Joseph Calascione

On June 25, 2026, the FCC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) seeking comment on a wide array of questions about how to update the E-Rate program to reflect how schools and students actually use the Internet.  This item is part of the FCC’s “top-to-bottom” review of all Universal Service Fund programs to promote efficiency, transparency, and accountability. The E-Rate program was created in an era when many schools and libraries lacked access to the Internet, or service would be too expensive for schools to purchase themselves.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) issued a waiver pausing both the phase-out of Lifeline program support for voice-only services and changes to the Lifeline minimum service standards.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) denied Mediacom Wireless of Florida LLC and Mediacom Wireless of Georgia LLC’s (collectively, Mediacom) request for waiver of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) requirement to certify that they offered service to 40% of the Connect America Cost Model (CAM)-estimated number of locations by December 31, 2025 and/or an extension of the service milestone until June 30, 2026 to complete deployment to 40% of the required number of locations.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau granted  Securus Technologies' request to waive the FCC's enable Securus to continue offering video IPCS while it completes implementation of its new video IPCS platform that is able to bill on a per-minute basis. As a condition of the grant of this waiver, the Bureau requires that Securus implement and abide by Pricing and Refund Commitments.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB or Bureau) denied Savage Communications, Inc.’s (Savage) request for waiver of the Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) non-compliance rules, finding that Savage did not demonstrate that good cause supports waiving the non-compliance rules or reducing the required support recovery. After being announced as an RDOF winning bidder, Savage filed a long-form application seeking to be authorized to receive support for the winning bids in exchange for providing voice and broadband service.  In December 2021, Sa

The Federal Communications Commission announced its latest effort to remove rules and regulations as part of its “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative. This action makes the following deletions:

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) extends, for a year (until December 1, 2026), the waiver pausing both the phase-out of Lifeline support for voice-only services and the increase in the Lifeline minimum service standard for mobile broadband data capacity.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau approved Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier by granting a series of applications that transfer FCC licenses and
 authorizations. The merger:

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) granted a limited waiver of the support reduction schedule for certain recipients of Connect America Fund (CAF) high-cost support that missed the July 1, 2024 network performance testing certification deadline. The Bureau finds good cause to consider a carrier to have certified its network performance testing based on when it contacted the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) about its certification.