Stakeholders who participated in Wednesday’s White House Rural Council telemedicine event are expected to “report back to the Council in two weeks with thoughts, best practices, action items and pilot project ideas,” NTCA said in a blog post Thursday. It mentioned that officials from NTCA, the administration, the FCC, academia and elsewhere participated. “Building on the Obama administration’s ongoing commitment to expanding access to opportunity through quality, affordable health care, the event highlighted the essential role of telehealth in reaching high-need rural families and communities,” NTCA said. Several NTCA members were present, the group said. “NTCA had been working with the White House Rural Council to host this event because we really do believe that telemedicine can be a game changer for bringing economic development into rural America,” NTCA President Shirley Bloomfield said in a different blog post, calling it a “banner day.” Bloomfield said she had implored stakeholders “to work together to take some next steps and get some real action done before the end of this administration and to leave some good steps for the next administration to build upon.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved Vonage's request to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering resource administrators, an agency public notice said Thursday in docket 16-49. The proceeding will be terminated and the docket closed in 60 days if there are no further filings, or -- if there are additional filings -- after 60 days of docket inactivity, the PN said. Vonage had submitted its 152-page application on Feb. 18, the first day interconnected VoIP providers were allowed to seek phone numbers directly under a 2015 FCC order.

The total number of U.S. Internet connections grew 9 percent to 321 million from December 2013 to December 2014, with mobile connections growing 13 percent to 223 million and fixed connections growing 2 percent to 98 million, said an FCC report released Wednesday on Internet access services. Of mobile connections, 58 percent had downlink speeds of at least 6 Mbps, 23 percent had 3-6 Mbps and 19 percent had less than 3 Mbps. Of fixed connections, 44 percent had downlink speeds of at least 25 Mbps, 28 percent had 10-25 Mbps, 19 percent had 3-10 Mbps and 8 percent had less than 3 Mbps, the report said. Only 3 percent of residential census blocks had at least three providers offering 25 Mbps service (not necessarily to all housing units), 20 percent had two such providers, 47 percent had one and 30 percent had none. Sixty-one percent of census blocks had at least three providers offering 10 Mbps, 28 percent had two and 10 percent had one. A report on voice phone services said there were 323 million mobile subscriptions in December 2014, 73 million retail switched access lines, and 54 million interconnected VoIP subscriptions. From 2011 to 2014, interconnected VoIP subscriptions grew at a compound annual growth rate of 14 percent, mobile voice subscriptions grew at a compound annual growth rate of 3 percent and retail switched access lines declined by 12 percent per year, it said. Of 127 million wireline retail voice service connections (switched and VoIP), 70 million were residential and 57 million were business. ILECs had 69 million wireline retail voice service connections (58 million switched access lines and 11 million VoIP) and non-ILECs had 57 million connections (over 14 million switched access lines and 43 million VoIP), it said.

NTCA members will meet with the White House Rural Council Wednesday to “identify and make recommendations on barriers and opportunities to increased deployment and participation in telehealth services,” NTCA said in a news release Tuesday. The event will be in the White House Executive Office Building, the group said. NTCA “is pleased to partner with the White House Rural Council to discuss issues critical to the success of rural America,” NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said. “Access to health care is a key component for a rural community, and it is clear that broadband can play a vital role in that regard. Telemedicine can keep essential services supported, and we look forward to engaging with the administration to build upon its commitment to expanding access to opportunity through quality, affordable health care.” Bloomfield wrote about such engagement in a November blog post.

AT&T will add an unlimited data option for U-Verse home Internet customers May 23, the telco said Tuesday. Customers with stand-alone Internet service can add unlimited data for $30, while customers who have a bundle of Internet and either DirecTV or U-verse TV service will get unlimited data at no extra charge, AT&T said. Also on May 23, most other customers will automatically receive an increase in their monthly data allowance. Monthly data allowances will range from 300 GB to 1 TB starting that date. "Today's Internet speeds are faster than ever and we're all using it to do more -- streaming video, gaming, accessing the cloud or uploading videos and photos," said Bob Bickerstaff, vice president-data and voice products, AT&T Entertainment Group. "That's why we're going to provide U-verse home Internet customers with more choices and more data."

AT&T said BT Americas is peddling "stale" special access data that produces "rotten results." In a blog post Tuesday, AT&T said, "While BTA’s past claims have been repeatedly refuted by AT&T, its recent Reply Comments introduce a new 'study' purchased from European telecom consultancy, WIK. This study argues that Ethernet prices are distinctly higher in the U.S. than in Europe, and that this unhappy state is due [to] a lack of competition and competent regulation in the U.S. A little detective work shows these claims about Ethernet to be as fanciful an overreach as BTA’s prior claims about DS1 and DS3 services." BT Americas had no comment.

President Barack Obama sees a role for the FCC in the economic relationship between the U.S. and Argentina, said a White House fact sheet released this week. “Technical assistance” from the U.S. “includes support from the [FTC] and the Department of Justice for Argentina’s Commission for the Defense of Competition,” the White House said. “The United States and Argentina will also deepen discussions on telecommunications policy, including through consultations with the [FCC] regarding spectrum management and regulatory reform.”

While FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler cited network investment by AT&T as a sign the 2015 net neutrality order is not harming capital spending, a telecom carrier official said a big chunk of AT&T’s $22 billion in spending this year is outside the U.S. Wheeler cited AT&T’s capital expenditures Monday in a speech (see 1603210042). AT&T described its capital improvement plans in more depth Feb. 21. AT&T said in a news release that part of the spending is targeted to Mexico, where the company plans to “integrate more than 6,000 kilometers of Mexico fiber currently supporting the wireless operations into the AT&T wireline network; enhance these assets by investing in more AT&T global network nodes and add hundreds of sellers focused on selling business solutions in Mexico.” In a speech last month at the Heritage Foundation, Commissioner Ajit Pai said AT&T significantly increased its investments in Mexico, due in part to the net neutrality order and the reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1602260053). AT&T and the FCC didn't comment.

EMagin sees 2016 as an “important year” for its “strategic focus” of adapting technology it has perfected in its “core” military business and “making inroads into the consumer market” for high-contrast, high-brightness virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets, CEO Andrew Sculley said on a Thursday earnings call. The technology advancement “that we pioneered for our military work really sets a standard and expectation also in the consumer marketplace,” he said. “The features in today’s consumer VR and AR applications will not satisfy the user” very long, he said. “As the novelty of these new devices begins to wear off, the consumer will start looking for a higher-quality experience and the manufacturers of the headsets will look for better displays.” There are a “number of consumer companies with whom we've discussed our road map” for migrating military-grade OLED microdisplay technology for VR and AR consumer headsets, Sculley said. For an AR or VR headset to be successful, it “must be small for comfort like a pair of glasses,” Sculley said. Discussions are “ongoing” with “very significant interested parties,” Sculley said. In December, eMagin completed a “strategic licensing" deal with an unnamed partner that makes eMagin’s supplying of the OLED microdisplays part of the overall intellectual property deal for that partner's VR and AR headsets, he said.

ON Semiconductor extended its tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Fairchild Semiconductor at $20 per share, it said Friday. ON received a request for additional information from the FTC on regulatory approvals Thursday and the offer to acquire Fairchild, announced Nov. 18, will expire March 31 unless further extended, it said. ON Semiconductor plans to dispose of its ignition insulated gate bipolar transistors business to satisfy FTC antitrust concerns and said Fairchild and ON will continue to engage “closely and cooperatively with the FTC” is it finalizes its review of the transaction. The companies are confident the necessary regulatory approval will be obtained and said they received clearance for the acquisition from antitrust authorities in Germany and Japan.