Pai Proposes to Deregulate Voice Incumbent Pricing at March 31 FCC Meeting

Pai is circulating an item proposing to deregulate and detariff telephone access charges, "the last handful of interstate end-user charges that remain subject to FCC regulation," he wrote. The rulemaking would prohibit carriers from including separate line items on customers' bills, such as the subscriber line charge, the access recovery charge, the presubscribed interexchange carrier charge, the line port charge and the special access charge. It's a mix that Pai described as "an alphabet soup of charges." He said eliminating them "would make it easier for consumers to understand their phone bills and compare prices among voice service providers as well as help ensure that a carrier's advertised prices are closer to the prices that consumers actually pay."

Over his chairmanship, Pai has moved to deregulate the voice industry. Incumbents see that as leveling the playing field among an expanding field of providers (see 1911220052). USTelecom didn't comment now.

"As a fundamental principle, it is essential that providers in deeply rural areas have a reasonable opportunity to recover their costs of building networks and delivering high-quality services at affordable rates," emailed Mike Romano, NTCA senior vice president-industry affairs and business development. "We look forward to working with the FCC to ensure that, as any threads start to be pulled on a carefully constructed framework upon which rural operators rely, this does not result in a loss of much-needed revenues and thereby pose the risk of detrimental impacts on local rates and universal service objectives."

ATSC 3.0

Commissioners will vote on an NPRM seeking comment on a proposal from NAB and America’s Public Television Stations to relax rules on broadcast contours that affect the distributed transmission systems broadcasters want to use under ATSC 3.0. “There are concerns that the Commission’s current rules inhibit expanded DTS deployments with the new standard,” Pai said. The NPRM “would look at amending the Commission’s rules to permit, within certain limits, DTS signals to spill over beyond a station’s authorized service area by more than the currently allowed ‘minimal amount,’" Pai said.

ATSC 3.0 proponents said the DTS changes are important for the long-term future of ATSC 3.0 and the use of single frequency networks. The FCC’s TV white spaces proceeding and the DTS proceeding could have implications for each other, some broadcasters said (see 2002250084).

Some in the low-power TV industry expressed concern about how the DTS proceeding could affect their stations. “If we have the same rights to extend our stations, no problem,” said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino in an interview. “If we’re treated differently, we’re going to fight it.” NAB appreciates the FCC’s speed in tackling the issue, a spokesperson emailed. “We believe these deployments will offer compelling public interest benefits for viewers, including superior coverage and mobile reception.”

The agency is planning to vote on an NPRM on rules for determining whether a TV station is significantly viewed outside its own market. Stations that can show they are significantly viewed in other markets can be treated as local stations in those markets for program carriage. “It appears as though Nielsen’s survey systems no longer align with our rules, making it difficult to demonstrate that a station is significantly viewed,” said Pai. “In some markets, this data is not even available, making it difficult, if not impossible, to meet the standard.”

Broadcast attorneys said the methodology enshrined in the rules doesn’t reflect the much-lowered viewership of over-the-air TV, making it nearly impossible to satisfy current significantly viewed requirements. Nielsen didn’t comment. “This NPRM examines whether this process has become outdated or overly burdensome, particularly for smaller entities, and if so, what changes we should make to our rules,” said Pai.

Other Items

The agency will also tackle a proposal to change rules for carriage disputes between programmers and MVPDs, Pai said.

The item proposes changes to time limits for filing complaints and effective dates for decisions by the FCC’s administrative law judge, and harmonizing rules for dispute resolutions in program carriage, retransmission consent, program access, and open video system (OVS) complaints, Pai said. “I am optimistic that these changes would help ensure an expeditious program access, program carriage, retransmission consent, and OVS complaint process.”

Pai's remarks on secure telephone identity revisited standards and signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Stir/Shaken) technology don’t go beyond what he said Friday (see 2003060055). The rules implement provisions in the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act. The Traced Act was signed into law in January (see 1912310028).

“Widespread implementation of this technology would help phone companies identify calls with illegally spoofed caller ID information before those calls reach their customers’ phones,” Pai said now. “You’d have a lot more peace of mind when you pick up the phone.” Pai noted he had demanded major providers voluntarily deploy Stir/Shaken. “It’s clear that FCC action is now needed to spur across-the-board deployment of this important technology,” he said. The agency will also seek comment on “additional measures to combat spoofed robocalls, including other measures to implement the TRACED Act,” he said.