The FCC is eyeing rural call completion and rural business data service (BDS) actions among others at its April 17 commissioners' meeting. A rural call completion item would set new rules seeking to improve long-distance provider monitoring of "intermediate providers" while easing reporting requirements, and seek comment on a recently enacted rural call law, blogged Chairman Ajit Pai Monday. The item combines an order and Further NPRM, said an agency official. Pai said a separate NPRM would look to offer BDS "inventive regulation" to rural telcos receiving model-based Connect America Fund broadband-oriented support.
The FCC will consider an NPRM at its April 17 meeting proposing to bar the use of money in any of the four USF programs to buy equipment or services from companies that “pose a national security threat” to U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain. The NPRM appears mainly aimed at Chinese wireless equipment makers Huawei and ZTE, industry experts said. The biggest potential negative could be for smaller carriers, who sometimes find they must rely on Huawei as a low-cost handset provider for markets some larger companies don’t want to serve, industry officials said.
Pai Plans 'Proactive Steps' on Communications Supply Chain Security, Over Lawmakers' Huawei Concerns
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai intends to “take proactive steps to help ensure the integrity of the communications supply chain in the United States in the near future,” he said in March 20 letters to 18 lawmakers released Friday. The proposal would reduce FCC subsidies to carriers that use Huawei equipment or products, including barring them from receiving USF funding, a communications sector lobbyist told us. The FCC didn’t comment on the contours of the plan. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and other lawmakers wrote Pai in December to raise concerns about reports Huawei was set to begin selling its consumer products in the U.S. as soon as this year “with little or no modifications" to address privacy and cybersecurity concerns. The lawmakers cited 2012 and 2013 House Intelligence Committee reports detailing Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government. The 2012 report recommended the U.S. “view with suspicion” any attempts by Hauwei to continue making inroads into the U.S. market (see 1210100053 or 1210100091). AT&T and Verizon “abandoned” plans to sell Huawei’s Mate 10 pro smartphone, but “I share your concerns about the security threat that Huawei and other Chinese technology companies pose to our communications networks,” Pai said in letters to the lawmakers. Best Buy has said it will also stop selling Huawei products. Pai said he's taking action on supply chain security after a recent “briefing on these issues from the Intelligence Community.” The FCC itself already doesn’t “purchase or use” Huawei or ZTE products or equipment “and I do not expect that would change if a major U.S. communications company partnered with Huawei,” Pai said. Huawei and ZTE didn’t comment.
The FCC took USF actions and made proposals intended to help rural telcos provide broadband-oriented service and to improve high-cost subsidy program operations. Dissenting Democrats said their requests for changes to an NPRM went unheeded. Chairman Ajit Pai said the minority members waited too long to make their suggestions, a charge they denied. The commission Friday released two orders and a notice (here) that provide up to $545 million in additional support to rate-of-return carriers, flesh out expense and investment cost-recovery restrictions, and aim to examine the rural USF budget and a possible tribal broadband factor. The item appears largely consistent with a draft (see 1801160040 and 1801170048).
House members said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai should abandon his Lifeline plan "to drastically cut back the congressionally-mandated" USF program subsidizing phone and internet services to low-income people. "The FCC recently proposed to exclude the majority of carriers from participating in the program and to arbitrarily cap the fund," said a letter Wednesday to Pai in docket 17-287 from Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and 67 colleagues. "While you have stated that you are aiming to curb waste, fraud, and abuse, experts have repeatedly testified that the sorts of measures you are proposing do not have a successful track record. These approaches merely force millions of otherwise qualified people to lose service. These measures could be especially brutal during periods of economic downturn when people need the most help. ... Remarkably, among the comments filed by key stakeholders [in] the docket, we are not aware of any that fully embrace the Chairman's proposal, and most urge substantial revision if not outright abandonment of the proceeding." They urged Pai to focus on implementing a national verifier of consumer eligibility for the program. The FCC declined comment.
The digital divide is the FCC's “top policy priority” and the Connect America Fund reverse auction is “a milestone” in modernizing a key USF program, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told an American Cable Association conference Wednesday. Pai slammed Title II Communications Act regulation of broadband service, which he said was the result of “Silicon Valley giants” claiming small ISPs such as ACA's members “posed a greater threat to a free and open internet” than Google, Facebook and Twitter.
The FCC approved Shentel's request to give up nTelos' USF eligible telecom carrier status in Virginia. When it acquired nTelos, Shentel agreed to assign Sprint all the spectrum licenses held by nTelos, plus certain spectrum leases nTelos acquired, said a Wireline Bureau order Tuesday in docket 09-197. It said Shentel indicated it will continue to manage the former nTelos wireless network "through its affiliate relationship with Sprint, and Sprint will continue to provide service as a non-ETC in these areas." Shentel also indicated it provided advance notice to nTelos' Lifeline customers "to migrate to the Assurance Wireless Lifeline service, which continues to be offered throughout the former [nTelos] service area; thus, any affected Lifeline customers will continue to be served by an ETC," the order added.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the digital divide will grow wider if the agency's recent Lifeline USF proposals are implemented, adding to the net neutrality reversal. The proposals "would establish punitive caps on the Lifeline program, and effectively remove mobile wireless options from the program by banning wireless resellers from participating in Lifeline," she said in remarks prepared for delivery to The New School's Digital Equity Lab in New York City. "To destroy or weaken a program, that so many Americans rely on as their only means to dial 911, do their homework, or find a job, is not putting #ConsumersFirst, is heartless and I am hopeful that by giving voice to such a regulatory wrong, will derail this wrong-headed effort." The FCC's net neutrality repeal will allow "a handful of multibillion-dollar corporations" to "use this regulatory-free zone of opportunity, to disadvantage those without deep pockets, including consumers and small businesses," she said, also citing "a devastating effect on consumer privacy." The Lifeline proposals and net neutrality repeal "will actually widen digital and opportunities divides," she said, calling for allies to rally and “turn the tide.”
A court set a briefing schedule on Lifeline USF resellers' challenge to an FCC order targeting enhanced tribal support to "facilities-based" service and restricting support to "rural" tribal areas under a new definition (see 1801290020). The brief of petitioners is due April 25, the FCC's is due June 11, and petitioners' reply is due June 25, said an order (in Pacer) Friday of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in National Lifeline Association et al. v. FCC, No. 18-1026. NLA, a trade group representing Lifeline providers and vendors, was joined on a petition by Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless (enTouch) and Easy Telephone Services.
An FCC order on a FairPoint Communications petition was sent to commissioners last week, said the agency's circulation list updated Friday. An agency spokesman said the draft order and declaratory ruling addresses a FairPoint petition from December 2015. FairPoint, bought by Consolidated Communications in 2017, sought to recover annual costs it said were being blocked by rules barring "duplicate recovery" of price-cap USF support and rate-of-return intercarrier compensation. FairPoint said there was no duplicate recovery, and $3.5 million in ICC transition support had been improperly deducted in 2015, with amounts edging down in subsequent years (see 1512110070 and 1703060046).