Public Notice

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announces January 1, 2024 as the start date for the requirement to begin one year of pre-testing and reporting of speed and latency results for the Bringing Together Puerto Rico Fund Stage and the Connect USVI Fund Stage 2. Testing will begin on January 1, 2025. For the carriers participating in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), pre-testing will begin on January 1, 2025, and testing will begin on January 1, 2026.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau), on its own motion, grants a limited, one-time waiver to a limited number of Lifeline subscribers who received incorrect information about the deadline for recertifying their eligibility for the Lifeline program. Specifically, in letters from the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), these subscribers were informed that they had approximately 80 days in which to recertify their eligibility for the Lifeline program, rather than the 60-days provided for under the Lifeline program rules.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed a fine of more than $1.4 million against PayG for apparently failing to pay Universal Service Fund (USF), Telecommunications Relay Service Fund (TRS Fund), North American Numbering Plan (NANP), and federal regulatory fees when payments were due.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau, in consultation with the Office of the Managing Director, announces the amount of unused funds for the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program that has been carried forward for funding year 2023.

The Federal Communications Commission temporarily waives, on its own motion, the application of the budget control mechanism for rate-of-return carriers that receive high-cost universal service support

In collaboration with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, ConnectLA has developed a first volume of Louisiana's proposal for how the state plans to use Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funds to address Louisiana’s digital divide. This volume outlines current efforts to deploy broadband, a breakdown of unserved and underserved locations, and an overview of the process to challenge a provider’s service availability and performance.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that Etheric Communications defaulted on its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (Auction 904) bid. Auction 904 support will not be authorized for the winning bids in California. The FCC considers winning bidders and assignees to be in default for these bids and subject to forfeiture.

This plan outlines Louisiana’s first coordinated effort to assess the state’s digital divide and move Louisiana toward digital equity.

This advisory describes the current evidence on the impacts of social media on the mental health of children and adolescents. It states that we cannot conclude social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents and outlines immediate steps we can take to mitigate the risk of harm to children and adolescents. Key takeaways:

The Federal Communications Commission announced that there is sufficient funding available to fully meet the Universal Service Administrative Company’s (USAC) estimated demand for category one and category two requests for E-Rate-supported services for the funding year 2023. On March 29, 2023, USAC submitted a demand estimate for the E-Rate program for funding year 2023. USAC estimates the total demand for the funding year 2023 will be $2.944 billion, which includes estimated demand for category one services of $1.658 billion and $1.286 billion for category two services.