Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands Get Phase 2 Broadband Post-Storm Support; Some FCC Members Concerned

Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said she "concurred" rather than approved "because this is simply not how I would have structured our response." She said the FCC should have a clearer picture of where it spent to help telecom restoration and of the state of communications facilities, before it fashioned how the new wave of USF is spent. Because the FCC lacks a full picture, she said, "it's an invitation for waste because it fails to ensure we are directing funding to areas with the greatest need."

Republican Commissioner Mike O'Rielly called the moves well intended but said he had concerns, including on 5G and disaster reporting and other requirements. He nonetheless voted yes. Fellow Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr lamented that some are trying "to score partisan political points." Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, a Democrat, noted it's the first time such funds could pay for 5G.

Island officials supported the move. Sandra Torres Lopez, president of the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Bureau, told us the "huge amount of support" from USF and the FCC will help expand high-speed broadband to unserved parts of Puerto Rico so they will have "the best in technology." She noted Chairman Ajit Pai, Rosenworcel and officials from the FCC Recovery Task Force visited to assess needs after storm damage. Alexandra Fernandez, associate member of the Puerto Rico Public Service Regulatory Board, tweeted that the funds "will bring a new economy" there.

The FCC provided about $130 million in USF support to assist in network restoration after 2017's hurricanes Maria and Irma. Thursday's vote allocates $500 million over 10 years to support fixed broadband in Puerto Rico, $250 million over three years for mobile broadband in Puerto Rico, $180 million over 10 years for broadband in the U.S. Virgin Islands and $4 million over three years for mobile networks in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"I'm pleased at the broad support that our approach has received from those who live in and serve Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands," Pai said Thursday. He said this phase of spending on the islands is important because hurricanes are an annual misfortune, "so we need hardened communications networks that can withstand hurricanes and will continue serving Americans living in the territories when they need them most."

Rosenworcel wants the FCC to hold field hearings anytime a weather event causing significant damage to communications hits the U.S. and write a detailed report as a result. "We owe communities a timely and comprehensive investigation of what went right, what went wrong, and how we can be better prepared in the future," she said. The FCC must update situational awareness policies on network outages to require carriers report on disruptions or outages involving their broadband services, Rosenworcel said. "A proposal to address this hole in our reporting systems has been pending for three years," she said. "It's time to take action and fix it."

Wireless network resiliency also should be improved, Rosenworcel said. The FCC doesn't need another comment cycle, she said: "We need enforceable commitments." Continue to upgrade policies as wireless technologies change, such as in the move to 5G, she said. She raised concerns, too, about unreliable supply chains: "None of the universal service funding we authorize today should be spent on the purchase of network equipment that could raise national security concerns." She noted Puerto Rico has a military presence.

Wireline Bureau staffers said revisions to the order in docket 18-143 will include new weighting related to resiliency and redundancy. That would give a lower (and better) score to broadband networks that use aerial facilities if they incorporate wind-resistant composite poles rather than wooden utility poles, as some had sought (see 1909250007).

Meeting Notebook

The FCC isn’t aware of any direct broadcast satellite applications it should expect with the lift of the freeze on new ones, International Bureau Chief Tom Sullivan told us after the commissioners’ 5-0 adoption Thursday of streamlined DBS rules, which was expected (see 1909120012). Sullivan said the update was more about bringing DBS rules in line with the rest of the agency's geostationary satellite rules regime than in response to operator demand. Rosenworcel said she's “mystified” by the DBS update since there’s no evidence any new entrant wants to enter the U.S. market while the agency’s orbital debris rules update proceeding is pending. “We need to address junking up our skies, and we need to do it sooner rather than later,” she said. Rosenworcel has criticized seeming slow movement on the orbital debris proceeding in the past (see 1908010011). Pai said the rules update will facilitate increased spectrum use while protecting DBS subscribers from harmful interference. Asked about the status of the proceeding, which the Commerce Department has urged the FCC put on hold (see 1904080033), Pai said the agency is still sorting through the record, and the proceeding poses both technical and “tricky legal and jurisdictional” issues. He didn’t give any specifics on timing of a draft order.

Rosenworcel said she has been told nothing on why Pai hasn’t circulated a rulemaking on the 5.9 GHz band, now dedicated to short-range communications. "Broadband technology, automotive technologies have evolved” in 20 years since the band was allocated, she said. “It is a smart thing to do to go back and ask of this 75 MHz, is it up to date, can we do new things with it.” The FCC also should visit other spectrum assignments, she said. Pai said the FCC is continuing to work with the Transportation Department: “We hope to be able to make progress on the front in the near future.”

Pai didn’t have a time frame to reveal on when the FCC would make a decision whether to approve rules proposed in April 2018 on whether to bar use of USF money to make purchases from companies that “pose a national security threat” to U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain (see 1804170038). “We are very actively working on that proceeding,” he said: “I’ve talked to a number of my colleagues, both within this agency and from other agencies about the way forward.” Supply chain security is “certainly one of the foremost issues that we’ve been handling.”

Members unanimously approved a Further NPRM Thursday seeking comment on proposals to eliminate requirements that broadcasters advertise transactions and FCC applications in local newspapers (see 1909030057). The current rules are over 50 years old, and since then, the agency has eliminated the main studio rule, instituted online public file, and “in 2019, it strains credulity that TV and radio audiences would turn to a printed newspaper instead of the Internet” for information about local broadcasters, Pai said. The FNPRM proposes allowing notice through online and on-air messages directing listeners or viewers to links to access broadcasters' application documents in their online public files. It also would relax requirements for what the notices must contain, said a Media Bureau release. O’Rielly said he would oppose responses to the FNPRM that propose “burdensome information disclosures” or “litigation traps.” O’Rielly also lamented the proposed specific requirements for the content of such notices as an imposition on free speech. Starks praised the FNPRM for conceding that notice requirements are statutorily required and for including questions he suggested about providing notice through social media and on-air crawls.