The FCC expanded the interstate Telecom Relay Service Fund contribution base to include intrastate and interstate end-user revenue, to ensure "fair treatment of intrastate and interstate communications services and users in the funding of relay services," said an order released Thursday in docket 03-123 (see 2206280060). The order modified contributions for video relay and IP relay services based on the "total interstate and intrastate end-user revenues of each telecommunications carrier and VoIP service provider." It denied an NTCA request to limit the contribution cost of rural providers' intrastate end-user revenue and set a compliance date of July 1, 2023. The order takes effect 30 days after Federal Register publication. Also released Thursday was a second order amending VRS and IP captioned telephone service rules, an NPRM proposing to modify certain VRS rules, and a declaratory ruling on COVID-19 pandemic waivers. The second order gave VRS and IP CTS providers a two-week "grace period" to be compensated for "providing service to new and porting-in customers ... after initial submission of the consumer's registration data." The change will allow users to "immediately start making and receiving relay calls," the order said. The NPRM seeks comments on increasing the percentage of a VRS provider's monthly minutes a communications assistant (CA) may handle from home to 80% and reducing or eliminating the requirement that CA's have at least three years of interpreting experience. The notice also seeks comment on whether to allow VRS providers to contract interpretation services for "up to 30% of their monthly call minutes." The commission also waived its cap on the rules for one year. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, 60 days for replies. The declaratory ruling clarified that the maximum period a VRS provider may be compensated for calls originating abroad by a VRS user is one year.

The California Public Utilities Commission stood by a 7-cent cap on intrastate per-minute rates for incarcerated person calling services (IPCS) in state court Wednesday. The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), also named in a May lawsuit by Securus, said the CPUC’s interim order was “well-reasoned and provides desperately needed relief” to IPCS users. Meanwhile, a California bill to make IPCS calls free and require a CPUC service-quality rulemaking cleared another Assembly committee despite continuing opposition from sheriffs.

The Arizona Corporation Commission directed staff to create a memo and proposed remedy order on Frontier Communications’ June 11 outage. At the West Virginia Public Service Commission, Frontier agreed to a settlement with 911 officials over outages in that state. Arizona commissioners grilled the company at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday about its response to the gunshot-caused outage, and earlier problems (see 2206280065). After discussing legal options in closed executive session, including a possible order to show cause (OSC), commissioners decided they will vote at their July 12-13 meeting on a proposed remedy order. Chairwoman Lea Marquez Peterson (R) said it would require Frontier to (1) quickly interconnect with the state's Comtech 911 system, (2) provide an emergency response plan, (3) actively pursue state and federal funds for network redundancy and diversity, (4) give a biweekly status update on Frontier’s progress getting funds, (5) identify areas that lack redundancy and diversity and provide a hierarchy of priorities for vulnerable areas and (6) have high-level, senior executives attend emergency town hall meetings in St. Johns, which experienced the June 11 problems. ACC Utilities Director Elijah Abinah said staff is considering July 14 for a St. Johns town hall. Peterson added, “We would like this to include enforcement provisions.” Saint Johns Police Chief Lance Spivey and Assistant Fire Chief Jason Kirk said they would have preferred the commission consider stronger enforcement action in the form of an OSC. The West Virginia PSC posted a Frontier 911 pact Tuesday in four dockets including 22-0274-T-C. Frontier agreed to “review and update its change management policy to assure regular, preventative maintenance routines,” improve network card tracking and inventory management, standardize a process for individualized route diversity education for county 911 officials, give PSC staff the West Virginia part of its FCC 911 reliability certification report and give county 911 directors documents on using Frontier’s rerouting tool, upon request. Before it can take effect, West Virginia commissioners “would have to approve, reject or modify the settlement,” a PSC spokesperson emailed Wednesday.

Industry groups disagreed whether the FCC should adopt a new cost allocation framework and rules for pole replacements, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 17-84. The proceeding stems from a 2020 NCTA petition asking the FCC to clarify its pole replacement rules. The FCC adopted the Further NPRM in March in lieu of acting on the petition, noting the group “revealed inconsistent practices by utilities" on cost responsibility for pole replacements (see 2203180074).

NTIA supported the FCC’s move to address receivers, in comments posted Tuesday in response to a notice of inquiry on receiver performance and potentially standards adopted by commissioners 4-0 in April (see 2204210049). NTIA noted it already collects receiver data. Other commenters generally support the inquiry, with most opposing regulation.

The California Public Utilities Commission received much feedback from telecom companies, consumer advocates and local governments on possible changes to California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure account rules. The CPUC received comments Monday on changes proposed June 7 to the state-funded last-mile program as part of a wider California broadband effort (see 2205250045). The CPUC adopted rules in April for a last-mile program using federal funding (see 2204210046).

The House Appropriations Committee expects the FCC to "take further action to help eliminate the potential for future interagency spectrum disputes" beyond a coordination agreement between commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson (see 2202150001), the panel said in a report accompanying the Financial Services Subcommittee's FY 2023 bill. The underlying measure (see 2203280069), set for a Friday committee vote, would give the FCC $390 million, up 2.3% from what Congress appropriated in the FY 2022 omnibus appropriations package President Joe Biden signed in March (see 2203150076). The bill would give the FTC $490 million in FY23, up 30% from FY22. The markup begins at 9 a.m. in 1100 Longworth.

The California Public Utilities Commission threatened action against several large phone and cable companies that the agency says didn’t fully comply with a March 15 request for granular deployment data needed for a state map required for California’s $6 billion broadband effort. The CPUC seeks responses by Friday to similar warning letters sent June 10. ISPs said privacy and confidentiality concerns stopped them from sharing all data sought by the state commission.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel now expects a final estimate of demands for money from the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to repay U.S. carriers for removing from their networks equipment made by companies deemed a national security risk to be ready on or soon after July 15. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, meanwhile, advanced by voice vote Thursday its FY 2023 bill with FCC and FTC funding mirroring what President Joe Biden is seeking for the agencies (see 2203280069). The Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee advanced by voice its FY23 bill Thursday with funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency well above what Biden sought.

Alaska’s attorney general supported connections-based contribution and assessing broadband services for Alaska USF. Assessing fees by connection is more sustainable, the AG’s Regulatory Affairs and Public Advocacy (RAPA) division said in comments received Monday by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA). “It is fair and reasonable to require broadband Internet connections to support the network that allows carriers to provide that specific service,” RAPA said in the RCA's USF review in docket R-21-001 (see 2205160022). Associations that filed competing AUSF revamp plans supported connections-based contribution. Matanuska Telecom Association (MTA) called its plan a “simple and immediate solution,” while “time is simply running out for the Commission to vet and implement the complicated, still conceptual proposals” from staff and the Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition. ARCC said the MTA proposal “makes only minor changes to the status quo and thus ignores the greatest need" in Alaska, "the off-road network remote villages.” ARCC agreed the RCA should adopt a connections-based method and supported assessing broadband. Federal infrastructure dollars are meant to supplement but not replace state funding, ARCC said. Alaska Communications supported a voice connections-based method. GCI isn’t sure what to do about AUSF, it said. “While GCI is very much open to continuation of an appropriate AUSF, GCI does not believe that a record has yet been developed to support any specific proposal. With federal funding on the way, “now is not a prudent time for the Commission to expand or repurpose the AUSF for broadband,” said CTIA: Changing to connections-based contribution “would worsen, not improve, the impact of the economic burden on hardworking Alaskans by making the assessment more regressive, hitting low-income and low-volume users hardest, and shifting the overall burden away from business customers and towards residential users."