Public Notice

The Rural Utilities Service is issuing a final rule with request for comments to outline the general policies for servicing actions associated with financially distressed borrowers from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program, Rural Broadband Program, Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program, Broadband Initiatives Program, and Rural eConnectivity Pilot Program.

The Federal Communications Commission announces the launch of the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier for all new enrollments in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Starting on March 24, 2020, eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) in these five states will be required to use the National Verifier’s eligibility determination process for all consumers applying for Lifeline service and must cease using legacy eligibility processes for prospective Lifeline subscribers. As of March 24, 2020, consumers in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin can begin to check

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announces the appointment of members to serve on three working groups of the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (ACDDE). These working groups—Access to Capital, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity in the Tech Sector—will assist the ACDDE in carrying out its work. The current members of these working groups are identified in the Appendix to this Notice. As previously announced, Chairman Pai designated Anna M.

In Mozilla Corp. v. FCC,  the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the vast majority of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2017 decision to end net neutrality protections. However, the court also remanded three discrete issues for further consideration by the FCC. On February 6, 2020, the D.C. Circuit denied all pending petitions for rehearing, and the Court issued its mandate on February 18, 2020. With this Public Notice, the Wireline Competition Bureau seeks to refresh the record regarding the issues remanded to the FCC by the Mozilla Court.

In an Advisory, the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Inspector General alerted Lifeline carriers, beneficiaries, and the public to the potential for widespread carrier non-compliance with the Lifeline usage rule. The Advisory provides examples of usage rule violations the OIG has encountered in its ongoing investigations of Lifeline carriers, including reimbursements sought for subscriber accounts that have never had any qualifying usage.

The Federal Communications Commission authorized more than $240 million in funding over ten years to expand rural broadband deployment in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. These investments will connect more than 100,000 unserved rural homes and businesses in these states. Broadband providers will begin receiving funding in Feb 2020. This represents the ninth wave of support from the successful 2018 Connect America Fund Phase II auction.

The Federal Communications Commission's Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force proposes to release certain mobile broadband coverage data submitted pursuant to the Mobility Fund Phase II Challenge Process Order. The Task Force commences this process to allow the agency to publicly release carrier-specific 4G LTE coverage maps derived from the MF-II coverage data, consistent with FCC rules and precedent.

The Federal Communications Commission adopts the framework for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. It builds on the successful model from 2018’s Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction, which allocated $1.488 billion to deploy networks serving more than 700,000 unserved rural homes and businesses across 45 states. The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund represents the FCC’s single biggest step to close the digital divide by providing up to $20.4 billion to connect millions more rural homes and small businesses to high-speed broadband networks.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau established the procedures for its investment of up to $691.2 million over the next ten years to support the deployment of advanced, hardened broadband and voice networks to all locations in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau announced a $31 million settlement with TeleQuality Communications for violating competitive bidding and rate rules and overbilling the FCC’s Rural Health Care Program. The settlement requires TeleQuality to provide the Universal Service Fund with $31 million worth of repayments and forfeitures of payment claims as a sanction. Over a four-year period, from 2015-2018, the company admits to using fabricated sales quotes as urban rates and failing to use FCC-required methods for determining rural rates.