General

On October 31, 2022, in the School and Libraries docket, CC Docket No. 02-6, WC Docket No. 06-122, in the RHC Program docket, WC Docket No. 02-60, in the Connected Care Pilot Program docket, WC Docket No. 18-213, and in the Contribution Methodology docket, WC Docket No. 06-122, the WCB issued a Public Notice (DA 22-1120) announcing the grant, dismissal, or denial of various requests (such as requests for review, requests for waivers, and petition for reconsideration) related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company.
On October 28, 2022, the Commission issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (DA 22-79) seeking comment on proposals to ensure that mobile carriers continue to implement advanced telecommunications services and that fixed providers have sufficient resiliency and redundancy during the transition periods of the Bringing Puerto Rico Together Fund and the Connect USVI Fund. Comments will due 30 days after publication; Reply Comments will be due 45 days after publication.
On October 14, 2022, the WCB issued a Public Notice (DA 22-1094) releasing the 2023 FCC Forms 499-A and 499-Q, and accompanying instructions.
The WCB previously issued a Public Notice (DA 22-967) reminding Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Recipients of their obligation to file status updated with the Commission every 90 days, beginning on the date on which the WCB approved the recipients’ application. The status updates must inform the Commission about the work of the recipient to permanently remove, replace, and dispose of the covered communications equipment or services, which for the purposes of the Reimbursement Program means all communications equipment or services produced or provided by Huawei Technologies Company or ZTE Corporation and obtained on or before June 30, 2020.

Lifeline / Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)

On October 28, 2022, USAC released the October 2022 Lifeline Newsletter.
On October 11, 2022, the WCB released a Public Notice (DA 22-1076) relating to the “Your Home, Your Internet” Pilot Program and ACP Navigator Pilot Program. The WCB expects to open the Pilot Programs’ application window, and expects the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to release the Notice of Funding Opportunity for Pilot Program funding, in November 2022.
On October 7, 2022, USAC released the September 2022 Lifeline Newsletter.
On October 4, 2022, the WCB released an Order (DA 22-1063) waiving certain E-Rate, Emergency Connectivity Fund, Rural Health Care, COVID-19 Telehealth, Lifeline, High Cost, and Affordable Connectivity Program rules and deadlines to assist participants and service providers, including Universal Service Fund contributors, located in the areas affected by Hurricane Ian, which struck the State of Florida on September 28, 2022, and the States of North Carolina and South Carolina on September 29, 2022.
- With respect to the Lifeline Program, the WCB:
  - waived sections 54.405(e)(3) and 54.405(e)(4) of the Commission’s rules relating to de-enroll Lifeline subscribers who do not pay a monthly fee for their Lifeline-supported service and do not use that service for 30 consecutive days in the Affected Disaster Area through November 30, 2022; and
  - waived sections 54.407(c)(2) and 54.410(f) of the Commission’s rules through November 30, 2022 relating to the requirement that Lifeline subscribers to demonstrate continued eligibility for the program Affected Disaster Area through November 30, 2022. At the expiration of the waiver period, recertification efforts will resume and subscribers who were subject to the waiver will have an additional 60 days to respond to recertification notices; and
  - directed USAC not to de-enroll any Lifeline subscriber residing in the Affected Disaster Areas for failure to successfully respond to a pending reverification request with documentation deadlines that will occur before November 30, 2022.
- With respect to the ACP, the WCB:
  - waive through November 30, 2022, for ACP households in the Affected Disaster Areas, sections 54.1808(c)(1) and (2) and 54.1809(c) of the Commission’s rules relating to offering an ACP service for which the household does not pay a monthly fee are required to certify that every such household has used its supported service at least once every consecutive 30 days; and
  - waive through November 30, 2022, for ACP households in the Affected Disaster Areas, sections 54.1806(f)(1) and (5), and 54.1809(d) of the Commission’s rules relating to ACP subscribers’ requirement to respond to recertification outreach
The WCB previously released an Order (DA 22-1039) extending the waiver of Lifeline recertification and reverification requirements for Lifeline subscribers residing on Tribal lands to January 31, 2022 and expanding the waiver to include ACP participants.

High Cost Fund Programs

On October 25, 2022, the WCB issued an Order (DA 22-1123) granting a waiver request of Douglas Services, Inc., d/b/a Douglas Fast Net (DFN), relating to Rural Broadband Experiments default rules and modification of its associated defined deployment obligation, reduce DFN’s defined deployment obligation to reflect the total number of qualifying locations that DFN could identify during its build-out term using reasonable and systematic methods and reducing, on an average per location basis, DFN’s authorized support.
On October 20, 2022, in an Order (DA 22-1112), the WCB granted a petition filed by Lumen Technologies, Inc. requesting waiver of limited aspects of the Commission’s Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II Model (CAF II Model) performance testing rules, relating to the testing sample size requirement in the states where some of the CAF II Model subscriber locations in Lumen’s samples were found not to be in Lumen’s eligible support area.
On October 20, 2022, the WCB issued a Public Notice (DA 22-1110) seeking comment on R.M. Greene, Inc. aka Beam’ s Petition for designation as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier for the purpose of receiving RDOF support and conditioned upon approval of Beam and Point Broadband’s 214 Transfer Application
On October 12, 2022, the WCB, with the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), authorized in a Public Notice (DA 22-1086) approximately 1,800 winning bids for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (Auction 904) based on applicants’ long-form application information.
On October 4, 2022, the WCB released an Order (DA 22-1063) waiving certain E-Rate, Emergency Connectivity Fund, Rural Health Care, COVID-19 Telehealth, Lifeline, High Cost, and Affordable Connectivity Program rules and deadlines to assist participants and service providers, including Universal Service Fund contributors, located in the areas affected by Hurricane Ian, which struck the State of Florida on September 28, 2022, and the States of North Carolina and South Carolina on September 29, 2022. With respect to the High Cost Fund Program, the WCB waived the requirement to test and pre-test the speed and latency performance of their supported networks in these areas in the fourth quarter of 2022 for recipients with eligible areas in the Affected Disaster Areas.
Previously, the WCB issued a Public Notice (DA 22-896) waiving the annual reporting deadlines of Section 54.1514 of the Commission’s rules and establishes uniform reporting deadlines for the Bringing Puerto Rico Together Fund and the Connect USVI Fund Stage 2 mobile support recipients. All carriers must file all previously required reports by November 16, 2022.

