Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Southern Pennsylvania community leaders and stakeholders said House Small Business Rural Development Subcommittee members should consider changes to federal broadband programs, during a Monday hearing in Gettysburg. Witnesses cited overlapping FCC and Department of Agriculture mandates on broadband funding and pointed to state-level initiatives as both a positive and negative development. House Communications Subcommittee leaders are working on a combined broadband mapping legislative package that's expected to be filed using Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act (HR-4229) as its vehicle (see 1909250063).

The Supreme Court won’t hear Minnesota’s appeal of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that VoIP is an information service exempt from state regulation (see 1910090048). The high court denied the Public Utilities Commission’s petition for writ of certiorari Monday. Agreeing cert should be denied, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should, “in an appropriate case ... consider whether a federal agency’s policy can pre-empt state law.” Thomas doubts "a federal policy -- let alone a policy of nonregulation -- is ‘Law’ for purposes of the Supremacy Clause,” he wrote, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch. “Giving pre-emptive effect to a federal agency policy of nonregulation thus expands the power of both the Executive and the Judiciary.” The view of two justices has “no precedential value” but “is nonetheless an indicator of the difficulties of the FCC’s position on preemption of state net neutrality provisions based on its asserted policies of non-regulation,” emailed Benton Institute Senior Counselor Andy Schwartzman. The PUC didn't comment Monday. Charter Communications, which brought the original suit against the agency, declined comment. The telecom industry endorses a draft declaratory ruling, which the FCC will consider at commissioners' meeting Friday, on regulatory parity for 911 fees between VoIP and traditional phone services (see 1910210055).

Lead supporters and opponents of Senate Appropriations Committee-backed pro-public 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band auction language (see 1909190079) in the chamber's version of the FY 2020 FCC-FTC budget bill (S-2524) say they're not budging and expect a long fight. The dispute, which began last month, continued Thursday as Senate Appropriations Financial Services Committee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., and others grilled FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on whether he favors a private auction similar to what the C-Band Alliance proposes. Kennedy and some other lawmakers favor public auction (see 1908230049). Pai is expected to propose a private auction plan for a vote at commissioners' Dec. 12 meeting (see 1910100052).

Broadcasters aren't expected to have to make sweeping changes to how they maintain political files after an FCC order made clearer what information needs to be in them. The clarification could make it easier to get compliance from advertising agencies that sometimes provide incomplete information. That order and a related one were ostensibly released Wednesday afternoon but not available online that night. The agency said at a little past noon Thursday that the links were working.

FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks voted against the T-Mobile/Sprint/Dish Network deal, circulated by Chairman Ajit Pai two months ago (see 1908140052). Officials confirmed Pai and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr previously voted yes, and Carr in an interview defended the process amid his Democratic colleagues' concerns. Deal opponents told reporters they will consider challenging the order in court but must see it first. State attorneys general are suing the carriers in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see 1909030060).

State Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service members asked the FCC to expand the contribution base for federal USF programs to include a fee on broadband internet access service, filing in docket 96-45 Tuesday. Commissioners Chris Nelson of South Dakota, Sally Talberg of Michigan and Stephen Bloom of Oregon recommend "a connections-based assessment on residential services and an expanded revenues-based assessment on business services." Having different contribution methodologies for residential and business services is "equitable and nondiscriminatory," they said. Under a new contribution mechanism, the FCC would assess fees on businesses that use virtual private network services, video conferencing, web conferencing, unified communications and business wireless broadband access services. For residential customers, a separate fee should be assessed for voice and broadband connections, they proposed. "A connections-based mechanism will provide stability for the Commission, administrative efficiency for carriers, and transparency for customers." About 50 percent of USF support would come from residential connections, and an initial surcharge for wireline, wireless and broadband would be 55 to 60 cents per connection, they suggested. The state commissioners recommend the FCC establish a firm budget for each of the four USF programs "with those budgets not growing any more than the Consumer Price Index for any given year." They want the FCC to "take specific steps to assure the continued viability of state universal service mechanisms promoted by Congress." It's "up to the FCC to determine what to do with the State Members’ recommendation," emailed South Dakota's Nelson (R), the joint board's state chair. "It became clear to the State Members that it was not going to be possible to get a recommendation from the full joint board, so we moved forward with this release of our work product." The other state Joint Board members didn't comment right away. The contribution factor for this quarter is a record 25 percent (see 1909130003). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel this summer asked the states to raise their concerns about needed action on revisions to the USF contribution mechanism and not wait for an FCC rulemaking (see 1907110020). Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, who chairs the Joint Board, opposes a fee on broadband access or use (see 1906250011). His office didn't comment now. "The filing is very interesting, and we are looking at it closely," said Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen.

As the FCC presses on with the Lifeline national verifier rollout, some state officials continue to voice concerns about incomplete access to state databases and other issues. Other state commissioners told us they haven’t heard any complaints, though one said his agency might not get any even amid problems. The NV is midway through a state-by-state launch and is designed to make signup and reverification more automatic. Those on the front lines see growing pains and worry the poor could be incorrectly excluded from the approximately $1 billion annual federal program (see 1907080009).

Some wireless industry stakeholders in the debate over allocating the 6 GHz band have been lobbying to convince lawmakers to file and advance legislation requiring the FCC move forward with a plan that allows for licensed and unlicensed use of those frequencies, lobbyists told us. Such legislation would diverge from the direction of the FCC's current 6 GHz NPRM, which looks at opening 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use (see 1810230038).

Areas of wide agreement among C-band users, satellite operators and other stakeholders are emerging, and with them issues that need resolution before the FCC acts or through an eventual order, experts and a policymaker said Tuesday. All agree that some frequencies will be repurposed for 5G, said FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "There is a broad consensus on at least a couple of points," said NAB Associate General Counsel Patrick McFadden: Spectrum will be repurposed, content delivery using the satellite band should be protected, and "end users should be held harmless."

Competitors and consumer advocates in interviews hoped Northwest Fiber’s buy of Frontier Communications wireline, video and long-distance operations in four states will lead to better rural broadband. Oregon and Montana intervenors listed grievances with Frontier. They haven’t formally supported or opposed the acquisitions, with regulatory reviews early on. State and federal review timelines stretch into early next year.