The FCC's precision ag task force will convene Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. EST in person for its first meeting of its rechartered term, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 19-329. The task force will meet to introduce members, review the group's duties, and begin discussing strategies to advance broadband deployment on agricultural lands and promote precision ag. The notice also announced task force membership. Michael Adelaine, South Dakota State University chief information officer emeritus, was appointed chair. The previous chair was Teddy Bekele, Land O'Lakes chief technology officer.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness continues to lobby the FCC on routing calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. In a docket 18-336 filing Wednesday, NAMI recapped a meeting with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office at which it urged the agency to require 988 calls to be routed to the call center closest to the call's physical location and not based on area code. It also pushed for the agency to convene relevant stakeholders to discuss solutions to outstanding issues. It has repeatedly pressed the FCC on these items (see 2301180030 and 2304280046).
Verizon warned in an SEC filing Wednesday it will take a $5.8 billion impairment charge in Q4 reflecting "secular declines" in its Business Group. An “impairment test determined that the fair value of the Business reporting unit was less than its carrying value," Verizon said. The carrier is slated to release Q4 results Tuesday.
NTCA and ACA Connects urged the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Tuesday to adopt the FCC's proposal to amend a 2017 rule simplifying the historic preservation review process for communications providers. Streamlining the review process will give providers more flexibility when seeking to deploy federally funded broadband infrastructure, the groups said in a news release. The will ensure providers can "utilize game-changing broadband funding" to "more effectively and efficiently" close the digital divide, ACA Connects President-CEO Grant Spellmeyer said. It's "critical to balance important historic preservation considerations and minimizing burdens and delays in network construction," said NTCA Executive Vice President Mike Romano.
The rule requiring covered 988 service providers and originating service providers to report outages that potentially affect the 988 suicide and crisis Lifeline becomes effective Feb. 15, according to a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. Notifications must go to the FCC network outage reporting system, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the 988 Lifeline administrator. The FCC approved a 988 outage reporting order 4-0 in July (see 2307200041).
Representatives of the Bristol Bay Cellular Partnership spoke with FCC Wireless and Wireline bureau staff on the company’s request for waiver and revised performance commitments demonstrating it “has met all applicable Alaska Plan deployment milestones.” The reps “explained that the ongoing withholding of support has forced the Company to put several planned system upgrades, network expansions, and other projects on hold,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 16-271.
An FCC order modifying certain rural healthcare program rules takes effect Feb. 12, said a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. Commissioners adopted the item in December, which made healthcare providers that expect to be eligible for the program conditional approval to request funding sooner (see 2312130019). It also simplified rules for urban rate calculations.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court removed the consolidated pole attachment appeal of Duke Energy and AT&T against the FCC from the oral argument calendar for Jan. 24 and granted their unopposed joint motion to voluntarily dismiss the case (see 2401080036), said the court’s order Monday (dockets 22-2220 and 23-1010). The appeal was dismissed “on terms agreed to by the parties,” said the order.
The National Digital Inclusion Alliance urged that the FCC ensure providers and households in the affordable connectivity program are prepared when it ends. In a letter posted Monday in docket 21-450, the group asked for a requirement that ISPs notify participating households 90, 60 and 30 days prior to ACP's end. Moreover, it asked that the FCC create a public list of consumer protections and lead an awareness campaign about the wind-down. NDIA suggested that ACP outreach grant recipients help conduct outreach about affordable plans. "Without the ability to reach impacted households, grantees risk losing the trust of those they enrolled in the program, which undermines the successful implementation of future broadband benefit programs the commission may administer," the group said.
The FTC received more than 2.1 million Do Not Call complaints in FY 2023, the agency said Monday in its biennial report to Congress on the DNC Registry. Most complaints were made about robocalls, it said, with "medical needs and prescription scam calls" the most frequent types of calls. The FTC noted that more than 2.7 million subscribers were added to the registry, totaling 249.5 million active registrations. The agency also highlighted its enforcement efforts, including Project Point of No Entry (see 2304110050) and Operation Stop Scam Calls (see 2307180072).