Memo: Lifeline Program
December 18, 2019
Lifeline New Low-Income Program Rules The Lifeline program was originally established in 1985 to ensure that low -income consumers had access to affordable, landline telephone service. Today, the Lifeline program provides qualifying low-income consumers discounts on voice or broadband Internet access service, as well as in a bundled service. Currently, qualifying low-income consumers receive a…
Continue ReadingMemo: Disaster Recovery Planning
December 17, 2019
Disaster Recovery Planning From blizzards and flooding to wildfires and hurricanes, 2019 has been a year of weather extremes across the United States. Each season brings new challenges and new opportunities. One challenge we hope you have not had to deal with is the occurrence of a natural disaster in your area. We want to…
Continue ReadingMemo: Restoring Internet Freedom
Court Upholds Majority of Restoring Internet Freedom Order On October 1, 2019, in the case of Mozilla Corporation v. Federal Communications Commission et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals (“the Court”) confirmed a majority of the FCC rule changes included in the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order (“RIF Order”) which overturned the prior FCC’s 2015…
Continue ReadingMemo: ReConnect Round 2
USDA Releases Details on the 2nd Round of ReConnect. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released the highly anticipated details for the second round of funding for the ReConnect Program. The ReConnect Program will provide up to $512M in loan and grant funding to assist with building broadband infrastructure in rural areas of…
Continue ReadingMemo: FCC Proposes Changes to Performance Testing Requirements
October 9, 2019
Order on Reconsideration to be considered at October 25th Open Commission Meeting. On October 4, 2019 the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) issued an Order on Reconsideration regarding Measuring CAF Recipients’ Broadband Performance (the requirement commonly referred to as “CAF Performance Testing” or “Performance Testing”) that clarifies and modifies certain portions and parameters of the Performance…
Continue ReadingMikaela Burma, JD, joins Vantage Point as Manager of Legal & Regulatory
March 27, 2019
Vantage Point Solutions is pleased to announce the hiring of Mikaela Burma, JD, who has joined the Vantage Point team as Manager of Legal and Regulatory. Burma assumed her duties March 18, assisting VPS telecom and broadband clients with regulatory and legal matters. “Mikaela has great legal skills in contract drafting and review, negotiations, great…
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Consulting, Memos
Memo: Overview of Circulated FCC Order
November 27, 2018
Connect America Fund – Report and Order, FNPRM and Order on Reconsideration – WC Docket 10-90 The Federal Communications Commission (“Commission”) has released for circulation a draft Report and Order, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order on Reconsideration on the Connect America Fund (“FCC November 2018 Draft Order and NPRM”) in response to the…
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Memos
Memo: Lower 700 MHz Deadlines Approaching
November 20, 2018
Attention: WY – 700 MHz Lower Band (Blocks A, B, and E) License Holders and WZ – 700 MHz Lower Band (Blocks C and D) License Holders The End of License Term Construction deadlines for both WY and WZ license holders are coming due in June of 2019. Please note also that leased spectrum may have…
Continue ReadingFCC Eliminates Certain Form 481 Filing Requirements
July 26, 2017
On July 7, the FCC released a Report and Order eliminating several reporting requirements of the annual FCC Form 481 that it deems to be either duplicative of other reporting requirements or are simply no longer necessary. The requirements eliminated were: Network Outage Reporting – Detailed information about any outages affecting voice service for at…
Continue ReadingLarry Thompson, Vantage Point CEO, named to FCC Committee
July 10, 2017
On a national committee to expand broadband access, Larry Thompson will represent the little guy. But that’s not to say Mitchell-based Vantage Point Solutions (VPS) is little. With approximately 200 employees and an international footprint, the telecom and broadband consulting engineering firm helped Mitchell become one of the world’s top seven Intelligent Communities in 2015,…
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