FCC Commissioners Approve Section 706 Report NOI, Other Items Before Meeting
Ahead of Thursday’s meeting, FCC commissioners approved three of the items that were expected to get votes. Among those approved was a notice of inquiry that considers revising how the FCC examines competition in its Telecom Act Section 706 reports to Congress. Commissioners have also already approved an NPRM launching a comprehensive review of the agency's rules on business data services (BDS) and a notice on modernizing the disaster information reporting system (DIRS) (see 2508040048). The FCC posted a deletion notice and press releases Tuesday.
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Section 706 reports were controversial in the past. Last year, then-Commissioner Brendan Carr and former Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented on a report concluding that broadband isn't deployed in a "reasonable and timely fashion," with about 24 million Americans lacking access to speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps (see 2403140050).
The notice approved Tuesday "takes a technology neutral and holistic approach to evaluate the state of broadband availability and progress in closing the digital divide in the United States,” said a two-paragraph release. “The Commission seeks objective data and other evidence reflecting the state of broadband deployment and availability.”
Industry officials told us in recent days that they thought the Section 706 item could prove to be controversial. “What are the implications if the FCC decides that access alone satisfies its 706 obligations?” a public interest official asked. “Maybe it doesn’t change anything in practice, but [it] would be a substantial shift.”
However, Free State Foundation President Randolph May praised the notice. “It’s very encouraging to see [Carr] refocusing [the report] to bring it back to what Congress clearly intended -- an assessment regarding the reasonableness of ongoing deployment progress and not other matters, such as adoption or digital literacy, which however relevant to other inquiries should not be encompassed within the 706 report,” May said in an email. The report also shouldn’t include “pie-in-the-sky aspirational benchmarks, such as 1 Gbps to measure ‘broadband,’” he added.
“For years, the Commission regulated the market for business data services that provide dedicated transmission of data at guaranteed speeds and service levels,” said the BDS news release. “Because incumbent local exchange carriers historically held local monopolies on circuit-switched telephone service, the Commission has long regulated legacy [BDS'] rates, terms, and conditions of service,” it added. “As this market has become more competitive, this approach distorts incentives for private operators to invest in network upgrades and competitively price services.”
There were no reports of meetings with commissioners or staff on the draft BDS NPRM.
The FCC also unanimously voted to approve the DIRS NPRM, which seeks comment on simplifying and eliminating some reporting requirements, as well as doing away with certain access requirements for DIRS data. In addition, the item includes an order on reconsideration that clarifies when outage reporting requirements are suspended. “It also maintains requirements to send outage notifications to 911 and 988 officials during DIRS activations to ensure these officials can receive timely information about outages and in turn enable the public to reach these critical services during a disaster,” said a news release.