Pai Proposes Wireless Infrastructure Rule Changes, 911 Inquiry, Satellite Station Deregulation

The FCC released a draft order that would streamline wireless infrastructure rules in keeping with the push that started in the early days of the Ajit Pai chairmanship. Pai blogged Thursday that the changes are critical to 5G. Commissioner Brendan Carr, heading the FCC’s wireless infrastructure push, already highlighted many of the changes in a speech Wednesday (see 1802280031). A key American Indian group raised initial concerns. Among other items up for a vote at the March 22 meeting, as expected, are a Further NPRM on the 4.9 GHz band, changes to cell booster rules and deregulation for when satellite stations' parents have ownership changes. The meeting will start at 9:30 a.m., an hour earlier than normal.

“Headlining the meeting will be a vital part of our 5G strategy: modernizing our rules to promote the wireless infrastructure of the future,” Pai wrote: Such networks will "be infrastructure-intensive. Instead of a 200-foot cell tower, we’ll see hundreds of small cells, installed more inconspicuously, operating at lower power.” Some estimate 5G will require a 100-fold increase in U.S. small cells, Pai said. “There’s a snag” in that industry must now follow rules devised for much larger cell towers, Pai said. “The hoops set up by these regulations are a mismatch.”

The FCC “consulted extensively with Tribal Nations, intertribal organizations, state and local historic preservation officers, wireless carriers, network builders, relevant federal agencies, and many others to determine the steps the Commission needs to take to enable the deployment of 5G networks,” said a fact sheet attached to the draft order.

The order would clarify that deployment of small cells isn't a “federal undertaking’” within the meaning of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) or a “major federal action” under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), “meaning that neither statute’s review process would be mandated for such deployments,” the FCC said. “Red tape like this is not only unnecessary for small cells, but also increases the cost and slows down the deployment,” Pai said.

The order would cut red tape for tribal reviews of projects off tribal lands and would clarify that applicants “have no legal obligation to pay up-front fees” when seeking tribal comment on proposed deployments. The commission would no longer require environmental assessments when a proposed project is located in a floodplain but would commit to specific timelines for commission review of EAs.

Industry loves the proposed changes. “BIG news today from @FCC could help cut extreme costs & long delays for @Sprint Next-Gen Network deployment,” tweeted Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. “Clearing the path for wireless deployment is a national priority that is essential to improving 4G networks and enabling 5G,” said Will Johnson, Verizon senior vice president-federal regulatory. The order would “reduce the costs of, and regulatory impediments to” deploying fiber networks, said USTelecom President Jonathan Spalter. "We're especially pleased that the FCC is seeking to modernize the tribal notification system to provide all parties with greater clarity," said Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein.

The National Congress of American Indians said the FCC mustn’t reduce protections for sacred and cultural sites. “Tribal nations, industry and the FCC have been in conversation for the past year to seek mutually beneficial solutions that will both expand America’s wireless infrastructure while preserving tribal historic and cultural sites,” NCAI said. “Through the comment process, the FCC has heard from dozens of tribes and inter-tribal organizations that all agree, the existing process works. Like any other business process, there can be mutually agreed upon adaptions.” Other groups representing the tribes, and the tribes themselves, didn’t respond to requests for comment Wednesday or Thursday. The docket is 15-59.

Media Deregulation

The meeting’s draft NPRM on streamlining reauthorization for satellite TV stations that are assigned or transferred might get some pushback, broadcast attorneys said. Though some attorneys characterized it as “low-hanging fruit,” one said there’s a chance public interest groups might take an interest since the matter touches on the fraught subject of media ownership. Free Press didn't comment.

Satellite stations are full-power stations that largely retransmit the content of another, usually a commonly owned full-power station. They are generally in extremely small markets that aren’t viable for a regular full-power station and receive exemptions from some rules, including local ownership limits, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast lawyer Howard Liberman. Under current rules, when such a station is bought or transferred, the new owner has to make the same showing as if the station were being classified as a satellite station for the first time, even if it has been run as a satellite for years, Liberman said.

The draft seeks comment on streamlining the process by allowing such stations transferred with their existing parent with no material change in circumstances to skip having to make a new showing they merit satellite status. Now, such showings are virtually “rubber stamped,” said Fletcher Heald broadcast lawyer Peter Tannenwald. The draft NPRM tentatively concludes if the station’s circumstances haven’t changed and the outlet provides a copy of the most recent grant of satellite status, the owners wouldn’t have to make the showing and the agency wouldn’t need to provide a written decision granting reauthorization. Requiring “the same evidentiary showing for a reauthorization request is unnecessarily costly and burdensome in many cases” for both broadcasters and the FCC, Pai said. “Everyone knows the duck still quacks like a duck, so to speak, so the current process is wasteful.” The dockets are 17-105 and 18-63.

