). The telco has "stabilized its business and recapitalized its balance sheet, while making significant progress on the early stages of implementing our initial fiber expansion plan,” said incoming Executive Chairman John Stratton. The company will hold a call April 30 at 10 a.m. EDT. Communications Workers of America, which represents 8,000 Frontier employees, said in a statement it intends to "hold the company accountable to commitments that the union secured on jobs and improved service for customers."
The National Center for Youth Law asked the FCC to cap inmate calling services from juvenile facilities at zero cents per minute, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 12-375. "Family support is an essential ingredient in the ability of a young person to meet juvenile probation requirements and return to the community."
WTA members are "very skeptical" that Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction winners can meet obligations to deliver 1 Gbps, the group told FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and the other commissioners, per docket 19-126 (see 2104090039). Long-form applicants "proposing to construct and operate new stand-alone gigabit fiber-optic networks at 20-to-30 percent of the RDOF reserve price should be required to meet a very detailed and stringent burden of proof," the group said. WTA raised concerns about applicants that plan to deliver gigabit services over fixed wireless and satellite networks, because those bidders have "line-of-sight, weather, foliage, storm damage, useful life, and maintenance vulnerabilities" (see 2104140063). The group asked the FCC to "declare unequivocally" that RDOF Phase I auction rules will be "strictly enforced."
The Edison Electric Institute asked FCC Wireline Bureau staff to "clarify its refund rules" for pole attachments, because current rules "[lead] to unfair and discriminatory refund periods for identical claims against electric utilities based on the luck of geographic location," said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-84. EEI said it plans to seek a declaratory ruling clarifying a two-year statute of limitations for all pole attachment complaint proceedings and that "refunds in pole attachment complaint proceedings are not 'appropriate' for any period preceding good faith notice of a dispute."
The Supreme Court denied plaintiff Ali Gadelhak's petition for a writ of certiorari on Monday after a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that AT&T's "Customer Rules Feedback Tool" isn't an automatic dialing system and didn't violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (in Pacer). Justice Amy Coney Barrett didn't participate here.