One legislative goal Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., wants to address before the August recess is Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization, he said in an interview Thursday. “It’ll get into the drone stuff,” he said. “There are some areas where you’ll have some telecommunications issues that intersect with that agenda, too.” Those topics have spurred interest from other lawmakers, with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., taking a stab at drone privacy legislation earlier this year (see 1703200029). The horizon for the Senate, full with debates over healthcare overhaul and the firing of FBI Director James Comey, doesn't appear loaded with telecom legislative action, at least immediately.
NTCA and WTA urged the FCC to act on intercarrier compensation (ICC) and USF issues they had raised in petitions for reconsideration and in comments on a 2016 Further NPRM. The commission should reconsider soon a "requirement that carriers impute Access Recovery Charges (ARCs) to standalone broadband connections" in place before a 2011 USF and intercarrier compensation overhaul, said the rural telcos groups' filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 on their discussion with Wireline Bureau staffers. Participants "discussed various means of striking an appropriate balance" to ensure that eliminating the duty won't harm the budget for ARC-related Connect America Fund and ICC support. NTCA and WTA also urged the FCC to reconsider, or for the bureau to clarify, "how competitive overlap will be validated" (unsubsidized competitive overlap makes an area ineligible for CAF support). The groups asked the FCC "to at least specify as soon as possible the 'dataset' that will be used as the preliminary baseline for competitive overlap determinations" for CAF-BLS (broadband loop support) eligibility, even if the determinations take longer. They offered further suggestions on competitive-overlap specifics. Following up on comments in the 2016 rulemaking, the groups sought prompt guidance to "dispel lingering uncertainty and ambiguity" on whether certain expenses are recoverable through USF support and how they would be recovered. They proposed draft rules modeled on language in the FNPRM.
Comments on broadband healthcare solutions are due at the FCC May 24, replies June 8, said a commission public notice in docket 16-46 published in Wednesday's Federal Register after being issued last month (see 1704240068). The FCC seeks "information on a variety of regulatory, policy, and infrastructure issues related to the emerging broadband-enabled health and care ecosystem," said an FR summary of the item. The commission "seeks to ensure that consumers -- from major cities to rural and remote areas, Tribal lands, and underserved regions -- can access potentially lifesaving health technologies and services, like telehealth and telemedicine, which are enabled by broadband connectivity." A Connect2HealthFCC Task Force will use the information to make recommendations to the agency, the item said. Accompanying it was an FR summary of another FCC notice seeking comments by Tuesday, replies by May 26 on petitions for reconsideration of USF Mobility Fund rules filed by the Rural Wireless Association; CTIA; Blue Wireless; Panhandle Telephone Cooperative and Pine Belt Cellular; Blooston Rural Carriers; Rural Wireless Carriers; and T-Mobile.
Windstream will respond to a state probe by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) into complaints about poor service and billing issues, it said Monday. Commissioners voted 5-0 last week to open the investigation and consider sanctions and fines for any violations found, the PRC said in a Friday news release. The agency received service complaints about the carrier from rural areas around the state, the PRC said. Windstream is subject to the agency’s quality-of-service standards, requiring that at least 85 percent of a telecom company’s service outages be rectified within 24 hours. Also, the commission probe will investigate whether Windstream misused USF support and if the company charged city franchise fees to customers not from that city, the PRC said. “Windstream is committed to serving its customers in New Mexico, and we look forward to working with the PRC to address their concerns,” a company spokesman said. “Since 2013, we have invested more than $48 million to enhance our network in the state. We strive always to promptly address any customer issues that may arise, even in remote areas where distance and terrain can complicate such efforts.”
Satellite operators and WTA suggested a variety of changes to rules the FCC adopted between 2001 and 2004, in filings (see here, here and here) posted Friday in docket 16-251. The comments deadline in the Regulatory Flexibility Act rules review is May 15. Intelsat recommended eliminating Section 25.170's requirement for satellite operators to annually report satellites and spectrum unavailable for service, contact information for interference resolution and construction process and expected launch dates of authorized replacement satellites. It said the Section 25 requirement is largely redundant given other filings and notices, and requires something of satellite operators that terrestrial operators don't need to do. It also recommended modification of Section 25.119 rules requiring prior approval of pro forma transfers of control of non-common carrier satellite and earth station licenses, calling it "illogical" non-common carrier licenses holders "must undergo the labor- and time-intensive process of submitting an application for FCC approval" even though the agency recognizes pro forma transfer applications don't raise public interest issues. It recommended discontinuation of Form Schedule S, which contains technical information regarding proposed space station operations -- information that could be provided in spreadsheets and narratives "without having to use the burdensome Schedule S software." EchoStar and its Hughes Network Systems listed six Part 25 rules and two Part 2 rules they said should be eliminated or revised as "duplicative, unduly burdensome and no longer in the public interest." They include 25.111(e), requiring submission of a paper copy of an application to the International Bureau; 25.112 (a)(3), (b), not allowing applications for satellite use of spectrum prior to international allocations for such use; and 25.114, requiring separate space and earth station applications operating in the same network. WTA suggested eliminating or revising several Section 54 reporting requirements. One regulation it singled out for deleting was the Section 54.305 rule that provides high-cost support to a carrier acquiring exchanges from an unaffiliated carrier, with WTA saying it has created "orphan" exchanges that require separate accounting and come with high costs while getting little USF support. WTA also said Form 477 filing requirements should be annually, calling the current, twice-a-year requirement "very time consuming and expensive" for RLECs.
