As the FCC presses on with the Lifeline national verifier rollout, some state officials continue to voice concerns about incomplete access to state databases and other issues. Other state commissioners told us they haven’t heard any complaints, though one said his agency might not get any even amid problems. The NV is midway through a state-by-state launch and is designed to make signup and reverification more automatic. Those on the front lines see growing pains and worry the poor could be incorrectly excluded from the approximately $1 billion annual federal program (see 1907080009).
A declaratory ruling prohibiting charging higher 911 fees for VoIP subscribers than for legacy phone services circulated on the 8th floor Wednesday. It would resolve jurisdiction issues over such fees, says the FCC draft Friday on docket 19-44. Also released for the Oct. 25 meeting were a draft cable TV effective competition order for parts of Massachusetts and Hawaii, the 800 MHz rebanding draft order, a draft NPRM for removing broadcast antenna siting rules that don’t appear to have ever been successfully used, a draft order on measuring broadband performance of Connect America Fund recipients and a draft order regarding telecom tariffs (see 1910030061).
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission seeks comments on state USF, including data on implementing a broadband program and expanding rural fast-web services, said a Wednesday order in docket 19-00046-UT. The commission also sought recommendations for changes to the fund's structure, size or purpose. Comments are due Oct. 31, replies Nov. 14.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., asked GAO Thursday to evaluate “the communications failures and restoration efforts” after Hurricane Maria affected Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017. The FCC Public Safety Bureau issued recommendations last year to improve its response to the active 2017 hurricane season, including “increased engagement” with critical infrastructure players, and more backhaul provider participation in the carriers’ wireless resiliency cooperative framework (WRCF). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel criticized the report (see 1808240052). “Communications network failures in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were deeply detrimental to their residents, and may have even caused additional deaths in Puerto Rico,” Pallone wrote GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. “To prevent similar failures in the future, it is critical that we understand what happened during the hurricane and its aftermath, and what could be improved.” The review should examine FCC response to the communications failures, including whether it differed “from the agency's response to hurricanes that hit the U.S. mainland,” and how it's “tracking” the disbursement of enhanced USF support for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to help them recover (see 1805290028), Pallone said. He wants to know how the FCC disaster information reporting system can be “a more meaningful source of information." Pallone asked GAO to review whether there were problems with the WRCF (see 1905090045). “The FCC’s response to Hurricanes Maria and Irma was unprecedented,” a spokesperson said, citing the increased USF funding and commissioners' unanimous approval last week of $950 million (see 1909270025). “The FCC will continue to work with” federal and local officials “to connect everyone in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with digital opportunity and strengthen the resilience of the islands’ communications networks.”
FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly renewed calls to prohibit E-rate funds to schools and libraries that receive broadband service from one provider when another has already received USF dollars at the same location. "It's awful enough when the government subsidizes network builds in areas where the private sector can or does provide service, but it's a separate layer of hell when E-rate money goes to an area already being subsidized by the FCC," O'Rielly told an FCBA USF seminar. O'Rielly has corresponded with school superintendents and consortium leaders in Texas and Arizona about their plans to build self-provisioned wide-area networks that would overbuild a local incumbent's fiber facilities. "I have never been presented with credible evidence that E-Rate funded overbuilding has been anything other than wasteful for the USF," he said, citing "copious evidence of bidding matrices designed to favor a particular outcome and schools buying far more bandwidth than they use or need."
Locality pre-emption beefs with the FCC aren't ending soon, with limits on local regulators' 911 VoIP fees and an end to some cable TV rate regulation on October's agenda. Chairman Ajit Pai, previewing the items for the Oct. 25 meeting in his blog Thursday, also said there will be items wrapping up part of the lengthy 800 MHz rebanding process, as expected (see 1910020030). There's also a media modernization NPRM that appears to concern eliminating broadcast antenna site rules that industry lawyers say have been used barely a handful of times in the past 30 years. Pai said there will be an order on testing procedures and performance measures for carriers receiving support from the USF Connect America Fund program for broadband deployment to high-cost areas and an order addressing two tariff regulations.
The FCC should grant its petition for forbearance on USF contributions for interstate and international inmate calling services, for callers and correctional telecom providers, replied Network Communications International Corp., posted in docket 19-232. The company petitioned in August, and Worth Rises says the FCC continue to collect USF fees from providers but prohibit pass-through to consumers (see 1909170029). NCIC said that "would require the modification of other FCC rules which are outside the scope of the proceeding." It said such a change would likely lead some ICS providers to pass the costs to users directly or indirectly. Global Tel*Link said because interstate ICS isn't a Lifeline service, it's subject to USF contributions that can be passed through to users, even when those users and families would typically be Lifeline customers.
The FCC said it won't offer USF support to deploy broadband to houses that don't exist, in a recent order on docket 18-143 released Monday on a new wave of USF funding to strengthen fixed and wireless broadband infrastructure in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Commissioners voted for up to $950 million in support at Thursday's FCC meeting (see 1909260032). In a nod to questions about incomplete broadband mapping data, the FCC will give some consideration to winning bidders who can identify discrepancies in location data within a year of the initial public announcement, but it declined a proposal by Puerto Rico Telephone to apply a pro rata reduction when the actual number of locations is found to be less than 90 percent of the totals counted in the bid. "We expect an applicant's proposal to reflect its due diligence and informed business determinations of the costs and support amount required to satisfy its commitments," the agency said. "The Fund would not be accountable for the incorrect assumptions in a carrier's proposal. Further, we do not wish to provide support for non-existent locations."
The FCC is waiting for letters of credit and from providers' legal counsel to authorize the next round of 566 winning bids in its Connect America Fund Phase II auctions that would award USF support for broadband deployment over 10 years, it said Monday in docket 10-90. Letters are due Oct. 15.
The National Exchange Carrier Association's indexed cap on USF support amounts for high-cost loops for legacy rate-of-return carriers fell $17 million to $401 million for 2020 vs. 2019, NECA reported Monday in FCC docket 19-253. The number of ROR carrier working loops decreased nearly 6.4 percent, as the Gross Domestic Product-Chained Price Index dropped 2.4 percent.