NTIA Asks FCC to Revisit Tech Transition Order to Address Federal Agency Issues

minimizing consumer harms, NTIA said, but federal users are different from other customers, given their procedures and "mission-critical" functions. NTIA said federal agencies are "particularly vulnerable to unanticipated and accelerated network changes," and while the FCC's "adequate replacement" framework helps, it doesn't fully address agency issues. For example, NTIA said carrier applications to discontinue "legacy data services" are eligible for streamlined review and automatic approval, "raising the specter of unexpected or unplanned changes in a large segment of services used by federal agencies." Even if the framework reduces concerns that service changes may hinder service, it doesn't resolve "planning, budgeting, and procurement challenges" in navigating the transition, it said. To address the challenges, an NTIA petition posted Thursday in docket 13-5 asked the FCC to: "(1) clarify whether, if at all, or under what circumstances, services such as T1 and Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) fall within the meaning of 'legacy voice service'; (2) reconsider its interoperability protection requirement to define a list of 'low speed modems' and create a presumption that devices that use such modems are entitled to interoperability protection; (3) prescribe limited testing requirements for small carriers; and (4) use its 'public interest' review of carriers’ section 214 discontinuance applications to promote greater information exchange and more cooperative planning between carriers and their federal customers about network transitions, to reduce the potential impact such transitions may have on critical government operations."