FCC CAF II Award for New York 

The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau announced  that it is ready to authorize Connect America Fund Phase II support for Mid-Hudson Data Corp. in conjunction with the New York Broadband Program. To be authorized to receive the total 10-year support, Mid-Hudson is required to submit acceptable irrevocable stand-by letter(s) of credit and Bankruptcy Code opinion letter(s) from their legal counsel in accordance with the instructions in the Public Notice.  Mid Hudson’s bid will allow it to serve 459 locations covering 73 census blocks.   

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The Regulatory Mix Today:  FCC CAF II Award for New York, FCC Revises Outage Reporting Requirements for Submarine Cables

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FCC Revises Outage Reporting Requirements for Submarine Cables 

The FCC released an Order on Reconsideration revising the certain aspects of the required reporting of submarine cable infrastructure outages.   Historically, the FCC employed a voluntary reporting regime for submarine cables.  However, in 2016, it established mandatory reporting through the NORS system.  In response to petitions for reconsideration, the FCC agreed to refine the rules to refocus them on the reporting of substantial disruptions.  The FCC: (1) narrowed the scope of reportable outages to reduce the potential for reporting of mundane events and to ease reporting obligations on affected entities for outages involving planned maintenance that is announced to customers; (2) clarified the definition of “outage”; and (3) declined to either: further extend the time before the obligations become effective, extend the time after discovering a reportable outage that a licensee must submit a Notification, exclude from the reporting obligation all outages that are mitigated by rerouting, or raise the minimum duration for a reportable outage.  

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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.