OMB approved for three years an information collection associated with the FCC's rural healthcare (RHC) program, according to a notice for Friday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved an order in January revising existing information collection requirements associated with the RHC telecom program to simplify support calculations and streamline invoicing (see 2301260041).

Elliott Investment Management Monday called for "significant changes" to Crown Castle's executive and board leadership. The firm, which manages a roughly $2 billion investment in Crown Castle, cited in its letter to Crown Castle a "history of underperformance" and "profound lack of oversight by the board." "After spending $19 billion on its fiber strategy, performance remains poor and the company's fiber investments now generate yields that are not only below its cost of capital, but astoundingly, also below the risk-free rate of return," the letter said. Elliot called for "comprehensive leadership change," a reevaluation of the company's fiber strategy and "improved corporate governance." Crown Castle said it "remains confident" in its executive leadership. "We look forward to reviewing Elliott’s materials and are open to commencing a constructive engagement with Elliott," it said.

Americans receive an average of 2.1 billion spam calls each month, almost six calls per person, Truecaller reported Tuesday. That's based on data for the year ending Oct. 31. “Americans wasted approximately 195 million hours answering these incoming calls,” the company said: “Every year, these numbers peak during the holidays, with scams such as charity donations, fake deliveries, and vacation upgrades.”

The FCC Tuesday granted two more participants in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program six-month extensions of their mandate to rip and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment from their networks. Triangle Telephone Cooperative Association’s deadline to remove the gear was delayed from Wednesday to May 29, Triangle Communication System’s deadline from Jan. 13 to July 13, according to a Wireline Bureau order. “Petitioners claim that supply chain disruptions, attributable in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, have increased lead times for equipment delivery well beyond what would otherwise be Normal,” the bureau said in docket 18-89: The providers explain “that these issues have been exacerbated by a lack of available employees and qualified contractors due, in part, to the effects of the pandemic.”

The FCC's digital discrimination order was "one of the most consequential agency actions of the year" in "troubling ways," Free State Foundation President Randolph May wrote in a Federalist Society blog Monday (see 2311150040). Preventing discrimination of internet access is "certainly worthy," May wrote, but the order is "one of the most far-reaching unwarranted power grabs in the agency's history." May warned that the FCC's disparate impact standard may rely on a "shaky foundation" and face legal scrutiny. The FCC's order "goes to extraordinary lengths to weaponize" the standard against ISPs, he noted.

Industry groups expressed caution regarding any adoption of a new support mechanism and fiber mandates for the FCC's high-cost USF programs, according to a reply comment posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 (see 2310240062). Don't require the provision of standalone voice service as a prerequisite for funding, said the Wireless ISP Association. "There is no longer a need to require high-cost recipients to offer standalone voice service," the group said. WISPA also urged tech neutrality and not to mandate fiber connections. "The commission has never required the use of fiber ... or precluded the use of technologies for its high-cost programs, and it should not do so here," WISPA said. The FCC's enhanced alternative connect America cost model should "be based on forward-looking technology and should not require certain technologies that will unnecessarily raise the cost to taxpayers," it added. The record doesn't support the adoption of a new support mechanism for operational expenses, said Incompas, adding no clear path forward has been provided to establish any new support mechanism. The group said there isn't enough time to adopt a new mechanism before states begin soliciting applications for NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program. The FCC should instead "evaluate the continued need of each USF program in order to evaluate the future of the USF most effectively and how it relates to the billions of dollars coming from federal and state funding," Incompas said.

NCIC Inmate Communications petitioned the FCC to partially waive its rule requiring correctional facilities to deploy certain forms of advanced telecom relay services by Jan. 1 (see 2212080063). NCIC sought a one-year extension to comply with the requirement, noting that IP captioned telephone service provider ClearCaptions backed a similar waiver from Securus. The "modest extension" will "give the marketplace time to develop corrections-grade advanced TRS platforms," said the petition posted Wednesday in docket 23-62.

Searchlight Capital Partners and British Columbia Investment Management's purchase of Consolidated Communications will allow the company to "continue its multi-pronged fiber expansion strategy and position itself to become a leading fiber provider across the United States," Consolidated said in a transfer of control application posted Monday (see 2310160065). Consolidated said it plans to expand 1 Gbps coverage in its current network and "improve operational efficiency across its approximately 59,000 fiber route miles and two million fiber strand miles." The company said tariffs will remain unaffected because investors have "no plans to change Consolidated's current rates or terms and conditions of services."

NTCA representatives met with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington to explain its stance on an FCC proposal on rules to speed the move to next-generation 911 (see 2309110042). NTCA supports “a surgical amendment to the overall approach as found in the NPRM in specifying that the party that is paid by and contractually responsible to state and local governmental entities to implement NG911 should be responsible for the costs of doing so,” it said in filings posted separately Wednesday in docket 21-479.

The FCC is focused on efforts to build a smart power grid, Commissioner Geoffrey Starks told the 2023 Clean Energy Transition Conference, according to text of the speech in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Smart grids “show a clear path to tap into more renewable sources, strengthen our resilience in the wake of more frequent and more severe natural disasters, squeeze power routing efficiencies, and lower consumer costs on their utility bills,” he said. Starks highlighted a USF program push to connect more than 700,000 unserved rural locations with high-speed fixed broadband. “We’re also helping every community in America migrate to mobile 5G by increasing access to spectrum, accelerating deployment and supporting rural buildout through initiatives like our 5G Fund,” he said: “This is about much more than gaming and movies.”