Universal Service Fund

This week, the Federal Communications Commission established procedures for the first phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction (Auction 904, if you're scoring at home).

Approximately 1,900 individuals and organizations wrote to Congress endorsing draft legislation to connect students and library patrons at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The draft proposal, the “Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act,” would appropriate $5.25 billion to an emergency fund to connect the millions of families who don’t have internet at home.

As Virginians have been adapting to a new way of life during the coronavirus outbreak, high-speed internet access has become a necessity, now more than ever. The coronavirus emergency has only exacerbated the burden of internet insecurity and the consequences of inadequate access for rural Americans. That is why, in April, I wrote a letter to House and Senate leadership advocating for the inclusion of rural connectivity capabilities in future coronavirus stimulus packages, including key legislation that I have put forward in Congress. In March, I introduced the Serving Rural America Act.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a petition for declaratory ruling filed by the National Lifeline Association (NaLA). NaLA requests that the Federal Communications Commission revoke the state of Texas’s National Lifeline Accountability Database opt-out certification approval and other relief.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted procedures for Phase I of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction (Auction 904), which will award up to $16 billion in support over 10 years for the deployment of fixed broadband networks to millions of unserved homes and businesses across rural America. The $20.4 billion RDOF is the FCC’s most ambitious step ever toward bridging the digital divide. It prioritizes bids for higher speed—up to 1 Gbps—and lower latency networks, and more than doubles the minimum speed from the FCC’s 2018 Connect America Phase II auction to 25/3 Mbps.

By this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission notifies E-Rate program participants that the FCC Form 470, the form that E-Rate program applicants use to solicit bids from service providers for E-Rate eligible services, will remain unchanged for funding year 2021 to allow schools and libraries to continue to focus their time and resources on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In so doing, we seek to avoid the potential for further confusion and burden on applicants at a time when they are continuing to transition their students, patrons, teachers, and staff to remote learnin

The Federal Communications Commission reached a $5 million settlement with voice over Internet provider (VoIP) magicJack regarding its failure to report its interstate revenues and contribute to the Universal Service Fund. The company, which sells a VoIP telephone service to consumers, agreed to the settlement, along with an extensive compliance plan. magicJack markets itself to consumers as a competitive replacement for traditional telephone service. It uses Internet service to allow consumers to make phone calls to and receive calls from traditional mobile and landline phones.

On April 3, 2020, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to ensure that as the FCC begins the mapping efforts required under the Broadband DATA Act (which President Donald Trump signed on March 23, 2020), that the FCC include community anchor institutions such as health care facilities, schools, and libraries.

On April 23, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission proposed to adopt rules and a framework for establishing the 5G Fund for Rural America. To account for the relative costs of serving areas that vary in terrain characteristics and potential business cases, the FCC proposed to apply an adjustment factor to make the most difficult areas to serve more attractive at auction in order to encourage more bidding for these areas. The adjustment factor also would be used to transition legacy high-cost support to 5G Fund support.

The Federal Communications Commission' Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force, Wireline Competition Bureau, and the Office of Economics and Analytics announce they are ready to authorize Connect America Fund Phase II auction (Auction 903) support for the Auction 903 winning bids.