Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission said it is ready to authorize $709,060,159 in its fourth round of funding for new broadband deployments through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. Together with three prior funding wave announcements, the FCC has now announced over $1.7 billion in funding to winning bidders for new deployments.

The Federal Communications Commission approved an additional 75 applications for funding commitments totaling $42,163,705 for Round 2 of its COVID-19 Telehealth Program. This is the FCC’s fourth funding announcement of approved Round 2 applications, bringing the total to approximately $166.13 million awarded to health care providers in each state, territory, and the District of Columbia, and completing the first phase of Round 2 of the Program.

To address the enduring nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Communications Commission clarifies that for the second round of the COVID-19 Telehealth Program, applicants will receive points on their applications for being located in a hotspot or a sustained hotspot based on the relevant dataset as of either (1) May 6, 2021, the date when the application filing window closed, or (2) November 19, 2021, the date when the ten-day resubmission period closes.

In this Order on Reconsideration, the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau reconsiders one aspect of its decision to extend the waiver of certain E-Rate rules until June 30, 2022, and to partially grant Comcast’s request for a waiver of this rule to expand its Lift Zone initiative at seven proposed library systems. The bureau clarifies that Comcast may continue to provide broadband and other services to the seven library systems identified in its petition for the three-year term of its Lift Zone library pilot without running afoul of the E-Rate program gift rule. 

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it will commit over $421 million in the latest round of Emergency Connectivity Fund announcements, bringing total program commitments to over $3.05 billion. The funding is supporting schools and libraries in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework and virtual learning, as schools and libraries continue to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau paused the scheduled phase-out in Lifeline support for voice-only services and the scheduled increase in the mobile broadband data capacity minimum service standards for the Lifeline program. As directed by the FCC in the 2016 Lifeline Order, support for services that meet only the voice minimum service standard is scheduled to be eliminated in most areas on December 1, 2021.

The Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), in conjunction with the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB), released updated data on fixed broadband deployment, and mobile voice and broadband deployment as of December 31, 2020. These data were collected through Federal Communications Commission Form 477 and are available on the FCC’s website.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an order ending China Telecom (Americas) Corporation’s ability to provide domestic interstate and international telecommunications services within the United States. The Order on Revocation and Termination directs China Telecom Americas to discontinue any domestic or international services that it provides pursuant to its section 214 authority within sixty days following the release of the order.