Memo: Lifeline Program
December 18, 2019
Lifeline New Low-Income Program Rules The Lifeline program was originally established in 1985 to ensure that low -income consumers had access to affordable, landline telephone service. Today, the Lifeline program provides qualifying low-income consumers discounts on voice or broadband Internet access service, as well as in a bundled service. Currently, qualifying low-income consumers receive a…
Continue ReadingMemo: Disaster Recovery Planning
December 17, 2019
Disaster Recovery Planning From blizzards and flooding to wildfires and hurricanes, 2019 has been a year of weather extremes across the United States. Each season brings new challenges and new opportunities. One challenge we hope you have not had to deal with is the occurrence of a natural disaster in your area. We want to…
Continue ReadingMemo: Restoring Internet Freedom
Court Upholds Majority of Restoring Internet Freedom Order On October 1, 2019, in the case of Mozilla Corporation v. Federal Communications Commission et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals (“the Court”) confirmed a majority of the FCC rule changes included in the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order (“RIF Order”) which overturned the prior FCC’s 2015…
Continue ReadingMemo: ReConnect Round 2
USDA Releases Details on the 2nd Round of ReConnect. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released the highly anticipated details for the second round of funding for the ReConnect Program. The ReConnect Program will provide up to $512M in loan and grant funding to assist with building broadband infrastructure in rural areas of…
Continue ReadingMemo: FCC Proposes Changes to Performance Testing Requirements
October 9, 2019
Order on Reconsideration to be considered at October 25th Open Commission Meeting. On October 4, 2019 the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) issued an Order on Reconsideration regarding Measuring CAF Recipients’ Broadband Performance (the requirement commonly referred to as “CAF Performance Testing” or “Performance Testing”) that clarifies and modifies certain portions and parameters of the Performance…
Continue ReadingMemo: Auction 105 & Part 96 Transition – 3.5 GHz
October 8, 2019
FCC Seeks Comment on Bidding Procedures for 3.5 GHz Auction 105. Comment Date: October 28, 2019 Reply Comment Date: November 12, 2019 On September 26, 2019, the FCC adopted the public notice seeking comment on proposed competitive bidding procedures for the auction of the Priority Access Licenses (PALs) within the 3550-3650 MHz portion of the…
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Consulting, Memos
Memo: Overview of Circulated FCC Order
November 27, 2018
Connect America Fund – Report and Order, FNPRM and Order on Reconsideration – WC Docket 10-90 The Federal Communications Commission (“Commission”) has released for circulation a draft Report and Order, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order on Reconsideration on the Connect America Fund (“FCC November 2018 Draft Order and NPRM”) in response to the…
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Memos
Memo: Lower 700 MHz Deadlines Approaching
November 20, 2018
Attention: WY – 700 MHz Lower Band (Blocks A, B, and E) License Holders and WZ – 700 MHz Lower Band (Blocks C and D) License Holders The End of License Term Construction deadlines for both WY and WZ license holders are coming due in June of 2019. Please note also that leased spectrum may have…
Continue ReadingTelehealth Budget Increase: $571 Million Rural Health Care Program Cap
August 21, 2018
On June 19, 2018 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted procedures to meet the increased demand for funding from the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program. The RHC program promotes health care delivery and telemedicine in rural America. In the last five years telehealth technology has advanced and became more prevalent in rural areas. The RHC…
Continue ReadingVPS Whitepaper: Satellite Broadband Remains Inferior to Wireline Broadband
February 17, 2018
Published September 2017 Not all broadband services are created equal. The usefulness of a broadband service is determined by how well online applications work or whether they work at all. The quality of the broadband connection can be measured by certain “standards” which include speed, latency, monthly capacity, reliability and scalability. When a broadband service does not…
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