Securus urged the FCC to let providers of incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS) recover the cost of safety and security features. In a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2307130070), the IPCS provider said that including such features as recoverable costs is "a long-standing precedent in the commission's IPCS rulemaking." Ending recoverable costs, Securus warned, has the potential of affecting budgets and practices at correctional agencies, according to an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 23-62. In addition, it said shifting costs will "put further strain on the budgets for providing services to incarcerated people" and cause providers to "compete for scarcer funding."

The FCC Wireline Bureau modified the effective date to July 1 on its approval of the National Exchange Carrier Association's proposed average-schedule interstate settlement disbursements. An announcement was contained in an order Wednesday in docket 23-415 (see 2405100062). A previous order set the effective date as July 2.

The FCC Wireline Bureau updated the list it uses for determining rural health care program eligibility to reflect the 2020 census. On Tuesday, the bureau also granted a waiver for FY 2025 of its eligibility rules for existing providers. In an order in docket 02-60 it said that it will "allow health care providers whose status has changed from rural to urban to continue to participate in the RHC program as if they were rural." The "once-per-decade update to areas identified as rural creates special circumstances justifying our action to ease impacted health care providers’ transitions," the order said. It noted that many sites "play an important role in delivering health care and a sudden change in eligibility due to the loss of a health care provider’s rural status could have a serious effect on its ability to deliver needed health care services to patients in a given area."

The National Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America, and TDIforAccess asked the FCC to require that IP-captioned telephone service providers give users the option to select a live communications assistant "whenever the user finds [automatic speech recognition] performance to be unsatisfactory." The groups said in a petition for rulemaking filed Monday in docket 03-123 that the FCC shouldn't certify additional ASR-only providers of IP CTS "until a new rule requiring providers to give users the option to select CAs is adopted." The groups also asked the FCC to "expeditiously" complete its proceeding "on the establishment of clear, technology-neutral performance goals and metrics for IP CTS."

NTCA asked the FCC to make changes in its broadband data collection process. Stronger reporting verification and "greater use of performance and subscription data" are needed to ensure proper challenges to the national broadband map, NTCA said in an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 19-195. The group met with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2405200065). It also asked the FCC to "consider changes to reporting standards to reflect proven technological capabilities on an objective engineering basis in lieu of accepting advertising claims."

Comments on Wednesday by Diana Eisner, USTelecom vice president-policy and advocacy, that only 1.3% of ‘landline only’ Americans” use “expensive-to-maintain legacy copper networks" show the need for change, the Free State Foundation said Thursday on X, formerly Twitter. The group cited our report (see 2405290061). “It's wrong that, in such a radically changed market, @FCC is so slow to eliminate outdated regs!” FSF said. It would be “helpful to understand how much federal and state USF $$ is being expended to keep the copper going for the 1.3%, plus all the other households not using the copper for voice,” Lukas LaFuria’s David LaFuria responded.

USTelecom urged the FCC to continue designating its Industry Traceback Group (ITG) as the consortium to coordinate industry efforts on identifying illegal robocalls. The group noted in a letter Wednesday in docket 20-22 that the ITG "receives direction and support from a broad cross-section of the communications industry." The ITG "continues to meet the criteria established in the Traced Act for the registered consortium and the ITG’s track record demonstrates that it is and remains the best candidate for the role of the commission-designated registered consortium," USTelecom said.

Providers covered under the FCC's rules regarding line separation requests in the Safe Connections Act are required to comply with the provision by July 15 (see 2311160080). A Wireline Bureau public notice Wednesday in docket 22-238 said OMB completed its review of the rules May 3.

NCIC Communications backed Worth Rises' call for the FCC to set video calling rates on a per minute basis for incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS). The IPCS provider also asked the commission in a letter Tuesday in docket 23-62 to "immediately address" single-pay transaction fees for phone calls. "The FCC will have to expand its authority in order to capture all video visitation providers and subject them to rules that are adopted in this proceeding," NCIC said, noting IPCS companies "provide only about half of the video visitation systems in the corrections industry." The company said it was "aware of numerous IPCS providers not registered with the FCC who claim to be outside of the scope of FCC authority by offering video visitation" and phone calls over non-interconnected VoIP platforms.

R Street Institute is concerned that the FCC's proposed rules banning broadband bulk billing in multi-tenant environments (MTE) could retard broadband inclusivity efforts. The group told an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez the rules could "potentially exacerbate challenges to getting Americans online and staying connected," in an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 17-142 (see 2405080043). Consumers "benefit from lower prices that are possible when a broadband provider can negotiate with" MTE owners, "reducing the risk of investment and increasing potential return," said R Street. It also warned that letting consumers opt out of bulk billing agreements "could prevent such agreements at all, depending on the text of the rule." It urged that the FCC seek additional data on the potential rule's impact. In addition, Summit Broadband raised concerns about the proposed rules, holding separate meetings with aides to Gomez, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington. The facilities-based provider warned of the potential harm the proposed rules would have on its customers, many of whom are homeowners associations (HOA). "These mandatory opt out provisions would cause ISPs to raise prices to recoup potential lost revenues and could push some providers to exit the HOA marketplace altogether, leading to less facilities-based competition," Summit Broadband said.