Time for FCC to Get Serious About Wireless Siting Delays, Pai Tells CCA

Wheeler promised to make the mobility fund an FCC target by year-end. Pai said he supports that but the agency must get the rules right. “We need objective, technologically neutral performance standards,” he said. “We need to end subsidies in areas where private investment is doing the job. We need to preserve and advance mobile broadband throughout our nation by basing our fund on the facts on the ground.”

The mobility fund shouldn’t be limited to the $500 million the FCC proposed five years ago, but should be based on the level of need, Pai said. He repeated calls for a rural dividend (see 1609130061), to be paid for by 10 percent of net proceeds from future spectrum auctions. The commission later posted Pai’s written remarks.

The regulator has the legal authority to make sure local governments don’t delay broadband buildout, Pai said. “That means taking a fresh look at Section 253 of the Communications Act and pre-empting state and local regulations that prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the provision of service,” he said. “It means looking at Section 332(c)(7) of the Communications Act and Section 6409 of the Spectrum Act, where Congress clearly and specifically granted the commission the power to remove barriers to infrastructure deployment.”

The FCC has a shot clock for local governments to make a decision on applications for new towers and other wireless infrastructure, but a company has to sue if a government doesn’t act, Pai said. “We should give our shot clock some teeth by adopting a deemed-granted remedy, so that a city’s inaction lets that company proceed,” he said.

The agency also needs to address the costs that ISPs must "pay to attach fiber, coax and other infrastructure to utility poles,” Pai said. The FCC should “exclude capital expenses from the pole attachment formula and re-examine the reasonableness of costs charged by pole owners for preparing poles, ducts, conduit and rights-of-way for pole attachments,” he said. Where it doesn’t have authority over poles such as those owned by governments or railroads, Congress should give it authority, he said.

Pai urged creating a new FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, charged with drawing up a model code for faster wireless deployment. The committee “should recommend to the FCC an appropriate shot clock for local action,” he said. “It should consider what fees are reasonable. It should recommend allowing ISPs to hire certified, private safety inspectors to speed up the work of deployment. It should examine how to ensure new entrants get speedy access to poles and conduit.” Pai also urged a focus on siting on federal land and said “dig once” should become “a central tenet of our nation’s transportation policy.”

“CCA members, whether they are small, regional, or national providers, are stepping up to the plate to compete and serve consumers,” Pai said. “Both as a commissioner and as a consumer, I appreciate that.” Pai cited in particular T-Mobile, a major player within CCA, saying he visited T-Mobile’s headquarters Tuesday. “They’re pushing innovation at every level, as I had a chance to see just yesterday on their campus, from consumer-friendly offerings like BingeOn to the architecture of its 4G network,” he said. T-Mobile US is based in Bellevue, Washington.

O'Rielly spoke Tuesday at an International Bar Association conference in Washington, highlighting his concerns about the FCC’s zero-rating investigation. The 2015 net neutrality rules said the agency would review zero-rated offerings on a case-by-case basis, with no decisions made yet (see 1609090029). O’Rielly’s speech was posted by the agency. “On the bright side, I guess this scheme is somewhat better than a total ban on zero-rating offerings, but from its inception, I warned that such a mother-may-I approach to regulation was, at best, going to cause marketplace uncertainty and delays and, at worst, result in new and innovative offerings never seeing the light of day,” O’Rielly said.

O’Rielly noted in particular the probe of T-Mobile’s zero rated BingeOn service. “The FCC has been investigating for ten months, and there appears to be no end in sight,” he said. “While I disagree with this type of inquisition, the Commission should have the obligation to quickly review these services and inform these providers in writing the status of their offerings, including those that are in the clear.” O’Rielly said that while an investigation drags on, “these services live under a perpetual cloud of doubt where the Commission can dictate -- apparently at any time -- that the provider terminate the offering.” The companies also face being referred to the FCC Enforcement Bureau for “staggering penalties,” he said. AT&T's CEO said at another conference Wednesday that the company had a heightened level of awareness of the FCC, given net neutrality rules (see 1609210048).

O'Rielly also said he favors proposals to delay the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition past Oct. 1, saying “all details" must "be worked out, fully considered and all questions answered before this transition goes any further.” Senate Republicans are pushing for language in the short-term continuing resolution to fund the government when FY 2016 ends Sept. 30 that would delay the switch. O'Rielly said he believes “in true multi-stakeholder models. The global Internet community is in the best position to make important decisions about the inner-workings of the Internet. But, this transition is a serious undertaking, and once done, it cannot be undone.”

O'Rielly said he continues to have “grave” concerns that ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee could increase its influence post-transition and that changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms aren't sufficient to prevent this possibility. “There is also no reason to believe that terminating U.S. stewardship of ICANN will end, or even diminish, the calls for the international regulation of the Internet,” O'Rielly said. “These countries are persistent and nothing ensures that U.S. relinquishment of its ICANN role will stop their campaign.”