Make sure small phone carriers with legitimate spikes in incoming calls don't get swept up in a coming FCC order redefining how phone companies are deemed access stimulators, said representatives of rural LECs and other small LECs in interviews last week and in docket 18-155. Chairman Ajit Pai's draft gets a vote Thursday (see 1909050043). The rules would shift financial responsibility for tariffed tandem switching and transport services away from interexchange carriers to the access-stimulating LEC for terminating traffic.
USF E-rate funding should include support for network security equipment and services to protect schools and libraries from cyberattack, NCTA replied, posted Thursday in docket 13-184 on the FCC's proposed eligible services list for category 2 spending updates (see 1909040018). The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said Form 470 should be simplified to give schools more flexibility in requesting support for managed internal broadband services and basic maintenance of internal connections. "All efforts to simplify E-rate application forms and processes and include important adjunct services to minimize cyber threats and limit access to unsafe content in the nation's schools in today's challenging online environment are in the public interest," NRECA said.
Satellite interests want changes to the FCC's proposed $950 million allocation of second-round USF funding to strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, after Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017. Award criteria for the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund and the USVI Funds are flawed, Hughes said in meetings with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Mike O'Rielly, and with Wireless Bureau staff, per docket 18-143 postings Thursday (see here, here and here): Determining satellite isn't resilient technology is incorrect, since if the ground equipment is off island, it's by nature resilient. Hughes said the agency should include in bid evaluation the time it takes to deploy. It urged scoring that would give up to 20 points for 100 percent buildout within two years and fewer or no points for longer. The Coalition to Fund CPR membership, building a satellite-based model for emergency telecom services on the island, said the FCC should include locally based satellite communications facilities in restoration funding. It said funding should include new entrants with new technology, and allowing independent community-based emergency telecom networks to participate. The coalition said membership includes Tech Latina, National Puerto Rican Agenda, Ibero American Action League and Foundation for a Better Puerto Rico. Virgin Islands ISP Broadband VI argued against changing criteria for resiliency and redundancy, saying no data in the record supported doing so, and against applying a point reduction for backup power at customer premises in competing applications going through a brief public comment period. Commissioners vote at their Sept. 26 public meeting (see 1909040073).
Huawei filed at the FCC documents it said show many top U.S. telecom players have ties to China. Commissioners approved a supply chain NPRM 5-0 in April 2018 (see 1804170038). Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said Tuesday the FCC should wrap up work on rules (see 1909170044). "Numerous telecommunications companies have connections with China that are equally or, in many cases, more significant than those of Huawei,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-89. “This information highlights the irrationality and arbitrariness of premising any exclusion of Huawei from the USF program on Huawei’s supposed connections with China.”
A proposal to place an overall spending cap on USF programs "is a direct assault on the FCC's mission of bridging the digital divide," said 30 senators in a letter Thursday to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Led by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the letter asks Pai to "discard any plans for setting an overall cap" for USF programs, saying it "would harm broadband deployment, rural health care opportunities, classroom learning, and life-long learning through public libraries by forcing them to compete" for necessary funds. Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen responded that Congress designed the four USF programs "to work in tandem" to address different aspects of the digital divide. The FCC proposal to cap overall USF spending faces opposition (see 1906030059). The agency didn't comment right away. All signing on to the letter were Democrats, except Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a Democratic presidential hopeful who caucuses with the Democrats. Five other hopefuls for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination also signed: Michael Bennet, Colo.; Cory Booker, N.J.; Kamala Harris, Calif.; Amy Klobuchar, Minn.; and Elizabeth Warren, Mass.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 31-0 Thursday to advance to the floor its Financial Services FY 2020 budget bill with report language to pressure the FCC to hold a public auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. The measure, which the Financial Services Subcommittee cleared Tuesday, would allocate $339 million to the FCC and its Office of Inspector General and $312.3 million to the FTC (see 1909170060). The House-passed equivalent (HR-3351) allocated the FCC the same funding level but gave the FTC $349.7 million -- $37 million more than Senate Appropriations proposes (see 1906260081).
Viasat is an eligible telecom carrier (ETC) in high-cost areas in Alabama, California, Florida and West Virginia, the FCC Wireline Bureau ordered on docket 09-197 Wednesday. That lets the company get USF support for the agency's Connect America Fund Phase II auction to extend broadband and voice services in underserved rural areas. The bureau waived a condition that Viasat submit proof of ETC status by Feb. 25.
The FCC is taking opposing comments through Sept. 27 on a Bureau of Labor Statistics plan to use FCC Form 499-A data in revising for wired telecom carriers the producer price index, which measures monthly changes in price for residential and business wired telecom services, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 06-122. BLS will use the form's revenue data and publicly available data on companies to collect sample data proportionate to economic size, the PN said. The FCC collects revenue data to determine how much providers must contribute to the USF. BLS said it will maintain confidentiality.
The FCC should let phone providers eliminate the line-item fee on USF contributions for inmate calling service customers making interstate and international calls, said comments posted through Tuesday in docket 19-232. Network Communications International last month petitioned for forbearance from the fees (see 1908160040). The Human Rights Defense Center said "excessive fees collected under the pretense of USF contribution requirements must be overturned to facilitate fair and equitable jail and prison telephone access." Wright Petitioners said it's "fundamentally unfair and a violation of the FCC's Universal Service directives to require ICS customers to contribute" to the USF "when a significant portion of these very same ICS customers actually receive assistance from the programs supported and maintained" through that fund. The Prison Policy Initiative said exempting ICS carriers from USF contributions "would be a tremendous savings to the low-income users of these services" without a material effect on USF operations. Securus said "the unique hardship that incarceration imposes on both inmates and their family members, who are often the ones actually paying for ICS calls, creates a strong basis for distinguishing between ICS and other telecommunications services." It said the benefits of forbearance outweigh the slightly increased contribution burden to users of other telecom services. The ICS provider said if the FCC grants the petition, it should update the language in Form 499-A instructions to include a reference to "assessable U.S. telecommunications services for which the contribution obligation has been forborne." The USF contribution factor rises to 25 percent for Q4 under a recent proposal (see 1909130003). Absent forbearance, the increasingly high fees subject vulnerable populations to costs they struggle to afford, said Pay Tel Communications. Worth Rises said the FCC should require correctional telecom providers to pay USF fees but prohibit them from passing those fees to their customers. Inmate Calling Solutions entirely backs the NCIC petition.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Competitive Carriers Association members were asked by the federal government to participate in discussions on supply chain security, carrier officials said Tuesday at CCA’s annual meeting. At the opening breakfast, big issues were 5G and what it will mean to competitive carriers. Huawei was at CCA and had a technical presentation on cybersecurity.