The National Association of Surety Bond Producers and Surety & Fidelity Association of America released a broadband, equity, access and deployment program surety bond information kit Friday (see 2311090067). The first-of-its-kind document includes bond forms associated with NTIA's BEAD program for entities submitting surety bonds instead of letters of credit. "Broadband access is so crucial for communities to gain connections, information, and opportunities," said NASBP CEO Mark McCallum. The use of surety bonds "will ensure that these vital systems will be constructed and realized."

All public safety answering points were back online Friday morning in the Texas areas that Hurricane Beryl hit, though three were having their calls rerouted, according to the FCC’s disaster information reporting system report (see 2407110060). It said cellular networks continue to improve. Just 10.6% of cellsites are reported down, an improvement from Thursday's 15%. In addition, it said 497,793 cable and wireline subscribers are without service, up from 455,820 the previous day. No AM stations were listed as out of service, an improvement from Thursday’s two; four FM stations, the same as Thursday, remained out.

Nearly 15% of cellsites in the Texas area that Hurricane Beryl hit were down Thursday, an improvement from Wednesday’s 20%, according to the FCC’s disaster information reporting system report (see 2407100056). Eight public safety answering points are having their calls rerouted, one fewer than Wednesday. 455,820 cable and wireline subscribers are without service, an improvement from 527,700 the previous day. Four FMs and two AM stations were listed as out of service compared with Wednesday’s five FMs and one AM.

Six Texas counties remain in the disaster area of Hurricane Beryl, the FCC said in Wednesday’s disaster information reporting system report (see 2407090047). The alert encompasses Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris and Matagorda counties. Humble Police Department (Harris County) was down, the report said, and nine public safety answering points are having their calls rerouted. Nearly 20% of cellsites are reported down in the affected counties, an improvement from Tuesday’s 28.7%, and 527,700 cable and wireline subscribers are without service, an improvement from 803,501 on Tuesday. No TV stations were reported down, but five FMs and one AM station were listed as out of service. Tuesday's report listed two FM and two AM stations down.

The FCC will hold a forum on direct video calling (DVC) and related issues July 30. The session will explore how government agencies can implement DVC, an internet service that allows communication between American sign language users without the need for a translator. The session will begin at 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC headquarters. The forum "features an overview of relevant Executive Orders regarding accessible Federal customer services ... and exhibits by DVC providers," the FCC said.

ATIS fired back at an Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials' opposition to the standards group’s petition for reconsideration or clarification of the FCC’s January outage reporting order (see 2406120043). APCO found the petition confusing. “ATIS’ request is clear, and there is adequate notice from an [Administrative Procedure Act] perspective to grant” the relief, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-346. ATIS had asked the FCC to clarify the application of its waiver of network outage reporting system filings during disaster information reporting system (DIRS) activations. “Granting ATIS’ request would facilitate service restoration by allowing service providers to focus on repairing and restoring the network, rather than on notifications,” ATIS said: “DIRS was adopted to provide a simplified and consistent process for service providers to report communications infrastructure status and situational awareness information during times of crisis.” In creating DIRS, the commission “acknowledged the need to reduce reporting-related burdens on service providers during major disaster and recovery events,” ATIS said.

The FCC again extended by one year its waiver pausing the phase-out of Lifeline support for voice-only services and increasing minimum service standards for mobile broadband data (see 2307070056). A Wireline Bureau order in docket 11-42 Wednesday noted the "marketplace for affordable broadband services is undergoing significant changes as a result of the end of the affordable connectivity program." The waiver now expires Dec. 1, 2025.

An attorney for Rochester, New York, is examining the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned a four-decades-old standard on judicial deference to regulatory agency decisions (see 2406280043). In February, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford for Western New York in Rochester found in favor of Crown Castle, Extenet and Verizon on their consolidated claim that the city violated sections 253 and 332 of the Telecommunications Act in the unlawful manner in which it assessed fees for telecom deployments within its jurisdiction. “My office is presently reviewing the Loper Bright decision to determine its implications for the instant matters, particularly as to this Court’s summary judgment analysis,” city lawyer Patrick Beath's filing said: “Plaintiffs believe that Loper Bright has no impact here. I need additional time to make that assessment and confer with my client.”

The creator of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) app criticized the long period he and other small providers have endured waiting for FCC approval before they could begin offering IP captioned telephone services supported by the Telecom Relay Services Fund. Rogervoice founder-CEO Olivier Jeannel spoke with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington about the need for an “emergent rate” for small providers of IP CTS service. The company applied for certification in March 2022 and the FCC acted in January, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 03-123. “The nearly two-year wait for Commission action on their applications has made it all the more challenging to break into the IP CTS market, where established providers have had that much more lead time to develop and market their ASR-based captioning services,” Rogervoice said.

The FCC sought comment Wednesday on Inland Cellular’s proposed acquisition of Commnet’s rural digital opportunity fund support obligations in parts of Washington and Montana. Comments are due July 17, replies July 24, in docket 24-134. “Applicants state that Inland and its affiliates have deployed wireless and broadband networks and served customers since 1989 in rural areas of Washington and Idaho,” said a Wireline Bureau notice: “They further assert that Inland is uniquely situated to efficiently deploy RDOF-supported voice and broadband service in the Assigned Census Blocks.”