Telecommunication

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) submitted the federal Universal Service Support Mechanisms fund size and administrative cost projections for the third quarter of calendar year 2026 (3Q2026). Upon approval of the quarterly funding requirements for the Support Mechanisms, the projected administrative expenses, and the submission of the contribution base amount, the Federal Communications Commission will establish a quarterly contribution factor.

For decades, incarcerated people, their families, and allied advocates have decried the high cost of correctional communication services and its destructive impact on society as a whole. But, in recent years, the tide has turned, and campaigns to not just reduce the cost of communication but make it entirely free to incarcerated people and their families have been successful.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an item seeking to strengthen its “Know-Your-Customer” rules for voice service providers. By screening new and renewing customers, originating voice service providers are in the best position to prevent scammers and other bad actors from flooding telecommunications networks with illegal calls. Stopping illegal calls is the FCC’s top consumer protection priority, and the agency is taking a holistic approach by attacking them at every point in their lifecycle.

USTelecom President and CEO Jonathan Spalter urged Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to implement recent White House guidance to federal agencies that would expedite broadband permitting on federal lands and help connect more Americans to fast, reliable internet service. In letters to both Secretaries (

Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) reintroduced the Promoting Real-time Information on Cost Expenditure (PRICE) Act, legislation designed to provide consumers with more clarity on delivery app pricing. When shopping through a delivery app for meal delivery, groceries, or other products, many companies apply surprise delivery fees and service charges at checkout that significantly inflate the total cost.

Charter Communications still has its hands full with the pending Cox Communications merger, but CEO Chris Winfrey said he would be game for more cable industry consolidation if the right scenarios present themselves. "We like cable as an investment.

The concept of buying only fiber customers from an internet service provider seems to be a new industry theme. Lumen sold its fiber customers to AT&T but retained the copper customers. We know Lumen’s stated plans when it sold fiber customers to AT&T. The company publicly said it would retain and care for its copper-based consumer services since they continue to provide a strong ongoing financial contribution to the company. But will they really?

Mercury Wireless Indiana and Mercury Broadband request a limited waiver of the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund’s (“RDOF”) service milestone and non-compliance rules in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Consistent with Wireline Competition Bureau precedent, Mercury requests limited relief similar to that provided to other carriers that have relinquished some, but not all, of their RDOF-funded support.

The Federal Communications Commission recently issued an order in docket WC 25-209 and 25-208 that may signal the final regulatory death knell for telephone copper networks. The docket is titled Reducing Barriers to Network Improvements and Service Changes/Accelerating Network Modernization. The stated purpose of the order is to speed up the transition from the TDM technology used in copper telephone networks to all IP-based networks used by fiber and other newer technologies.

In the last quarter of every even numbered year, the Federal Communications Commission must publish a Communications Marketplace Report that, among other things, “assess[es] the state of competition in the communications marketplace, including competition to deliver voice, video, audio, and data services among providers of telecommunications, providers of commercial mobile service, multichannel video programming distributors, broadcast stations, providers of satellite communications, Internet service providers, and other providers of communications services.” In assessing the state of compe