The draft order on circulation revising who pays to move toll-free traffic and who gets paid (see here) hews fairly closely in many areas to the USTelecom consensus proposal (see 2006080002), FCC and industry officials and representatives said in interviews last week. Agency and company representatives said it's unlikely to be voted out soon because it's not a high-priority item. The regulator didn't comment Friday.
Country of origin cases
Getting Congress to fund the estimated $1.62 billion it would cost to rip and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment in U.S. networks could be a heavy lift this year, but industry is hopeful lawmakers will act. The FCC released cost estimates Friday and a list of some 50 carriers that use the gear (see 2009040022). The agency noted some may not have participated in the data collection. With the Trump administration focusing more generally on China, the commission in June barred the two Chinese vendors from participating in the USF (see 2006300078).
Adopt NTIA’s petition for rulemaking on Communications Decency Act Section 230, Republican state attorneys general commented to the FCC posted Thursday in RM-11862 (see 2009020064). Tech, telecom and consumer groups again largely said the FCC shouldn't consider the petition, saying the FCC and NTIA are exceeding their jurisdiction and expertise. The AG group was formed by Texas’ Ken Paxton, Indiana’s Curtis Hill, Louisiana’s Jeff Landy and Missouri’s Eric Schmitt. The petition clarifies 230's scope and empowers states without undermining protections for moderation of “traditionally regulated content,” they wrote: It promotes freedom of speech by “ensuring competition through transparency.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau said Thursday it’s extending its gift rules waiver to the Rural Health Care and E-rate programs by three months, to Dec. 31. The original waiver cut-off date was Sept. 30 (see 2003180054). The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Consortium for School Networking and State Educational Technology Directors Association sought an extension through June 30, citing the pandemic (see 2008050052). “We find good cause to extend” the waiver because of “the ongoing disruptions caused by COVID-19 to program participants and the continued need for robust connectivity,” the bureau ordered. It waived “the RHC deadline for responding to” Universal Service Administrative Com. information requests through Dec. 31. It directed USAC “provide a 30-day extension to E-Rate program participants impacted by the pandemic that request an extension to respond to certain USAC information requests, including those related to Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) requests, issued through December 31.”
USTelecom, the Session Initiation Protocol Forum and carriers warned FCC staff of potential pitfalls in implementing secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and secure handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) as a tool to block unwanted robocalls. “Widespread deployment by originating and terminating VoIP providers will reduce the effectiveness of illegal spoofing and assist efforts to quickly identify calls with illegally spoofed caller ID information,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-97: “Deployment obligations beyond voice service providers’ authentication at origination and verification at termination, however, can undermine the framework.” They said every Form 499 filer should “be required to certify that it has implemented an appropriate robocall mitigation program and the Commission should maintain a database identifying the providers that issued those certifications.” Representatives of the two groups, AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier and Verizon spoke with staff from the Wireline and Public Safety bureaus.
COVID-19-related timing provision adjustments are extended through Nov. 9, the Copyright Office said Wednesday. Originally to expire May 12, adjustments were extended to July 10, then Sept. 8 (see 2007100047).
Reject NTIA’s petition for a rulemaking on Communications Decency Act Section 230, tech, telecom and consumers groups told the FCC in comments posted Wednesday before the midnight deadline in RM-11862 (see 2008120050). The petition has no legal basis, the agency doesn’t have jurisdiction, and President Donald Trump is attempting to use the commission for political gain, they said. AT&T called for uniform liability protections.
The FCC’s methodology for calculating regulatory fees is “deeply flawed” and “would not survive judicial review,” NAB said Tuesday responding to the 2020 reg payments order (see 2008310056). “However, we very much appreciate Chairman [Ajit] Pai and his staff correcting certain errors in the proposal’s original calculations to result in reduced fees for many radio broadcasters. NAB urges the Commission to convene stakeholders to take a closer look at its approach to regulatory fees to ensure they are fairly and equitably applied for all entities that utilize Commission resources.” ACA Connects praised the order for continuing to phase in higher fees for direct broadcast satellite providers. “Next year the FCC must eliminate this long-inexplicable disparity between cable/IPTV and DBS regulatory fees once and for all,” said ACA President Matt Polka. “The DBS industry is mature and its two providers, AT&T/DirecTV and DISH, are not exactly fledglings. It is time to stop treating them with kid gloves.”
New Orleans is mulling how it may legally deploy municipal fiber under competitive restrictions, said city Chief Information Officer Kimberly LaGrue Monday at NATOA’s virtual conference. State rules prevent cities from creating fiber broadband networks, LaGrue said: “We’re looking for legal opinions.” To ease potential ISP concerns, the city plans to make “some offers" for "partnerships that they could live with,” she said. “We don’t want to offer service to residents.” Municipal fiber is key to equitably distributing internet “as a utility to our residents,” said the CIO. The project recently got city council OK; the locality next will design fiber rings and seek bond funding, she said. Dublin, Ohio, has a fiber network for government, public safety and businesses, but the city isn’t selling to residents, said CIO Doug McCullough, although “eventually, we are going to have to become a service provider if we want to see broadband as a utility.” Boston Broadband and Cable Director Mike Lynch said broadband “should have been a utility back in 1996,” but “25 years later, we can’t put the cork back in the bottle.” That creates a “dilemma” for local governments seeking to address digital equity, he said. “I don’t think we can go back and make it a utility. On the other hand, we have to find the dollars to make it available.” Boston’s Wicked Free Wi-Fi uses the city’s network that’s “supposed to be for municipal use only,” so the municipality is careful to limit hot spots to parks, government buildings and business districts, Lynch said. “We do not try to make it available in home. We are not seeking to compete with broadband providers who gave us this fiber under the caveat that we would not compete with them.” NATOA plans to return its conference to Denver in 2022, this year’s original location before it went virtual due to COVID-19, Executive Director Tonya Rideout said. “What about 2021?” Rideout asked. “Well, the truth is we don’t know.” Depending on the pandemic and restoration of members’ travel and training budgets, next year’s conference could be virtual, in-person or a hybrid, she said.
The FCC greatly extended the area covered by the disaster information reporting system for tropical storms Laura and Marco, said a public notice Wednesday. Reports will now cover counties in Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Illinois, along with previously included states Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas. Reports from communications providers in those originally included states and Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee were due starting Thursday, while the providers in the rest were to begin submitting reports Friday. The extended coverage was requested by the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the PN said. There were 192,915 cable and wireline subscribers out of service in the affected areas reporting on Thursday, and 911 calls were being rerouted from two public service answering points in Louisiana and one in Texas that were evacuated, said Thursday’s DIRS report. The report showed 1.3 percent of cellsites down in the affected area, with three TV stations, six FM stations and one AM station out of service.