Today: Frontier Reports CAF Milestone, FCC Reminder on State TRS Program Recertification, NARUC Adopts Telecom Resolutions 

Frontier Reports CAF Milestone

Frontier Communications Corp. announced it reached its Connect America Fund deployment milestone ahead of the year end 2017 deadline.  Frontier said that, as of June 30th, it had reached the 40% milestone in nine states: Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, and West Virginia.  Nationally, Frontier now provides broadband to approximately 238,000 households and small businesses in its CAF-eligible areas, and has improved speeds to approximately 746,000 additional locations.  "We are very pleased to reach this important milestone," said Mark D. Nielsen, Frontier Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. "The combination of CAF and Frontier's investments have enabled new broadband connections that are vital to closing the digital divide. Every day we see our customers benefiting from the significant economic and educational benefits of broadband connectivity."

FCC Reminder on State TRS Program Recertification

The FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau reminded states and territories that operate their own TRS programs that the certifications they now hold will expire on July 25, 2018.  Under FCC rules, each certified state or territory may file an application for renewal of its certification one year prior to expiration, i.e., beginning July 25, 2017.  Although there is no prescribed deadline for filing, the FCC requests that filings be made by October 1, 2017, to give it sufficient time to review and rule on the applications prior to expiration of the existing certifications.  Once an application is received, the Bureau will release a public notice seeking comments on the application, after which it will review each application to determine whether the state TRS program has sufficiently documented that it meets or exceeds all of the applicable operational, technical and functional mandatory minimum standards.  The Bureau will release public notices of renewal of certification for each state on a rolling basis.

NARUC Adopts Telecom Resolutions

At its summer meeting the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners adopted two telecom related resolutions.  The first resolution urges the FCC to take the steps necessary to ensure sufficient high cost support for rural ILECs.  It points to the shortage of funding for rate-of-return ILECs and higher prices for rural consumers as a result of the budget controls adopted by the FCC.  It urges the FCC to “evaluate means of providing, and then ultimately providing, sufficient USF support to enable the availability and affordability of voice and broadband services in rural America.”  The second resolution relates to state representation on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee.  It urges the FCC to work with the States and local governments to “identify existing federal and State regulatory and legal barriers to improve broadband infrastructure deployment and public access to BIAS across the nation and to effectuate this objective by increasing the membership of State and local government representatives on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee and its working groups to an amount that equitably balances with membership by BIAS industry representatives.”

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The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.