Lifeline, Tech Transition, Auction Among FCC's Top Priorities

The FCC's major to-do list over the next 19 months includes the ongoing Lifeline modernization, redefining multichannel video programming distributors to include the over-the-top universe, speeding along the IP telephony transition, the incentive auction and overhauling its website and Electronic Comment Filing System, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler. Sohn spoke Thursday at a Media Institute luncheon on what she called the agency's lesser-heralded accomplishments over the past 19 months since Wheeler was confirmed by the Senate, and its major priorities over the coming 19 and the remainder of the current presidential administration. Asked about the timing of a variety of decisions the regulator still has to make before the expected auction in 2016, Sohn said it "depends on when things are ready." "Obviously we want to start the auction in the first quarter," she said. "Summer, fall's going to be pretty critical for some of these decisions to come out." Wireless companies agreeing to unlock their cellphones and allowing texting to 911, and the elimination of the sports blackout rule were among significant FCC accomplishments that have "flown under the radar," Sohn said. "It's those lower-profile decisions ... that make me especially proud," she said.