The deadline to comment on an NPRM to establish new budget caps on the USF is extended by two weeks to July 29, replies Aug. 26, said an FCC Wireline Bureau order Friday in docket 06-122. Dozens of groups asked the agency last month to extend the comment period to Sept. 30, replies to Oct. 30, to allow time for rural schools to participate. The groups, led by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition and the National Consumer Law Center, supported an earlier request by the Education and Library Networks Coalition to "extend the comment period for this matter until at least the end of September 2019 to provide ample time for the Commission to hear the opinions of a major constituency of the E-rate program" because in mid-summer, "most school E-rate beneficiaries will not be able to inform the Commission's decisions on creating an overall universal service cap and possibly combining E-Rate and Rural Health Care program under a single cap." SHLB is "grateful that the Commission has extended the comment deadline, as every little bit helps," a spokesperson for SHLB emailed Friday. Advocacy groups and Democratic commissioners have raised concerns about the proposed budget caps, claiming they could pit the interests of schools and libraries against those of rural health facilities (see 1906030059).
Chairman Ajit Pai is “optimistic” the FCC “will have results to show” on the C band in the fall, he told a 5G workshop at the Congreso Latinoamericano De Telecomunicaciones Thursday. Last week, the agency got more comments on the C band (see 1907050035). The FCC also continues its work on making the 3.1-3.55 GHz band available for commercial use. Pai defended a draft order on the educational broadband service band, set for a vote Wednesday (see 1907050034). EBS rules “date back decades,” Pai said: “At that time, it was envisioned that this spectrum would be used for educational TV. But today, this band is dramatically underused, with much of this spectrum lying fallow. That’s unacceptable.” Pai also stressed the importance of 5G security. “5G will affect our militaries, our industries, our critical infrastructure, and much more,” he said: “The procurement and deployment decisions made now will have a generational impact on our security, economy, and society.” The world can’t make “risky choices and just hope for the best,” he said: “We must see clearly the threats to the security of our networks and act to address them. And the more that the United States and our regional allies can work together and make security decisions based on shared principles, the safer that our 5G networks will be.” Pai said he strongly supports the principles approved in May by the Prague 5G Security Conference (see 1905030052). In another speech at a universal service workshop at the congress, Pai said the FCC is rejiggering the USF program to make it more effective through reverse auctions. Pai said he has seen firsthand how well that approach works. An auction last year provided $1.5 billion to connect more than 713,000 unserved homes and businesses nationwide, saving $3.5 billion from estimated costs of those connections, he said. “Later this year, we will start the process of setting up a $20.4 billion broadband expansion program called the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund,” Pai said: “Applying lessons learned from the recent reverse auction, this program will spur the deployment of high-speed broadband networks across more of rural America over the next decade.” Other work continues, he said: “We’ve increased subsidies for small, rural carriers, while giving them more aggressive buildout requirements. We’ve increased the budget for our rural healthcare program and are designing a connected care pilot program to realize the potential of telehealth solutions outside the hospital.” Commissioners will also vote Wednesday on an NPRM for a three-year, $100 million USF telehealth pilot program (see 1906180053).
Sandwich Isles Communications won't get a rehearing with the full court (see 1906030035) to appeal its case against the FCC regarding fines the agency said stemmed from improper USF payments it received between 2002 and 2015 (see 1903280036), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered (in Pacer) in docket 19-1056 Wednesday. The three judges who heard the case also won't rehear it. SIC didn't immediately comment.
Consolidated Communications Networks spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau staff on what it could provide the FCC to bolster a petition, so it "can be granted expeditiously," a consultant reported. JSI noted the rural broadband experiment participating telco seeks waiver from certifying that it built out all locations derived from the Connect America model to not keep open an irrevocable letter of credit. Consolidated gets such money for 171 North Dakota extremely high-cost locations where it's "confident" it deployed broadband to all locations in funded census blocks. It "could only find a total of 162 locations after extensive searching in the sparsely populated census blocks" and there's "no mechanism ... for dealing with location discrepancies," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. The company fears "it will face penalties for not certifying a completed buildout to 171 locations at the end of the funding period." This telco is separate from the bigger and better-known Northeast U.S. phone-services provider Consolidated Communications Holdings, JSI and Consolidated Communications Holdings representatives emailed us. JSI is that bigger company's USF consultant.