4.9 GHz

Pai said the time is ripe to complete changes to the 4.9 GHz band, a long-standing commission focus. Commissioners approved the last major NPRM on 4.9 GHz in 2012 (see 1206140066). In 2002, the FCC designated 50 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the band for public safety use, Pai said. “Unfortunately, this spectrum has never been used as much as had been hoped” and the FCC sought comment on needed changes, he said: “Based on the feedback we received from the public safety community, we’ve developed new proposals to promote greater public safety use of the 4.9 GHz band and incentivize investment in new technologies.”

An FNPRM in docket 07-100 would explore ways the 4.9 GHz band can be shared without affecting public safety use. “Our goal is to ensure that public safety continues to have priority in the band while opening up the band to additional uses that will facilitate increased usage, including more prominent mobile use, and encourage a more robust market for equipment and greater innovation, while protecting primary users from harmful interference,” the draft said.

On cell boosters, Pai proposes to eliminate the personal-use restriction on provider-specific consumer signal boosters “so that businesses, public safety entities, educational institutions, and other enterprise users can also benefit from these boosters,” said a draft order and docket 10-4 FNPRM. “Our goal is pretty simple: to give consumers who want better wireless coverage more options for getting it,” Pai said.

Commissioners approved rules for cell boosters, with an eye on extending the reach of carrier networks, by 5-0 in February 2013, and Wilson Electronics and T-Mobile later asked to lift the personal use restriction (see 1612200061). T-Mobile said two years ago the FCC had added the restriction, which wasn't in an industry proposal for rules, “without explanation” before the 2013 vote. The FNPRM asks about ways to further increase booster use, including expanding the bands in which boosters can be operated and making it easier to embed boosters in vehicles.

On a final wireless item, a notice of inquiry would look at ways to make routing calls to 911 answering points more accurate. The NOI asks detailed questions “about the state of location based routing technologies, their maturity, and their utility in supporting more accurate routing of wireless 911 calls.” The FCC also seeks comment in new docket 18-64 on recommendations on location-based routing made by the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council in September 2016. “We have reason to believe that 911 misroutes are not occasional or isolated and in fact occur frequently, on occasion with deadly consequences,” the draft NOI says. “The importance of addressing this issue is escalating as the public is increasingly dependent on wireless networks and devices for access to 911.”

A draft FNPRM would seek to reduce unwanted robocalls to reassigned numbers. When consumers give up a phone number, they don't always inform parties who called that number, including businesses that had their express consent to call, the draft said. That potentially subjects people who receive the reassigned number to unwanted phone calls and business callers to wasted efforts and consumer backlash. The draft would "propose to ensure that one or more databases are available to provide callers with the comprehensive and timely information they need to avoid calling reassigned numbers," said a summary. It would seek comment on details, including on the information that callers who use a database would need and the best way (with three alternatives listed) for service providers to report, and callers to receive, that information. It would seek comment on whether and how the FCC should adopt a safe harbor from Telephone Consumer Protection Act liability.

Meeting Agenda Notebook

Representatives of the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma told Carr the FCC mustn't use changes to wireless infrastructure rules as an excuse to end the Tower Construction Notification System for tribes, said a filing in docket 17-79. “Rural areas and tribal lands have been traditionally underserved by carriers,” the Kaw leaders said. “A vast section of America lacks even basic cell coverage, let alone 3G or 4G. While the FCC states a desire to provide coverage to all Americans for reasons of economic prosperity and safety, it is unlikely that 5G technology will be deployed to the rural areas of our country, including most of Indian country.”

The Competitive Carriers Association asked the FCC to address the costs competitive carriers face for NEPA and NHPA review of small cells and distributed antenna systems in tribal areas. “Streamline” the rules, asked a filing in docket 17-79. “The FCC should continue Tribal Nation consultations to clarify that paying Tribal fees, either for review or for subsequent consultation activities, is not required under the NHPA nor the National Programmatic Agreement,” CCA said. “Without Commission action, Tribal fees will become an increasingly exorbitant cost barrier to ubiquitous broadband deployment.”

AT&T said “with each day that passes, the record in this docket becomes more compelling” that the FCC should modernize rules for environmental and historic reviews “in a way that avoids unnecessary delays and costs associated with wireless broadband deployment.” Small-cell deployments “are unlikely to impact the environment, yet incur significant costs,” AT&T said: Wi-Fi and small-cell base stations “are similar, yet only one (small cells) requires NEPA and NHPA review.”