LFA Regulation of Non-Cable Services Over Cable Systems Under Scalpel in NPRM

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year vacated and remanded the FCC ruling that LFAs can't use cable franchising authority to regulate mixed-use networks of incumbent cable operators (see 1707120031). The draft FNPRM says the 6th Circuit vacated the mixed-use rule only as it applied to incumbent cable operators that aren't common carriers but left alone its application to common carriers. Under the Communications Act, a cable operator offering telecom service would be a common carrier, it said. The FNPRM tentatively concludes cable operators' in-kind contributions required by LFAs should be treated as franchise fees and subject to a cap, but capital costs for public, educational and government channels required by the franchise are excluded.

An NPRM would seek to implement 2017 Kari's Law Act provisions to improve 911 dialing from multiline telephone systems (MLTS) in office buildings, hotels, campuses and other complexes. It would also seek to implement provisions of the 2018 Ray Baum's Act requiring the FCC to consider rules to ensure "dispatchable location" information is conveyed with 911 calls, regardless of technology.

The agency would propose rules to implement the direct-dial and notification requirements of Kari's Law with "clarity and specificity" and in a cost-effective manner, said a summary of the draft notice. It would propose "to apply dispatchable location requirements" to MLTS, fixed phone service, interconnected [VoIP] service and telecom relay service, and seek comment "on the technical feasibility of providing dispatchable location and the benefits and costs associated with different technical solutions." It would also seek comment "on whether the Commission should consider dispatchable location rules for other 911-capable services," but would "not consider new rules for mobile wireless services because they are subject to 911 rules that already provide for dispatchable or coordinate-based location information." It would propose to consolidate 911 rule parts into a single rule part.

The FCC seeks to update methods for allocating toll-free numbers by allowing use of auctions and secondary markets, while preserving flexibility to assign numbers on a "first-come, first-served" basis or through alternative methodologies, including hybrid approaches, said the summary of a draft order. It would establish "an auction of the over 17,000 'mutually exclusive' numbers in the recently-opened 833 toll free code -- that is, numbers that more than one Responsible Organization requested before the code was opened in April 2017 -- to evaluate how competitive bidding can efficiently assign toll free numbers." It would require the Wireline Bureau to issue a post-auction report, revise rules to allow for a secondary market of numbers assigned via auction, and make administrative revisions to allow competitive bidding.

Along with consolidating the ESIM technical and operational rules covering the C- and Ku-bands and extending them to cover ESIM operations in the Ka-band, the draft order includes an FNPRM seeking comment on expanding the frequencies available to ESIMs communicating with geostationary (GSO) fixed satellite service networks. The agency says it was in response to SES and O3b calling for ESIM operations in the 10.7-10.95 GHZ, 11.2-11.45 GHz and 17.8-18.3 GHz FSS downlink bands. It's seeking comment on allowing ESIMs to operate in all bands in which earth stations at fixed locations operating in GSO FSS networks can be blanket licensed. It says in that situation, ESIM operations shouldn't produce a notable change to interference or protections needed.

The information collected by Form 325 is less useful today than in 1999, when the agency last considered the form but opted to retain it, says the draft order. It says questions about analog operations and system-based organizations are particularly dated technically.