Some broadband providers are falsely claiming their customers have children who attend high-poverty schools in order to qualify them for an FCC broadband affordability subsidy, the agency’s Office of Inspector General warned in a November 22 memo. It’s not the first time that the Emergency Broadband Benefit program has been targeted for fraud, but the timing could be significant as the FCC prepares to transition the program from a pandemic relief subsidy to the permanent Affordable Connectivity Program. One way to qualify for the subsidy is to have a child who is eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches. But under the USDA National School Lunch Program’s so-called community eligibility provision, those meals are available to any child who attends certain high-poverty schools and school districts, regardless of their family’s income. An OIG analysis of enrollment data found that school-based eligibility “is commonly abused by providers and their sales agents as an entry point for fraud in the program. … In short, there are many more EBB-enrolled households that claimed they have a dependent child at certain [high-poverty] schools than students who are actually enrolled in those schools.” The memo also outlined other suspicious practices, such as dozens of households putting down a provider’s retail address as their home address. The Wireline Competition Bureau said it would implement additional measures to verify student enrollment in eligible schools, such as by official school documentation, for both future applicants and current subsidy recipients. The agency also said it would refer bad actors to its enforcement bureau for investigation and recoup any funds that were improperly disbursed.

The central US appears to have caught the eye of equity investors, with Bluepeak becoming the latest privately-funded fiber company to plot a major expansion there. Right now, Bluepeak offers service to around 60,000 subscribers in South Dakota and parts of western Minnesota under the name Vast Broadband. Planned investments include a $140 million build in Oklahoma to bring fiber to more than 140,000 homes and businesses across the state. Thus far, Bluepeak has announced projects in Bartlesville, Clinton, Enid, Perry, Tonkawa and Stillwater, with approvals in the works for Lawton, Elk City and Weatherford. In Wyoming, Bluepeak plans to spend $70 million to run fiber to 70,000 homes and businesses. Target markets include Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper and Sheridan. Construction in Cheyenne is already underway and the company expects to break ground in the remaining markets in the first half of 2022. The company is aiming to cover 240,000 to 250,000 new locations, with the majority of these expected to start coming online in 2022, and is very deliberately targeting smaller towns in the central part of the country.

Verizon Communications closed its $6.25 billion purchase of prepaid cellular-service provider TracFone Wireless, cementing its lead in a market split among three major mobile-phone networks. Verizon previously agreed to buy the company from América Móvil SAB of Mexico for a combination of cash and stock. The buyer will pay as much as $650 million more if TracFone hits certain future performance targets. The sale further consolidates a US wireless sector dominated by Verizon, T-Mobile US and AT&T. The three carriers together serve more than 270 million-phone connections. TracFone is a wireless reseller that uses those networks to reach a further 20 million customers under brands such as Straight Talk, Net10 and Simple Mobile. Verizon executives had previously said the takeover would more profitably serve the roughly 13 million TracFone customers who already use Verizon’s network. The takeover will also boost Verizon’s bottom line as it shifts more prepaid customers to the company’s network who had previously used TracFone connections provided by AT&T and T-Mobile.

A coalition of public-interest and labor advocates [including the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] initially opposed the purchase, arguing that new owners would threaten the affordability of mobile-phone access for some low-income Americans. TracFone’s SafeLink brand is a large provider of Lifeline service, a federal subsidy that covers as much as $9.25 of monthly voice and data service. Verizon told regulators it would keep offering Lifeline service for at least seven years and wouldn’t raise rates on existing plans for an additional three years. The company also pledged to make its ultrafast 5G connections available to Lifeline users.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it is committing $169,297,501.79 million in its latest wave of Emergency Connectivity Fund program support, which will connect over 500,000 students in 47 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. These additional commitments bring the current total commitments to over $3.2 billion. The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework and virtual learning, as schools and libraries continue to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This funding round will support 492 schools, 70 libraries, and 10 consortia, which are approved to receive over 380,000 connected devices and over 135,000 broadband connections. Total commitments to date have connected approximately 10.6 million students, and are supporting 7,535 schools, 692 libraries, and 91 consortia for over 7.1 million connected devices and nearly 3.5 million broadband connections.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 14, 2021:

1. Improving Accessibility and Clarity of Emergency Alerts – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and a Notice of Inquiry to improve clarity and accessibility of Emergency Alert System (EAS) visual messages to the public, including for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and others who are unable to access the audio message. (PS Docket No. 15-94)
2. Facilitating Satellite Broadband Competition – The Commission will consider an Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose revisions to the Commission’s rules for spectrum sharing among low-earth orbit satellite systems. The goal of the proposed revisions is to facilitate the deployment of the new generation of non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixedsatellite service (NGSO FSS) systems, including new competitors. (IB Docket No. 21-456; RM-11855)
3. Promoting Fair and Open Competitive Bidding in the E-Rate Program – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to implement a central document repository (i.e, bidding portal) through which service providers would be required to submit their bids to the E-Rate Program Administrator and seeks comment on other changes to the ERate competitive bidding rules. (WC Docket 21-455)