FCC Announces Fifth Round of CAF II Auction Funding

The FCC authorized over $112.2 million in funding over the next decade to expand broadband to nearly 48,000 unserved rural homes and businesses in nine states.  This represents the fifth wave of support from last year’s successful Connect America Fund Phase II auction. The affected states are California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin.  Among the funded projects are:

• $50.5 million over 10 years to deploy service to 20,859 homes and businesses in California, most of which will get access to service delivering speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream, using fixed wireless technology
• $53.4 million over 10 years to deploy service to 23,957 rural homes and businesses in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, most of which will get access to service delivering speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream, using fixed wireless technology
• $1.8 million to four rural phone companies to offer gigabit-speed fiber service to 536 rural homes and businesses in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

The Regulatory Mix Today: FCC Announces Fifth Round of CAF II Auction Funding, FCC Reassigned Number Database

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

FCC Reassigned Number Database

The FCC granted a request by the North American Numbering Council’s (NANC) Numbering Administration Oversight Working Group (NAOWG) for additional time to present its Technical Requirements Document (TRD) containing the recommendations on certain technical aspects of database establishment, operation, and funding of the new, reassigned numbers database.  (In December 2018, the FCC adopted rules that establish a single, comprehensive database containing reassigned numbers information.2 The database will enable any caller to verify whether a number has been permanently disconnected before calling that number, and it will help consumers avoid unwanted calls intended for others.)  Specifically, NANC was given until January 13, 2020, to complete its work on the Technical Requirements Document associated with the Reassigned Numbers Database and to present its recommendations to the FCC.. To ensure that it can monitor the NANC’s progress and encourage timely completion, the FCC conditioned the extension on the NAOWG presenting a work plan by September 30, 2019, that shows how the NANC will complete its work by the specified dates. The FCC also granted NAOWG an additional five months, until February 13, 2020, to complete its work on recommendations for the mechanisms for the fee structure and pricing for users of the database.

The FCC found that the additional was necessary to ensure the development and consideration of a complete record on the complex technical aspects of the database’s establishment, operation, and funding.

____________________________

The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s 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 an Inteserra Briefing.