Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Preparing poles for broadband lines through the make-ready process can bottleneck state projects and requires great coordination, state broadband officials said. “Make-ready is the real uncertainty,” with the process delaying last-mile projects funded by Massachusetts state grants, said Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) Chair Peter Larkin in an interview. New York set up a formal process to streamline pole attachments for its New NY Broadband Program, while Minnesota avoided pole issues with mostly underground infrastructure, their officials said. FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee Vice Chair Kelleigh Cole said BDAC may help cure such problems in her state of Utah and elsewhere.

President Dan Berger and others from National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions met Chairman Ajit Pai about the future of FCC rules implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. “Credit unions are still struggling to establish communication with their members for fear of violating the TCPA,” NAFCU said in a docket 18-152 filing. The discussion included the definition of "capacity" as it applies to autodialers and of called party "as it applies to reassigned numbers and the Commission's efforts to establish a reassigned numbers database,” the group said. “NAFCU reiterated its previous request for an expanded data security and fraud exception for credit unions trying to contact their members following a data breach.” The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is asking for comment on interpretation and implementation of the TCPA in light of a court decision reversing some rules (see 1805150014).

ST. PAUL -- Federal judges mostly let attorneys make their arguments for and against FCC decisions easing regulation of the business data service rates of major incumbent telcos. The three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked only a handful of questions in oral argument that stuck close to its scheduled 40 minutes in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. About half the questions were related to whether the FCC gave parties adequate notice. Hotly contested FCC cases often draw scores of judicial questions and comments at oral argument. The commission's 2017 order largely removed price caps from incumbent BDS offerings to business customers and competitors (see 1704200020 and 1705010019).

FCC information collection under revised discontinuance rules was approved by the Office of Management and Budget for three years, said an announcement in Monday's Federal Register. The rule said disclosure requirements in a November wireline infrastructure order aim to help implement parts of Communications Act sections 222(e) and 251, and to eliminate telecom market operational barriers, especially to copper retirements and service upgrades (see 1711160032). The information will be used to implement LECs' duties to give competitors dialing parity and nondiscriminatory access to certain services and functionalities, ILECs' duty to disclose network information, and numbering information, the rule said. Another FCC rule prepared for Tuesday's FR says OMB approved for three years information collection associated with a commission order "updating, clarifying and streamlining its rules on non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed satellite service systems to better reflect current technology and promote additional operational flexibility." It said related rule changes under the September order (see 1709260035) take effect May 31.

The net neutrality fight lost a giant liberal voice with the resignation of Eric Schneiderman as New York attorney general (see the personals section of this publication's May 9 issue). Some observers said his exit last week shouldn’t affect New York’s lawsuit against the FCC with 22 other Democratic state AGs at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “What can get lost in the scandal,” said State and Local Legal Center Executive Director Lisa Soronen, “is the value that this guy added -- or from the other side’s perspective, the detriment that this guy added.” But NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said it’s “hard to see how the departure of one attorney in a case with so many appellants could be crucial to either organization efforts or advocacy,” especially so early in the process.

The FCC approved Hargray Communications' proposed takeover of ComSouth from Mansfield Jennings, subject to a condition on USF support. "To prevent the transaction-specific harm of potential cost shifting, we impose a limited condition to cap high-cost universal service support based on Hargray’s operating expenses," said the unanimous order in docket 18-52. "The combined operating expense ... for Hargray’s two existing rate-of-return subsidiaries, Hargray Telephone Company and Bluffton Telephone Company, shall be capped at the averaged combined operating expense of the three calendar years preceding the transaction closing date for which the operating expense data are available." Commissioner Mike O'Rielly thanked Chairman Ajit Pai and colleagues for elevating the order from the bureau level. On substance, O'Rielly said the FCC should "remove unnecessary regulatory barriers to the voluntary consolidation of exchanges or study areas in rural America." One barrier is "a lack of clarity regarding the amount and type of federal high-cost universal service support that would be available if one kind of provider buys all or part of another provider’s service area," said his statement. "I have been pushing for the Commission to find ways to remove the 'parent trap' barrier. ... While the Commission has previously adopted rules addressing the transfer of exchanges among various categories of providers and further clarified those rules earlier this year, some categories were not addressed. Moreover, the entire structure was less than clear-cut. With this order, applicants will now have additional clarity regarding the purchase of [Alternative Connect America Cost Model] study areas." ComSouth has 3,339 local lines in Georgia and provides long-distance services.

The FCC order rolling back net neutrality regulation takes effect June 11, the commission said Thursday, the day before official notice is to hit the Federal Register. Chairman Ajit Pai and allies hailed the coming change and critics decried it. Some expect broadband providers to be cautious in exercising their new regulatory freedoms in the market; others suggested FCC opponents could seek a stay and the commission would ask the Supreme Court to dismiss litigation over the previous FCC's Title II net neutrality decision under the Communications Act. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who is pushing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution aimed at reversing the FCC's rescission order (Senate Joint Resolution-52), said the date announcement helps the cause.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and other supporters of a Congressional Review Act resolution aimed at reversing the FCC order to rescind 2015 net neutrality rules (Senate Joint Resolution-52) said Wednesday they remain hopeful they will pick up support from additional GOP senators before a final vote seen likely next week. Fifty senators publicly support the resolution -- all 49 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Markey filed a petition Wednesday to discharge the measure from Senate Commerce Committee jurisdiction, as expected (see 1804260030 and 1804300033), a final step in their bid to force a floor vote by a June 12 deadline.

The Utilities Technology Council said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should contact the FCC and hold formal meetings on energy and telecom industry convergence. UTC filed the request in FERC docket AD18-7, looking at how to build a more resilient electrical grid. A UTC official said this is the first time the group formally made that request at FERC. “Jurisdictional overlaps speak to the growing interdependencies between the telecommunications and energy sectors,” UTC said. “Not only is spectrum needed for day-to-day reliability on the Bulk Power System, but it is essential for ‘smart grid’ and utility of the future applications. As the use of these resources grows, electric utilities will need more spectrum to continue the reliable operation of their systems. If the transition to a more consumer-centric, distributed utility industry is going to be realized, a clear recognition of these cross-sector interdependencies must be understood and collaboration across government must occur.” UTC said most utilities use communications networks for real-time monitoring of medium- and high-voltage networks, protective relays, energy, outage and distribution management, smart metering and substation automation.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- The U.S. is worried about fallout from EU's General Data Protection Regulation taking effect May 25, said Trump administration officials at the FCBA retreat Saturday. "It will have a sweeping impact on many, many sectors of the U.S. economy," said NTIA Administrator David Redl. He voiced particular concern about possible disruption to parties needing access to the Whois database of online domain name ownership, which is used by law enforcement and others.