Schools and Libraries (E-Rate)/Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF)

On October 31, 2022, in the School and Libraries docket, CC Docket No. 02-6, in the RHC Program docket, WC Docket No. 02-60, in the Connected Care Pilot Program docket, WC Docket No. 18-213, and in the Contribution Methodology docket, WC Docket No. 06-122, the WCB issued a Public Notice (DA 22-1120) announcing the grant, dismissal, or denial of various requests (such as requests for review, requests for waivers, and petition for reconsideration) related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company.
On October 26, 2022, USAC announced a November 3, 2022 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time training relating to the E-Rate post-commitment process.
On October 4, 2022, the WCB released an Order (DA 22-1063) waiving certain E-Rate, Emergency Connectivity Fund, Rural Health Care, COVID-19 Telehealth, Lifeline, High Cost, and Affordable Connectivity Program rules and deadlines to assist participants and service providers, including Universal Service Fund contributors, located in the areas affected by Hurricane Ian, which struck the State of Florida on September 28, 2022, and the States of North Carolina and South Carolina on September 29, 2022.
- With respect to the E-Rate Program, for schools and libraries located in Affected Disaster Areas, the WCB:
  - waived the deadlines and provided those affected with up to 150 calendar days from the effective date of this Order to submit: requests for review or waiver of decisions of USAC or the Commission; filing FCC Form 486, and FCC Form 472;
  - delayed the service implementation June 30, 2023 deadline for special construction, to June 30, 2024, subject to the applicant filing a valid FCC Form 500 certifying that construction for the special construction project was unavoidably delayed due to damage caused by Hurricane Ian;
  - waived section 54.516(a) of the Commission’s rules, relating to document retention, with respect to destroyed records; and
  - increased flexibility for service substitutions in the Affected Disaster Areas.
- With respect to the ECF Program, for schools and libraries located in Affected Disaster Areas, the WCB:
  - waived, in the Affected Disaster Areas, the deadline to submit a request for review or waiver of decisions by USAC or the Commission by up to 150 calendar days from the effective date of this Order;
  - waived section 54.1715(b) of the Commission’s rules, relating to document retention, with respect to destroyed records; and
  - increased flexibility for service substitutions for equipment and services that have been disrupted, destroyed, or rendered unusable by Hurricane Ian in the Affected Disaster Areas.
USAC previously confirmed the following E-Rate Fall Training dates for applicants and services providers: E-Rate Post-Commitment Process on November 3, 2022 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.

Rural Health Care (RHC)

On October 31, 2022, in the School and Libraries docket, CC Docket No. 02-6, in the Contribution Methodology docket, WC Docket No. 06-122, in the RHC Program docket, WC Docket No. 02-60, in the Connected Care Pilot Program docket, WC Docket No. 18-213, and in the Contribution Methodology docket, WC Docket No. 06-122, the WCB issued a Public Notice (DA 22-1120) announcing the grant, dismissal, or denial of various requests (such as requests for review, requests for waivers, and petition for reconsideration) related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company.
On October 28, 2022, USAC announced draft funding requests for the FY 2023 in RHC Connect and My Portal beginning on November 1, 2022.
On October 27, 2022, USAC announced that its enhanced Search Posted Services tool is available. The tool makes searches for posted services and download documents more streamlined.
On October 6, 2022, USAC released the RHC Program Newsletter.
On October 4, 2022, the WCB released an Order (DA 22-1063) waiving certain E-Rate, Emergency Connectivity Fund, Rural Health Care, COVID-19 Telehealth, Lifeline, High Cost, and Affordable Connectivity Program rules and deadlines to assist participants and service providers, including Universal Service Fund contributors, located in the areas affected by Hurricane Ian, which struck the State of Florida on September 28, 2022, and the States of North Carolina and South Carolina on September 29, 2022.
- With respect to the RHC Program, the WCB:
  - waived and extended the 60-day deadlines in section 54.720(b) of the Commission’s rules for requests for review or waiver of decisions by USAC or the Commission;
  - waived the 14-day deadline for applicants in the Affected Disaster Areas to respond to information requests from USAC;
  - waived the September 30, 2022 deadline in section 54.618 of the Commission’s rules for Healthcare Connect Fund Program participants located in the Affected Disaster Areas to file Annual Reports for funding year 2021;
  - waived section 54.631(b) of the Commission’s rules, relating to document retention, with respect to destroyed records; and
  - waived section 54.627(a) to automatically grant a 120-day extension of the invoice deadline for all funding year 2021 funding requests from health care providers in Affected Areas.
The WCB previously issued a Public Notice (DA 22-560) that summarizes upcoming Connected Care Pilot Program deadlines, and waives and extends the end date of the Pilot Program to conduct a full three year Pilot project. December 31, 2025 is the last date for Pilot Program participants to end their project.
The OMB and WCB established via Public Notice (DA 22-582) that for Round 2 COVID-19 Telehealth Program funding recipients with additional information for the post-program report which is due on January 31, 2024.

USF Tracker - October 2022