Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday the FCC will consider rules at the Oct. 23 commissioners' meeting allowing Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band and revising rules for the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Those were expected (see 1808310026). The FCC would post the draft items Tuesday, three weeks before the meeting. Also on tap is a draft order to update model-based support for rural telcos, media modernization on cable rate regulation and broadcast filing requirements and items on private land mobile radio (PLMR) services and enforcement.
“We cannot afford to fixate on infrastructure builds alone,” ex-FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Wednesday in livestreamed remarks at the Great Lakes Connect event in Fairlawn, Ohio. USF should continue to support affordability through the Lifeline program in addition to infrastructure, “for ‘if you build it, they will come’ only happens when a person can afford the service,” she said. Connecting fiber alone won’t bridge the digital divide; adoption issues like affordability and relevance must also be addressed, Clyburn said. “But strangling the Lifeline program, the nation’s only means-tested universal service program that addresses the cost of voice and broadband service, and allowing only facilities-based providers to offer Lifeline service … will leave an estimated 70 percent of subscribers who cannot afford communications service today without a viable option tomorrow.” As Clyburn spoke, Lifeline advocates held a small rally outside FCC headquarters opposing the agency's proposal to ban resellers from the program (see 1809260029).
The FCC adopted 4-0 an NPRM that proposes to ensure direct-dial 911 calling from centralized phone systems in larger buildings and on campuses, and to ensure "dispatchable location" information is conveyed with emergency calls. At their monthly meeting Wednesday, commissioners also unanimously approved an order to begin auctioning off toll-free phone numbers.
Minnesota asked the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals to review a panel's 2-1 ruling affirming a district court decision that state regulation of interconnected VoIP was pre-empted as an information service, in Charter v. Nancy Lange, No. 17-2290 (see 1809070030). The majority ruling is "inconsistent" with the Telecom Act, and "in conflict" with prior 8th Circuit opinions on USF contributions and Vonage's VoIP service and the Supreme Court's cable modem Brand X ruling, petitioned (in Pacer) the Minnesota Office of Attorney General Friday, on behalf of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, seeking en banc or panel rehearing: "Consideration by the full Court is necessary to ensure uniformity of this Court's decisions." Charter Phone "is a fixed, interconnected VoIP service with the ability to determine whether calls are interstate or intrastate," Minnesota said. "Under the plain terms of this Court's Vonage III ruling and Paragraph 56 of the FCC's USF Order quoted therein, the MPUC has jurisdiction over Charter Phone." It also cited a 2017 8th Circuit ruling upholding a district court decision relying on that USF language as applied in Vonage III "observing that the FCC explicitly said that the Vonage preemption order does not apply to providers with the ability to track the jurisdiction of customer calls and such providers are subject to state regulation." Pillsbury Winthrop's Glenn Richards, representing the Voice on the Net Coalition, which backed Charter, emailed he's "disappointed, but not surprised" by the petition: "I don’t see any issues raised in the petition that are likely to result in a different decision by the full court.” Charter Communications didn't comment Monday.
Judges questioned a Sandwich Isles Communications attorney's assertions the FCC backed the carrier's Hawaiian Island undersea cable project before reducing its related access charge revenue. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also questioned FCC and AT&T attorneys extensively in oral argument Monday. SIC is challenging a 2016 FCC order that prospectively disallowed all but $1.9 million of its annual access collections from a National Exchange Carrier Association rural telco pooling mechanism (see 1612060032).
The Oregon Public Utility Commission set an Oct. 10 workshop on proposed rules requiring interconnected VoIP providers to contribute to state USF. The PUC plans to share draft rules Sept. 26, with comments due Oct. 8, said a Friday notice in docket AR-615. The PUC may have another workshop Nov. 5 if it updates proposed rules, followed by a public meeting Dec. 4 for commissioners to vote on a notice of proposed rulemaking, it said.
Appoint an independent commission to examine communications failures in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, said a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai from consumer groups, academics and advocates. They include former Commissioner Gloria Tristani, Free Press, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Center for Media Justice. “There is still much we do not know about the response of telecom companies and our government,” the letter said. The damage to communications “apparently contributed significantly” to the recently adjusted multi-thousand person death toll by preventing residents in danger for calling for help, the letter said. Though the FCC issued a report in August (see 1808240052) on its hurricane response, it “failed to provide the kind of comprehensive examination that is needed following such a historic tragedy in Puerto Rico,” the letter said. Recent reports on the disaster from GAO and the Federal Emergency Management Agency also don’t go into enough depth on communications challenges and solutions for Puerto Rico, the letter said. The agency should analyze those issues in depth, and hold bilingual public hearings in Puerto Rico, the letter said. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who in the letter is quoted criticizing the FCC’s report, also sought such hearings (see 1709260044). Without more FCC investigation, it’s difficult to know how to direct the additional USF payments aimed at restoring service to the island, the letter said: “Puerto Ricans deserve a comprehensive examination, from an independent commission, that fully explores the causes for the critical failure of communications infrastructure.”
Wireless resellers pressed the FCC to back off a proposal to ban resellers from the Lifeline USF program. "The consensus is that the reseller ban would not bridge the digital divide by spurring additional facilities deployment or more affordable services," said National Lifeline Association (NaLA) filings on meetings of reseller representatives with Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, posted Thursday in docket 17-287 (here, here). "A reseller ban would harm consumers by forcing more than 7 million or roughly 70 percent of all Lifeline subscribers to find a new Lifeline service provider (including about 1.3 million veterans), and in many cases, leaving the nation’s most vulnerable consumers with no affordable wireless or wireline service options." NaLA said the FCC should allow low-income "consumers to choose for themselves among options of voice and data, including bundles," rather than mandating "family-sized service plans" in escalating minimum service standards and phasing out voice-only support. The group pressed for ensuring a national verifier implements an application programming interface for providers and there is access to key databases for determining consumer eligibility.
Rural telco groups asked the FCC to postpone and redo broadband testing duties for RLECs and other smaller providers of fixed service receiving high-cost Connect America Fund support. WTA and NTCA made the requests in applications for review by commissioners of a July 6 staff order (see 1807060031). Petitions for reconsideration (and in some cases clarification) were filed jointly by USTelecom, ITTA and the Wireless ISP Association, and individually by ViaSat, Hughes Network Systems and Micronesian Telecommunications. Filings were posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 10-90.
NARUC said it generally endorses some FCC proposals in a draft NPRM to improve 911 dialing from multiline telephone systems in buildings and complexes and ensure "dispatchable location" information is conveyed with 911 calls, regardless of technology. A 2014 NARUC resolution commended FCC efforts to ensure public safety answering points get "accurate information to identify the indoor location of wireless 9-1-1 callers and supported adoption of effective location technologies for indoor and outdoor 9-1-1 calls," said the group's filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-261 on meetings with aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel. It said a November 2017 resolution backed federal and state actions to require enterprise communications systems to allow direct 911 dialing (without extra digits) and provide location information precise enough to find callers. "Both NARUC resolutions suggest that any federal rules should be written to permit States to impose additional requirements 'presuming that such additional requirements do not contradict or conflict with federal requirements,'" it said. The NPRM is on the agenda for the Sept. 26 commissioners' meeting (see 1809050056). The filing also made arguments opposing an FCC proposal in a 2017 NPRM to eliminate resellers from its Lifeline USF program, and urging changes to telco jurisdictional separations rules without bypassing a federal-state joint board.