Frontier Communications performs well on “important” service-quality metrics, the carrier said Friday in responding to an investigation by Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). The Frontier probe began earlier this year in response to a Jan. 8 petition by Connecticut's Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC), which flagged Frontier for failing to meet minimum standards for out-of-service repair and maintenance (see 2401310006 and 2401080041). In OCC’s Friday brief, the consumer advocate urged PURA to impose additional and broader service-quality standards and open another proceeding for considering monetary penalties.

DOD is starting part of its work on the national spectrum strategy on its own. At a meeting Wednesday, it will launch an initiative investigating dynamic sharing in the lower 3 GHz band, as a continuation of the Partnering to Advance Trusted and Holistic Spectrum Solutions (PATHSS) process. DOD announced the meeting last month (see 2404080063), but it has received relatively little attention. A former NTIA official saw no reason for concern.

NAB, NPR and other opponents of the FCC’s authorization of geotargeted radio used Thursday’s comments deadline to take additional shots at the technology, while proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions said the agency should “keep an open mind.” Two broadcast entities, Press Communications and REC Networks, have called for reconsideration of the agency’s order allowing content origination on FM booster stations. Geotargeted radio will “erode public confidence in FM radio broadcasting” and harm stations “baited into employing the technology,” NAB said in docket 20-401.

Americans “detest” calls they didn’t ask for, but the Insurance Marketing Coalition’s challenge of the FCC’s Dec. 18 order implementing rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to target and eliminate illegal robotexts (see 2312220059) “is not a case about unsolicited calls,” according to the coalition’s opening brief Wednesday (docket 24-10277) in the 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court.

Satellite broadband has a niche role in some of the state broadband equity, access and deployment program plans that NTIA has approved thus far. Multiple states' finalized BEAD volume 2 plans indicate that satellite is a last-resort option absent fiber proposals. Other states exclude satellite in their cured volume 2 plans. Seven states and the District of Columbia have received NTIA sign-off on their volume 2 plans.

Informal complaints filed at the FCC about communications accessibility issues have risen for the past five years, and the nature of the complaints has shifted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago, an FCC official told a virtual meeting of the commission’s Disability Advisory Committee on Thursday. The top accessibility complaint is about captioning.

House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee members questioned FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday on the commission's funding request for increased staffing across the agency and the affordable connectivity program. During the hearing on the FCC's FY 2025 budget proposal (see 2403110056), some legislators raised concerns about the FCC's work on combating illegal robocalls and its spectrum authority.

The Senate Commerce Committee will try again next week to approve funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program (see 2405100046), Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday after the scheduled markup was pulled amid tensions with Republicans over amendments.

The FCC will take a series of steps aimed at addressing cybersecurity challenges during the commissioners' June 6 open meeting (see 2405150042). A draft NPRM released Thursday would seek comment on a proposal to impose specific reporting requirements on nine service providers as part of the agency's effort to increase border gateway protocol and resource public key infrastructure security, which assist routing traffic across the internet.

Industry representatives and members of the Fiber Broadband Association's middle-mile and public policy working groups emphasized the need for more public-private partnerships to promote middle mile connectivity during a webinar Wednesday. "Middle mile is like that middle child that keeps getting ignored," said Sachin Gupta, Centranet director-government business and economic development. "If we continue ignoring it," he warned, "we will not be able to connect all of these new last mile connections that we are planning on building."