Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

FCC commissioners approved 3-0 a notice of inquiry on ways to improve broadband deployment, competition and innovation in residential and commercial multiple tenant environments (MTEs). Commissioners also unanimously approved a payphone order and NPRM that would waive certain auditing and reporting duties while the agency considers eliminating the requirements. Both Wireline Bureau items were adopted at the commissioners' meeting Thursday.

Commissioners approved 3-0 rules on first-line review by the FCC of state plans to opt out of FirstNet. Commissioners said the rules give states a legitimate choice and path forward if they don’t want to set up their own networks. Earlier this week, FirstNet and AT&T transmitted plans to states and territories (see 1706190072).

Numerous state attorneys general and some others opposed an NCTA/USTelecom request for FCC clarification of broadband speed disclosure rules to ensure harmonization and industry flexibility in light of state mandates (see 1705160063). The American Cable Association, Adtran and CenturyLink backed the cable/telco petition. Comments were posted Monday and Friday in docket 17-131.

FCC efforts to spur wireline broadband advances sparked a strong response, as scores of parties submitted a wide range of views on a rulemaking notice and related items aimed at removing barriers to fiber network deployment. Telecom, cable and fiber providers generally supported the commission's direction, backing steps to ease pole attachments. Incumbent telcos also sought reduced copper-retirement regulation, but CLECs and consumer and labor groups opposed relaxation. Numerous localities and some state interests opposed possible FCC pre-emption of their oversight, and the electric utility industry objected to any heavy-handed pole-attachment intervention, though some supported "one-touch, make-ready" (OTMR) changes if properly conditioned.

CTA, CTIA, the Wireless Infrastructure Association and other industry commenters told the FCC it needs to adopt rules to speed wireless siting if it wants to ensure the rapid deployment of 5G and the IoT. Comments were due on the FCC’s NPRM and notice of inquiry on wireless siting Thursday. Groups representing local and state government urged caution, noting the role they have in protecting the interests of local citizens. Comments largely mirrored those filed earlier this year on a Mobilitie petition asking the agency to pre-empt state and local authority over rights of way (ROWs) (see 1703080011).

Broadcasters are confident the national ownership cap will be relaxed, ownership rules will be rolled back, and broadcasters will continue to grow through M&A, said panelists at S&P Global Market Intelligence’s TV & Radio Finance Summit Thursday in New York. “Consolidation will continue,” said Nexstar Broadcasting President Tim Busch. “Consolidation has to happen,” said Heartland Media CEO Robert Prather. “There’s got to be somebody like Sinclair and Nexstar that has the clout” to push back against the more powerful networks, Prather said. There have been $4.3 billion worth of deals so far in 2017, compared with $5.2 billion in 2016, said S&P Global analyst Robin Flynn: “We anticipate seeing strong M&A momentum.”

Federal users are still showing some reluctance to work with FirstNet, Kraig Moise, chairman of the Public Safety Advisory Committee’s Federal Working Group, told the full group Thursday. The committee represents public safety interests. FirstNet is becoming a reality, said FirstNet Vice Chairman Jeff Johnson at the PSAC meeting. Johnson said he would be surprised if in the end every state and territory doesn’t opt in. The meeting was livestreamed from San Antonio. Meanwhile, states are considering their next move.

NTCA and USTelecom asked the FCC to give rural telcos broadband USF contribution relief while the agency seeks to revise the subsidy system's assessments of industry for funding. The commission should provide "targeted, temporary forbearance from the application of USF contribution requirements ... with respect to broadband Internet access transmission services provided by RLECs pending the completion of comprehensive USF contributions reform," they said in a petition Wednesday in docket 06-122. The groups sought the USF contribution relief for such RLEC broadband services until the commission decides whether any and all broadband services "should be required to contribute to support of federal USF programs or completes some other form of contributions reform." They said regulatory forbearance would have a "de minimis effect" on USF contributions. RLECs are being subjected to "discriminatory and anti-competitive treatment" under a 2005 wireline broadband order that allowed them to offer broadband on a common-carrier basis -- to recover costs for such service via access rates and USF -- but only if they agreed to make USF contributions, NTCA and USTelecom said. Other providers haven't been required to make USF contributions, even under the 2015 net neutrality order that reclassified broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service because the agency provided USF contribution forbearance, they said. A federal-state joint board is looking at USF contribution issues in an effort to make recommendations to the FCC for possible changes. The FCC, CTIA, NTCA and Public Knowledge didn't comment.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai advances Lisa Fowlkes (see 1706130059) to chief-Public Safety Bureau, where she was acting chief ... Wilkinson Barker hires Anne Swanson, ex-Cooley, as partner; she has worked on drone, tech and communications issues ... NAB hires Josh Pollack, ex-White House aide under President Barack Obama, as vice president-government relations, effective July 10 ... With Verizon completing (see 1706130048) purchase of the operating business of Yahoo, the assets are combined with its existing AOL business to create a new subsidiary, Oath; ex-AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is CEO of Oath, which is part of Verizon's Media and Telematics organization; Marni Walden is Verizon president-media and telematics; Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer resigns from Yahoo.

Federal judges shot down key parts of an FCC order that limited inmate calling service charges without regulating ICS provider "site commission" payments to correctional authorities. A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated caps on intrastate ICS rates, use of industry-averaged cost data in setting rate caps, and exclusion of site commissions from industry costs. It remanded rate caps, ancillary fees and site-commission costs for further agency consideration. Judges Harry Edwards and Laurence Silberman approved the ruling and Cornelia Pillard largely dissented in Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461 (see 1706130012).