Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission announced extensions of key E-Rate service implementation and filing deadlines to provide relief to program participants affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. These extensions will alleviate administrative and compliance burdens on schools and libraries and enable them to focus on transitioning to remote learning during the pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission gave certain carriers flexibility to focus Universal Service Funds on hard-hit areas in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the waiver order allows competitive eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) to use their high-cost legacy support in the service areas of any affiliated ETC in order to respond to the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19. FCC rules require all legacy high-cost support to be used in a particular service area.

The Federal Communications Commission seeks comment on a proposed a framework to provide state and federal agencies with access to outage information to improve their situational awareness while preserving the confidentiality of this data, including proposals to: Provide direct, read-only access to NORS and DIRS filings to qualified agencies of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Tribal nations, territories, and federal government; allow these agencies to share NORS and DIRS information with other public safety officials that reasonably require NORS and DIRS information to prepare for

The following items have been adopted by the Federal Communications Commission and deleted from the list of items scheduled for consideration at the March 31, 2020 Open Meeting. 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced his plan for a COVID-19 Telehealth Program to support health care providers responding to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As part of the CARES Act, Congress appropriated $200 million to the FCC to support health care providers’ use of telehealth services in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. If adopted by the FCC, the Program would help eligible health care providers purchase telecommunications, broadband connectivity, and devices necessary for providing telehealth services.