PK Says Telco Deregulation Slows Florida's Hurricane Recovery; FCC Calls Charges 'False'

Public Knowledge and the FCC traded words over whether telecom deregulation is hampering service restoration efforts after Hurricane Michael. PK said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) failed to "take responsibility for how their radical deregulation of telephone service has contributed to this unfortunate situation." The FCC said it's "disappointing but not surprising that a left-wing special-interest group is making cheap and false political attacks while people in the Florida Panhandle are suffering." Pai plans to visit the area Friday. Verizon Wireless said it continues to make progress restoring service.

PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld said Pai and Scott's alarm about the slow pace of communications service repairs in Florida (see 1810160056) ignored their own actions. Feld said Pai's FCC "repealed many of the safeguards put in place by the Obama FCC following Superstorm Sandy, designed to prevent recurrence of the lengthy loss of service (and in some cases, discontinuance of service) suffered." The November order eased telcos' duties on retiring copper lines and discontinuing telecom services as they transition to IP-based fiber and wireless systems (see 1711160032). Feld said a June order (see 1806070021) "further deregulated telephone providers to make it easier to discontinue service after a natural disaster."

Florida "eliminated virtually all oversight" of its residential phone service when Scott signed the 2011 Regulatory Reform Act, Feld said. He said the law repealed carrier-of-last-resort rules -- which required carriers "to provide service to everyone in the state" -- and Public Service Commission regulations on "service blackouts, timeliness of repairs, or regulation of customer billing." The Michael aftermath "shows what happens when regulators abandon their responsibilities," and is a "wake up call" for other states, he said.

The FCC said it's "disgraceful" PK "would seek to co-opt this disaster to advocate for ideologically-motivated regulations that have nothing to do with what is going on." The "claims that the FCC has allowed carriers to avoid restoring and rebuilding service to any area after a natural disaster are simply false," emailed a spokesperson. "Under Chairman Pai, the Commission has been laser-focused on removing regulatory and other barriers that would prevent carriers from upgrading their networks and restoring it after a natural disaster -- including by freeing carriers to restore service using next-generation technologies like fiber. While others play politics, our focus at the FCC will continue to be on working with our federal partners and the private sector to help Floridians in need and give consumers what they want -- better services, quickly restored, not aging mandates to maintain low-quality copper.” Scott's office didn't comment.

The PSC never had regulatory authority over wireless, internet or cable service, even before the state deregulated telecom services in 2011, the agency’s spokesperson said. No states have wireless authority and about 10 continue to assert VoIP oversight, says the National Regulatory Research Institute (see 1803160061).

Feld said PK has warned regulators about wireless service limitations since Sandy, when Verizon originally tried to replace copper in some areas with a wireless service. PK pressed the FCC to ensure wireline providers understood "their responsibility to get the network back up because (a) wireless depends on wireline availability; and (b) wireless does not serve everyone and is inherently unreliable," he emailed. "This is why wireline is the 'carrier of last resort.'" A scrapped "de facto retirement" rule was particularly important, Feld said: Without strong rules to maintain networks, "we predicted carriers would let them rot."

"Hurricane comes, infrastructure that has not been maintained has been swept away" and "carriers are in no position to respond," said Feld. "Rather than recognizing that we were right, Pai prefers to blame the messenger." PK is part of a court challenge to the December order (see 1809270036), and asked the FCC to reconsider and hold in abeyance the June order, drawing telco opposition (see 1810050047).

It's "unfortunate" PK "is exploiting the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Michael to pursue its Washington, DC regulatory agenda," emailed USTelecom. "Our members are working diligently around the clock and are focused on ensuring services impacted by Hurricane Michael are restored as quickly and as safely as possible.” Verizon and AT&T didn't comment on the dispute.

Pai plans to meet service providers and government officials in Florida. "I hope to see that wireless coverage in the area near where the hurricane made landfall is being restored more quickly than was the case earlier this week,” he said.

Verizon Wireless has "made critical progress" restoring service in Bay County, including the majority of Panama City, it said. "With our primary fiber hubs restored, we will continue to rapidly restore additional service."

Bay County remains the hardest hit in Florida, with 46 percent of cellsites out of service, the FCC reported Wednesday. Across 110 hurricane-affected counties where providers are reporting, 3.2 percent of cellsites remained out, down from 4.4 percent on Tuesday. Over 112,000 subscribers remained without cable or wireline service in Florida, 38,129 in Georgia and 517 in Alabama. One TV station, 13 FMs and two AMs are off-air.