FCC Extends Comment Cycle Deadline for USF Cap NPRM

On May 31, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on establishing a cap on the Universal Service Fund (USF) and ways it could enable the FCC to evaluate the financial aspects of the four USF programs in a more holistic way, and thereby better achieve the overarching universal service principles Congress directed the FCC to preserve and advance. The Notice set deadlines for filing comments and reply comments at 30 days and 60 days, respectively, after publication of the Notice in the Federal Register.  A summary was published in the Federal Register on June 13, 2019. Accordingly, the filing dates were initially established as July 15, 2019 for comments and August 12, 2019 for reply comments. Over three dozen organizations asked for an extensition of the filing dates until September 30, 2019 and October 30, 2019, respectively. The FCc has now extended the deadlines to July 29, 2019 and August 26, 2019.