Approval of State Model Code Stalled; BDAC Asked to Focus on Infrastructure, Disasters

The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee will have new life after it finalizes the last of its reports to the commission. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stopped by the meeting Friday to announce a new focus -- how to make communications infrastructure more resilient, with hurricane season looming and after major storms hit the Gulf Coast and U.S. territories last year. Pai asked BDAC to complete the report by February.

The group voted unanimously to table discussion of the state model code after striking three sections left many voicing confusion about what aspects of remaining sections still were in effect, and facing a 12:30 p.m. hard stop, members said they couldn't finish, The group started but didn't finish discussing a presentation from the Rates and Fees Ad Hoc Committee. Many members had suitcases with them, with afternoon flights out of Washington.

Chair Elizabeth Bowles said areas voted on wouldn’t be reopened, and she wanted the follow-up meeting to happen next month, even by teleconference. “The longer this drags out, the less relevant this becomes,” she said. Earlier, Bowles noted “a lot of relitigation” on items discussed and voted on more than once.

Members mostly welcomed new duties. “This charge is timely and it will matter to millions of people across the country,” Pai said. He asked BDAC to look at policies for making networks better prepared for disasters, ways to minimize downtime for networks during storms and strategies for quickly building networks after a storm has passed.

“There’s always work to be done and I firmly believe that you can do it,” Pai said. “Last year’s historic hurricane season should make clear the gravity of this assignment.”

“We look forward to working with the FCC as it considers BDAC’s recommendations,” said Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein. He backs Pai's plan for the panel to "focus on infrastructure resiliency. Wireless infrastructure has performed admirably during previous hurricane seasons and I appreciate the opportunity to share some of the industry’s lessons learned.”

“I welcome the new charge,” said member Brent Skorup of the Mercatus Center. “It’s an area where I haven’t seen much research or policy focus, and I’m glad the FCC is tasking the BDAC with another important area.”

Rikin Thakker, representing the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council on BDAC, said disaster recovery is an important topic. One question is whether the committee will look at both manmade and natural disasters, he said. The BDAC's past work continues as well, he said. “We are definitely coming back.”

Votes

Panelists voted 12-10 to strike article 10 requiring state franchise agreements. Yeas included from local, state and wireless industry officials.

David Young, BDAC co-chair and a city official from Lincoln, Nebraska, asked to remove the article because he said such agreements would be a barrier; Larry Hanson from the Georgia Municipal Association said recommending them would undermine the BDAC’s model municipal code. Supporting the article, Comcast Vice President-Regulatory Policy David Don said state franchise agreements wouldn't be a requirement and some cities could go their own way. It may make more sense for some states than others, and it would be up to a legislature to decide if it fits the reality of the state, agreed International Center for Law and Economics Associate Director-Innovation Policy Kristian Stout.

BDAC also struck article 13 on establishing a state broadband infrastructure manager to implement the state code, with only four voting no. The committee decided it should be a state-designated entity rather than creating a new position. Afterward, with time running out and as BDAC tried to move on to another article, some members said it was hard to know what parts of the state code remained. Some said the code should be returned for additional work to its working group, which Hansen said should add more local members.

As it shifts focus, don't lose sight of at least 23 million rural Americans who lack broadband, said a National Rural Electric Cooperative Association spokesperson who watched. NRECA respects the desire to work on resiliency, and CEO Jim Matheson will remain a member, but the model state code had only two articles on rural broadband and it seems like a “missed opportunity” not to address those issues, the spokesperson said.

The National League of Cities likes most of the model municipal code but doesn’t support every part and fears what will happen to cities that don’t adopt the model, said Angelina Panettieri, NLC principal associate-technology and communications. “Under no circumstances should the BDAC model code be considered a mandate or used to punish cities for exercising their own discretion and pursuing a different model, by members of industry, Congress or the FCC,” she said. “Use of a different approach should not be used to argue that a city is not acting in good faith and the best interests of its residents. No national code can possibly capture the unique needs of every community.”

“While the model is merely a suggestion and intended to be altered to meet individual community needs, the implication that one code could work in every municipality is demonstrably false,” emailed NATOA General Counsel Nancy Werner. “We are also concerned that the model includes some traps for the unwary. For example, the term ‘collocation’ includes the first installation of a small wireless facility on a utility pole or streetlight, which is not the FCC’s interpretation of that term in other contexts. The model would allow these installations without local discretion.” The proposed shot clock is “slightly different than existing FCC shot clocks and may conflict with state laws,” she said. Werner asked why the model code meant to spur broadband “does not include a single reference to broadband other than the proposed title.”

Pai noted he just returned from CANTO 2018, a meeting of the trade association for telecom operators across the Caribbean. “We often discuss common challenges and shared best practices from our respective countries” and Pai said he discussed BDAC. “I stressed the value of bringing in outside expertise,” he said. Other countries were interested in both the role BDAC played and the work it has done, he said.

The committee deserves credit for FCC work on one-touch, make-ready rules set for a vote by commissioners Thursday, Pai said. OTMR has long been discussed without federal “much action,” he said. ‘This committee changed that,” he said. “You put in the hard work to figure how to craft a detailed federal policy. You built momentum for action.”