The FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday reversed four Universal Service Administrative Co. audit decisions denying reimbursements for Lifeline support that Verizon/Alltel provided to eligible residents of tribal lands in North Dakota and South Dakota in 2007. Verizon Wireless acquired Alltel Wireless in 2008.
Representatives of TransUnion met with staff from the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Wireline bureaus to discuss the company’s “market-driven” calling solution. “Businesses currently face two interrelated dilemmas -- certain calls that are authentic are being spam-tagged and/or blocked and calls that are fraudulently spoofed are getting through to unwitting consumers,” said a filing posted Thursday (docket 17-59). TransUnion has found that up to 25% of some companies’ calls “are mislabeled as spam,” while as many as 15% of some calls from financial institutions are “spoofed,” the filing said: “TransUnion’s solutions, based on global call authentication standards, allows consumers to see businesses’ name, logo, and call reason information on their incoming call screen, providing greater confidence that a call is legitimate.”
Bandwidth executives met with staff from the Public Safety and Wireline bureaus on interconnection issues (see 2503100030), according to a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-479. “Bandwidth supports the transition to all-IP networks and wants to work with the Commission to speed the transition to IP while ensuring that all calls, and especially calls to 911, are delivered without interruption during that transition,” it said. The executives discussed “the ongoing difficulties faced by companies like Bandwidth that seek to continue to successfully deliver E911 calls nationwide as the industry transitions to more [next-generation] 911 service arrangements.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau announced Tuesday that there's “sufficient funding available to fully meet” the Universal Service Administrative Co.’s estimated demand for Category 1 and Category 2 requests for E-rate support in funding year 2025. In March, USAC estimated that the total demand for the year will be $3.225 billion, including an estimated demand of $1.806 billion for Category 1 services and $1.418 billion for Category 2 services, the bureau said. The E-rate program inflation-based cap for the year is $5.059 billion. The bureau directed USAC to fully fund all requests and use $500 million in E-rate funds unused in prior years “to offset the collection requirements needed to fully meet demand for such services.”
AT&T warned shareholders Monday that they should be wary of a TRC Capital Investment “mini-tender” offer. “TRC has offered to purchase up to 4 million shares of AT&T common stock at $26.38 per share,” the carrier said. “AT&T is in no way associated with TRC and recommends that shareholders reject this unsolicited offer,” which is below the current trading price of AT&T common stock.
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Friday asked for comment on a petition filed by GCI to change how Alaska Plan final milestone commitments, which are due at the end of next year, are evaluated. Comments are due May 27, replies June 3, in docket 16-271. GCI wants to use revised methodology in its calculations, the bureau said. While the current model, developed in 2016, “was the best that could be done at the time it was adopted given the then-available data, incorporating the Fabric can further improve the Model’s approximation of where Alaskans are actually located,” GCI said in an April petition. “As such, a modified Model would provide a more accurate assessment of GCI’s compliance with its Alaska Plan mobile commitments,” GCI said.
The National Emergency Number Association urged that the FCC require carriers to continue to support time-division multiplexing (TDM) as they move to IP-based services. NENA said the transition is “occurring unevenly.” NENA “wants to ensure that all calls to 9-1-1 are completed” and there is a “need to support TDM delivery of 9-1-1 traffic to selective routers for the immediately foreseeable future,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-17.
Verizon isn’t sweating a potential downturn in the economy, Sowmyanarayan Sampath, executive vice president and CEO of Verizon Consumer Group, said Thursday during a MoffettNathanson conference. “We are really resilient, and we are ready for any type of economy,” he said. Sampath called it “a little premature” to discuss tariffs on smartphones. “We'll have to wait and see" what the real tariff is.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg expressed confidence Wednesday that his company will complete its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier (see 2409050010). He told a JPMorgan conference that preparing for Frontier to become part of his company was one of the areas where he spends the largest percentage of his time. Last week, the FCC’s informal 180-day shot clock on the deal expired.
The North American Numbering Council (NANC) will meet at 2 p.m. June 24 at FCC headquarters, the Wireline Bureau said Monday. The agenda includes votes on reports and recommendations by the numbering administration oversight working group, including performance reviews for the North American numbering plan administrator, reassigned numbers database administrator and North American numbering plan billing and collection agent.