Incumbent rural broadband carriers and competitors disagreed in response to a petition from Texas carriers asking the FCC to prohibit the use of E-rate dollars from the USF to overbuild fiber networks for schools and libraries (see 1905230005). In comments posted to docket 13-184 through Tuesday, incumbents said current competitive bidding rules for E-rate funding can favor large, regional providers over local rural carriers and lead to inefficient use of government dollars when they support the builds of redundant broadband networks at the expense of unserved institutions. Those opposing the petition wrote that the proposals could stifle broadband competition, raise prices for rural schools and libraries, and drive up costs to the USF.
A polygon shapefile approach to submitting provider broadband data, endorsed by NCTA, and a location fabric proposal backed by USTelecom both add valuable data to inform updated national broadband maps from the FCC and aren't mutually exclusive, said cable and telco representatives. Congress asked the FCC to develop more-granular broadband maps to better pinpoint where service is available to consumers and at what speeds. The agency is expected to address the topic at its August meeting (see 1906200048).
The South Carolina Public Service Commission unanimously supported a staff recommendation to combine USF and Lifeline administrative expenses into one general USF expense account. It will have $319,741, the sum of the two previous accounts, the PSC said in the order posted Thursday in docket 1997-239-C. Staff made “a reasonable and practical request involving no additional funds,” the commission said.
Several groups asked the FCC for extra time for comments and replies on the NPRM on a budget cap for the four USF programs (see 1905310069). In a docket 06-122 motion Thursday, they said the complexity of the issues and the potential impact on the USF programs warranted setting deadlines of Sept. 30 and Oct. 30 so as to better ensure a full record. The deadlines currently are July 15 and Aug. 12. Among the 35 signers of the motion are the National Consumer Law Center, Common Cause, the NAACP, Public Knowledge, Alaska and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The telecom industry is eager to help mitigate national security threats stemming from equipment installed on its networks that could be compromised by vendors' ties to the Chinese government, executives said Thursday. Stakeholders wanted to reassure Commissioner Geoffrey Starks at an FCC workshop on his "find it, fix it, fund it" proposal to address vulnerabilities in communications networks (see 1906190050). But carriers, especially those with small, rural subscriber bases, said "rip-and-replace" missions for companies that have Huawei or ZTE equipment installed on their wireless, wireline or broadband networks would be neither quick nor inexpensive. Some estimates place the cost to remove and replace the compromised equipment at well over $1 billion.
The House passed the FY 2020 budget bill containing funding for the FCC and FTC (HR-3351) Wednesday on a 224-196 vote after clearing several telecom and privacy-related amendments (see 1906240061) on voice votes. The measure would give the FTC $349.7 million and the FCC $339 million (see 1906030040). Approved amendments included language from Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., to prohibit the FCC from instituting an overall USF budget cap (see 1905310069). An amendment from Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., would bar the FCC from using FY 2020 funds to implement “any report, order, or ruling that prevents, prohibits, or preempts a State or locality from mandating the sharing of a building owner’s wiring for communications services in multiple tenant environments.” One from House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, aims to reallocate $1 million of the FCC funding to prioritize the agency's work to combat robocalls aimed at scamming senior citizens. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., proposes reallocating $1 in FCC funding to “highlight the importance of completing its investigation” into wireless carriers' location tracking practices, including the sale of customer location tracking data allegedly accessed by bounty hunters (see 1805240073). Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., wants to reallocate $3 million of the FTC funding to encourage the agency to take enforcement action against companies that “fail to protect children's privacy.” Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., ultimately didn't offer her amendment that would have barred the FCC from using new funding to collect further broadband coverage data via Form 477.