Long-Awaited Roaming Order Scheduled for FCC Vote

The FCC will vote at the April 21 meeting on an order that would pull back the in-market roaming exclusion, approved in 2007 as part of the commission’s automatic roaming rules. The same item calls for the FCC to put out a further rulemaking notice seeking additional comment on data roaming. The actions have been expected since December (CD Dec 9 p1).

The roaming order would clarify carriers’ roaming rights under Sections 201 and 202 of the Telecom Act. The commission came close to voting on the in-market exclusion in August 2008, but former Chairman Kevin Martin pulled the item from that month’s meeting agenda, saying he didn’t have the votes for approval. FCC officials said that when they approved the exclusion they hoped to encourage carriers to build out their networks under licenses they had bought at auction rather than rely on roaming (CD Aug 8/07 p1).

The rulemaking notice about data roaming is one of several items set for a vote at the April meeting to follow up on the National Broadband Plan. The commission will also vote on a rulemaking notice and a notice of inquiry aimed at a USF revamp. The rulemaking notice will “elaborate on specific recommendations in the National Broadband Plan for cutting and capping the fund,” an FCC official said. The inquiry notice will call for comments on the “cost model used to deliver efficient and targeted support.”

Although the model hasn’t been put out for public comment, FCC staff used it for the plan to determine whether or not an area was served, another eighth-floor official said. Broadband providers “are going to want to study the cost model quite closely.” The cost model would be used to figure out what it would cost to provide broadband service and whether there’s a business case in hard-to-serve areas, the official said. “Where there isn’t a business case, there’s a case for USF."

Two Media Bureau items among those that the FCC said Wednesday are on the tentative agenda for meeting deal with video-device improvements discussed in the broadband plan (CD March 31 p10). The network-gateway item is for a notice of inquiry (CD March 24 p5) seeking “comment on best approaches to assure the commercial availability of smart video devices and other equipment used to access the services of multi-channel video programming distributors,” the commission said. And a rulemaking notice “proposes changes to the CableCARD rules for set-top boxes used with cable services, to improve the operation of that framework pending the development of a successor framework,” the agency said. Neither item had circulated by mid-afternoon Wednesday, but both were expected later in the day, an FCC official said.

Also on the agenda: A voluntary program under which carriers can win cybersecurity certification and a notice of inquiry seeking comment on “the present state of survivability in broadband networks and potential measures to reduce vulnerability to network failures.”