The FCC should stop states from writing broadband privacy rules or regulating VoIP and IP services, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Friday in remarks to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Republican commissioner said he has discussed both with Chairman Ajit Pai. More than 10 states are mulling ISP privacy bills responding to President Donald Trump and Congress for using the Congressional Review Act to kill FCC privacy rules (see 1705050042). “It is both impractical and very harmful for each state to enact differing and conflicting privacy burdens on broadband providers, many of which serve multiple states, if not the entire country," said Pai. "If necessary, the Commission should be willing to issue the requisite decision to clarify the jurisdictional aspects of this issue.” O’Rielly slammed the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which is battling with Charter over VoIP classification in U.S. District Court in St. Paul (see 1704040043): “Such inappropriate jurisdictional overreaches by states should be nipped in the bud.” O’Rielly, the federal chair of the Joint Board on Separations, acknowledged the FCC hasn’t made a clear statement about VoIP jurisdiction. “The commission should have just declared VoIP to be an interstate information service,” he said. “Arguably, VoIP is just an application not even subject to FCC jurisdiction much less that of individual states.” O’Rielly railed against what he sees as a “progressive agenda” to “vanquish capitalism and economic liberty.” He compared the FCC to ALEC, a conservative group that progressive groups criticized for allegedly writing bills on behalf of big firms: “Like ALEC, the new commission is facing its share of unwarranted and inappropriate criticism.” In revisiting net neutrality with an NPRM to be considered at the commissioners' May 18 meeting, the FCC aims to return to “its previous approach to broadband that enabled staggering innovation, creativity, competition, disruption and consumer benefit,” the commissioner said. The 2015 net neutrality rules weren’t necessary, he said. “All of the propaganda in the world cannot paper over the fact that these new burdens were not in response to actual marketplace events but hypothetical concerns dreamt up by radical activists.” O’Rielly cheered ALEC’s opposition to municipal broadband. “It would be easy, as some have done, to blindly support any means necessary to get more and faster broadband to people they represent,” he said. He said he’s “very aware that many homes in America do not have acceptable broadband today” -- that’s why he wants to modernize USF: “This, I believe is a defensible program and one that we seek to inject with as many market driven aspects as possible, including operating reverse auctions to minimize and narrow the amount of subsidy provided.”
FARMINGTON, Pa. --Prospects for major infrastructure legislation are iffy at best, an FCBA conference heard Friday. Brookings Institution fellow Blair Levin said he's "highly skeptical" an infrastructure bill will be enacted, estimating the chance at about 10 percent. "I think there will be some type of plan. I think broadband will be in the plan," said Wiley Rein attorney Anna Gomez, but she questioned whether there would be funding.
Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC has been more productive in his tenure than under recent past permanent chairmen, with 49 items adopted in his first 100 days, compared with 34 under Julius Genachowski and 25 under Tom Wheeler during the same time period. Pai's comments were in a talk Friday at the American Enterprise Institute in which he largely recapped agency actions since he took over and described how they fit into closing the digital divide, modernizing rules, promoting innovation, consumer and public safety protection, and operational improvement. Text of the prepared remarks, which we heard live, was posted by the FCC along with a fact sheet.
Universal Service Administrative Co. CEO Chris Henderson resigned this week, said a news release Thursday from USAC, which administers FCC USF telecom subsidy programs. Henderson, who had been CEO since September 2014, "led the company through a period of tremendous growth and change focused on enhancing program integrity and improving the stakeholder experience, as part of fulfilling the FCC’s universal service mission," the release said. The board named Vickie Robinson, vice president-general counsel, acting CEO until a permanent replacement can be found. No reason was given for Henderson's departure. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who had often questioned USAC oversight when he was a commissioner, recently blasted USAC management of the E-rate school and library discount program, and asked Henderson to devise a plan to address "serious flaws" by May 18 (see 1704190026). Pai didn't comment Thursday. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, federal chairman of the federal-state joint board on universal service, said Henderson's departure gave USAC a chance "to clean up its act." O'Rielly issued a statement saying: "USAC as it has been managed is not sufficiently accountable to the Commission, and is not meeting the needs of universal service stakeholders or the public, who pay fees to support USAC’s operations. Absent significant and timely improvements, I believe that all options should be on the table, including putting USAC’s functions out for contract, as the Commission has done in other circumstances.”
State regulators voiced concern about a projected spike in the USF contribution factor, saying they look forward to developing recommendations for changes as part of a federal-state joint board that's chaired by FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. Industry consultant Billy Jack Gregg said this week the contribution factor could jump in Q3 from 17.4 percent to 19.6 percent or more of carriers' U.S. interstate and international (long-distance) telecom end-user revenue (see 1705030049).