Comments are due April 14 on FCC-proposed changes to its submarine cable rules, said a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. Replies in the docket 24-523 proceeding are due May 12. The subsea cable NPRM was adopted unanimously by the FCC commissioners in November (see 2411210006) and proposes rules changes that address national security and law enforcement threats to cables, including a three-year periodic reporting requirement for submarine cable landing licenses.
The FCC’s notice of apparent liability against Telnyx is an abuse of power and should be rescinded, said Free State Foundation’s Seth Cooper in a blog post Wednesday. The Feb. 4 Telnyx NAL (see 2503050026) amounts to “regulation by enforcement,” where an agency imposes new requirements on regulatees in enforcement proceedings instead of through a rulemaking, Cooper wrote. Regulation by enforcement “deprives regulated entities of the ability to know and follow the law, so it is contrary to the requirement of fair notice and the prohibition of unfair surprise that are recognized in Supreme Court's Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause jurisprudence.”
The current FCC is likely to support calls by USTelecom and its members for policies that allow carriers to more easily retire copper facilities in their networks (see 2501270047), New Street’s Blair Levin said Wednesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr “has always been in favor of assisting [incumbent local exchange carriers] in this transition,” he said in a note to investors.
USTelecom representatives discussed pole attachment concerns in a series of meetings at the FCC with Wireline Bureau staff and aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez. “USTelecom emphasized that its membership is comprised of both pole owners and attachers that are seeking to deploy high-speed broadband as quickly as possible and that we support Commission efforts to speed such deployments, including those funded through BEAD and other government programs,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-84. “As USTelecom has explained, however, departing from the negotiated timelines required under the Commission’s current rules and adopting one-size-fits-all make-ready timelines for large make-ready orders will not speed deployment or further the Commission’s goals.”
Accessing investor-owned utility poles in a timely and cost-effective way continues to be a big challenge, ACA Connects and four of its members told FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's office and the Wireline Bureau. In a docket 17-84 filing Tuesday, Shentel said it has open pole permit applications that are 400-plus days old, and the cable ISP hasn't been able to get preapproved utility contractors to perform electrical construction make-ready due to lack of investor-owned utility support. Shentel urged a streamlined process for facilities-based providers doing self-help engineering and electrical construction make-ready. Breezeline raised concerns about non-uniform utility procedures and different states' attachment rules, while Mediacom said it has focused on underground construction for government-funded projects to avoid the pole attachment process. Also accompanying ACA was Armstrong.
Keppel Infrastructure Fund has purchased subsea telecommunications maintenance and installation services company Global Marine Group from private equity owner J.F. Lehman & Co., Keppel said Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed. Keppel said the deal builds on its digital infrastructure strategy.
Representatives from Bandwidth met with FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Trent Harkrader and others from the bureau on interconnection problems that the company is experiencing. The cloud communications company “provided marketplace perspectives about how [public switched telephone network] interconnection is breaking in various ways as ILECs [incumbent local exchange carriers] and others are decommissioning facilities or pricing services to make them prohibitive for remaining customers to sustain,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-479. “Bandwidth explained that it would prefer to interconnect via IP, but there is no regulatory framework for such interconnection at this time.” The company said its efforts to move time-division multiplexing (TDM) to its commercial IP interconnection agreements “have so far been rebuffed and ILECs have not made IP interconnection available to Bandwidth for the exchange of voice calls with the ILECs’ customers who remain on TDM services or delivery of calls to a selective router.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday sought comment on a plan to transfer control of Mountain Communications from Telemax to Larry Sisler. Currently, Telemax owns 43% of the provider, Sisler 42%. Mountain Communications is certified to provide local exchange and interexchange services in West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio, the bureau said. Comments are due March 21, replies March 28, in docket 24-610.
USTelecom representatives met with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington on the importance of changes to FCC rules to accelerate wireline deployment. The representatives discussed USTelecom members’ “efforts as pole owners and attachers to efficiently manage the pole attachment application and make-ready processes while accounting for site-specific and often unpredictable circumstances that can delay a deployment project,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-84. The group “expressed its continued support for the Commission’s current pole attachment application and make-ready rules, which ensure collaboration among pole owners and attachers, provide needed flexibility, promote competition, and advance broadband.”
Representatives of Public Knowledge and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance met with aides to three of the FCC commissioners on the importance of making low-cost broadband available for those who can’t afford current offerings. They discussed with aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez support for a “reformed” USF “that creates a pathway to support a permanent broadband subsidy that mirrors the incredibly successful Affordable Connectivity Program.” They also discussed “affordability and reliability challenges in remote communities that depend on satellite broadband,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90. Affordability remains an issue even as new satellite and fixed wireless options “put competitive, downward pressure on pricing,” the filing said.