Pai Announces RDOF Vote at Jan. 30 Meeting; C Band May Wait
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai placed action on the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund atop his agenda for the new year in announcing the Jan. 30 meeting, he blogged Wednesday. Commissioners will vote on auction rules for bidders on the first phase of a $20.4 billion RDOF program (see 1912190073). Also on the agenda are updated standards for hearing-aid compatibility on smartphones, an item on a program to allow video relay service-qualified sign language interpreters to work from home, and a media modernization item about MVPDs emailing required notices to TV stations rather than using certified mail. Missing from Jan. 30's meeting, the agency indicated, will be a vote on the C band.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The RDOF draft order outlines a multi-round, descending-clock reverse auction using mechanisms similar to ones it used in Connect America Fund phase two broadband auctions. RDOF will impose stricter performance requirements and favor bidders that can provide gigabit service. Phase one would allocate up to $16 billion in auctions as early as this year and focus on rural census blocks completely unserved by broadband at 25/3 Mbps. The draft rules were updated to include four tiers: 25/3, 50/5, 100/20 and gigabit/100 Mbps.
Phase I funding would go out as early as 2021, FCC officials told reporters on condition they not be identified nor quoted verbatim. Phase II auctions would include areas partially unserved by 25/3, plus any areas left unbid or awarded from the Phase I auctions. Phase II auctions would wait until the FCC had broadband mapping information from its new data collection.
Pai said "Congress has called on the Commission to fund sustainable and forward-looking networks that will stand the test of time." Once the reverse auction in Phase I hits the clearing amount of $16 billion, "a bid to provide faster service to an area will automatically be chosen over a competing bid to provide slower service to that same area," he added. Commenters made such a request in recent weeks.
The rules were written to be technology neutral and attract bids from phone companies, cable providers, fixed wireless ISPs and satellite operators, officials said. USTelecom tweeted the coming vote is "good news" that could help close the digital divide.
Commissioners will vote on the FCC's proposal to incorporate new standards for smartphone handsets to be compatible with hearing aids, Pai said. The proposed changes would update rules to reflect American National Standards Institute 2019 specifications, he wrote. Americans with hearing loss should have access to advanced smartphones “like everybody else,” said Pai.
Members will also vote on a proposal to make permanent a pilot for video relay service sign language interpreters to work from home workstations rather than call centers, Pai said. “The pilot has shown that in-home interpreters can work as efficiently and effectively as those in call centers and that our safeguards can both impede waste, fraud, and abuse and maintain the privacy of communications.” The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau issued an extension for the program in November (see 1910310034). Some commenters said the program needs evaluating (see 1909050046).
Pai said there weren’t any objections to the “common-sense idea” of electronic notifications to broadcasters of such MVPD actions as deleting or repositioning a broadcast station or launching new services in a market. A Further NPRM on the emailed notices was adopted in July (see 1907100054).