Universal Service Fund

Sens Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Thune (R-SD), and 46 of their colleagues urged the Federal Communications Commission to promote the deployment of sustainable broadband networks as the FCC considers adopting new rules in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) proceeding. The RDOF will award high-cost Universal Service Fund (USF) support to deploy broadband service in rural areas.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announced that the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier (National Verifier) will soft launch on December 16, 2019 in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The soft launch period will allow eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) to become familiar with the National Verifier and adjust and test their systems and business processes before use of the National Verifier becomes mandatory. During the soft launch, only ETCs will have access to the National Verifier.

The Federal Communications Commission, in December 2018, launched an investigation into whether one or more major mobile providers violated the requirements to submit coverage maps to the FCC. FCC staff discovered that the coverage maps submitted by Verizon, U.S. Cellular, and T-Mobile likely overstated each provider’s actual coverage and did not reflect on-the-ground performance in many instances. Only 62.3% of staff drive tests achieved at least the minimum download speed predicted by the coverage maps—with U.S.

Huawei is suing the Federal Communications Commission for choking off its sales in the United States, the latest in the besieged company’s widening efforts to hit back at regulators and critics across the globe. The FCC voted in November to bar American telecommunications companies from using federal subsidies to buy equipment from Huawei and another Chinese supplier, ZTE. Washington considers both firms to be national security risks. “The FCC claims that Huawei is a security threat.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai intends to establish the 5G Fund, which would make up to $9 billion in Universal Service Fund support available to carriers to deploy advanced 5G mobile wireless services in rural America. This investment would be allocated through a reverse auction and would target hard-to-serve areas with sparse populations and/or rugged terrain.

In a Report and Order adopted November 20, the Federal Communications Commission made permanent the “category two budget” approach that the FCC adopted in 2014 to fund these internal connections with schools and libraries. The category two budget approach consists of five-year budgets for schools and libraries that provide a set amount of funding to support internal connections.

The total projected collected interstate and international end-user revenue base to be used in determining the contribution factor for the Universal Service support mechanisms for the first quarter of 2020 is $11,129,976,956.

Sprint has for years failed to accurately measure how many of the low-income Americans it serves through the federal Lifeline program actually use their phones. The company is facing a potential settlement with the Federal Communications Commission after the regulator in September said Sprint improperly collected “tens of millions” of dollars in federal subsidies for 885,000 Lifeline customers who weren’t using the service.

For anyone who is pregnant, having a hospital delivery room nearby means knowing that when the baby arrives medical assistance will be close at hand. But for too many of those in rural America, this comfort is often no longer available—and it is putting both women and babies at risk. In fact, the United States is the only industrialized nation with an increasing rate of maternal mortality and this problem hits women of color especially hard. The Federal Communications Commission has a long history of working to promote access to telehealth in rural communities.

The Federal Communications Commission began a rulemaking which would adopt new procedures to protect federal funds from misuse. The proposed rules would provide the FCC with broader and more flexible authority to promptly remove bad actors from participation in the Universal Service Fund (USF), the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Fund, and the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program. The proposal would align FCC rules with the Office of Management and Budget’s Guidelines to Agencies on Government Debarment and Suspension.