BDAC Members Say They Might Not Have Time to Complete Disaster Report

The Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee could be hard pressed to wrap up a report on infrastructure and disasters by the beginning of March when its two-year charter expires, industry officials said. The FCC is soliciting members of a new BDAC working group, with nominations due Sept. 6. If the group starts meeting in October, it would have to turn around a report in five months, which would be unusually fast for a report by a Federal Advisory Committee Act committee.

BDAC must complete work on the state model plan and approve a Rates and Fees Ad Hoc Committee report. The group ran out of time on both items at its two-day meeting in late July (see 1807270020). The FCC didn't comment.

“It will be challenging to complete a report ... in five months,” but the goal isn’t “unattainable,” BDAC Chair Elizabeth Bowles told us. “Some of the work the BDAC has already done can serve as a starting point for the infrastructure discussions, and every BDAC member is committed to work diligently to craft this report before our charter expires. If for some reason that proves untenable, I would hope the chairman’s office would consider extending the time.”

It's not enough time and Chairman Ajit Pai will hopefully extend the charter by a year, said Richard Bennett, a member of the municipal code working group.

Timing is tough to predict, said BDAC member Robert DeBroux of TDS Telecom, chair of the Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers Working Group. “A number of the work group reports have been approved already, and have also proven useful to the FCC in its work,” he said. “The model codes are the big remaining pieces, and harmonizing them has proven more difficult than some may have anticipated, as they came out of two different work groups. That has more to do with the substantive nature of the work than any lack of effort.” DeBroux said any proposals that change regulations face resistance. “We made progress in the last meeting,” he said, adding he doesn't see anything “at this point that will prevent us from finishing on time.”

Kristian Stout, BDAC member from the International Center for Law and Economics, said much depends on the breadth of the infrastructure working group's focus. “I was on the model municipal code subcommittee and was skeptical we could actually get a sample code done in time,” he said. “But we did. So I think we have to wait and see.”

“It’s an ambitious deadline, but I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll finalize some recommendations,” said Brent Skorup, member from the Mercatus Center.

Some Optimistic

Tight schedules don't preclude a speedy conclusion, some noted.

The original working groups also faced tight timelines that had to be revised, said Doug Brake, a member of the state code working group. “The disaster response and infrastructure robustness issues do not face the same contentiousness as some of the other issues BDAC examined, where industry itself was sometimes pulling in different directions, so perhaps it could get a considerable amount done in that time frame,” Brake said. “It might be just running out the clock on the charter to see what they can produce in that time, or perhaps the charter will be renewed.”

Because the panel is up and running and members know each other, “we have a bit of a running start,” said member Jonathan Adelstein, president of the Wireless Infrastructure Association. A February deadline is “tight, but doable,” he said. “There’s a good chance we can finish it. Push comes to shove, they can extend [the charter] out for a few months without much sweat.” Pai’s goal seems to be to get the report out by the end of the charter, he said. “We’ve tended to be able to meet deadlines” and a deadline “kind of speeds people up,” he said. The electric grid is an obvious “weak point” on disaster recovery, Adelstein told us. Recommendations should focus on real-world solutions and costs, he said.

Others, who aren't participants, had doubts on such aggressive timing.

“February sounds like an ambitious timeline for a report on this important set of issues, which should consider resiliency broadly, and include sunny day outages as well as natural disasters,” said Santa Clara University School of Law professor Catherine Sandoval. NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Paul Kjellander said "the idea of a report compiled by a balanced group of experts across the affected stakeholder community makes sense, but certainly, the time frame seems short for an in-depth report.”

Writing the document in wildfire and hurricane season may be problematic, said National League of Cities Principal Associate-Technology and Communications Angelina Panettieri: “The best people with the most expertise on these issues are going to be very busy.” Five months is a “tight turnaround,” though the FCC hasn’t clearly laid out the work’s scope and other working groups got much done under similarly short time frames, she said. The agency probably would take a couple of weeks to review nominations, she said.

Membership Concerns

State and local officials remain concerned about membership balance as the BDAC takes its new direction.

“Composition of the working group will be critical," and reflected in any document, said Kjellander. “NARUC leadership is considering whether to nominate an additional NARUC member for the working group with actual experience recovering from natural disasters.” Massachusetts telecom regulator Karen Charles Peterson represents NARUC.

The committee should include the many different types of state officials involved in emergency response, emailed Sandoval, a former California Public Utilities Commission member. “The FCC must recognize that [public service answering points] PSAPs, while an important point in the public safety chain, are only one point, and in California are not in charge of emergency operations. Many California counties designate their Sheriff as the Emergency Operations Center Director, and some have independent EOCs. Most emergencies have local or county-level command. While the perspective of the California Office of Emergency Services and the CPUC would be important,” she said, the view of a sheriff’s or local department “in charge of an EOC would be critical.”

Officials at all levels of government should be represented to reflect disaster-response processes, Panettieri said. “The makeup of that group will really determine any policy recommendations.” Network resiliency is increasingly important for cities, with more communities affected by wildfires and other disasters, she said. NLC members report deteriorating copper networks and “don’t want to see disaster recovery used as an excuse to further pre-empt cities” seeking to protect consumers, she said. It’s critical to include perspectives of providers and local and state governments on disasters, agreed member Andy Huckaba, who as a councilman from Lenexa, Kansas, saw tornadoes knock out telecom networks.