Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau wants comment by Oct. 21 on FCC policies and practices under Rehabilitation Act Section 504. It “requires federal agencies to make their programs and activities accessible to people with disabilities,” said a Wednesday public notice in docket 10-162. CGB seeks comment on the FCC’s Section 504 handbook “and on the overall accessibility of the Commission’s activities and programs,” including availability of sign language interpreters, physical accessibility of buildings and meeting spaces, documents in alternate formats, assistive listening devices and communication access real-time translation.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the lead at the agency on changes to wireless infrastructure rules, thinks more work on the issue is likely, though Carr told us he has made no decisions. Last year, the FCC approved streamlining orders in September (see 1809260029) and March (see 1803220027). “I do think there’s additional work that the FCC can do,” Carr said: “I haven’t made any final decision at this point in terms of timing or substance.”

The FCC granted forbearance from unbundled network element (UNE) analog loop obligations for incumbent LECs to help encourage the continued move away from legacy TDM voice service and to spur further development of next-generation facilities-based networks, it said in an order issued Friday in docket 18-141. The forbearance is conditioned on a two-part transition. Competitive LECs are allowed to order new UNE analog loops for six months after the order's effective date and will grandfather any existing customer relationships for three years. An exception was made for Puerto Rico, where market transition was extended to five years.

Opposition poured in to an FCC proposal to cap the overall budget for the various USF programs and to combine the budget cap for two mechanisms to fund anchor institutions, in comments posted through Tuesday to docket 06-122. Stakeholders said such a plan would be difficult to implement and contradicts both the USF mission and the current FCC chairman's top priority to close the digital divide (see 1906030059).

GAO made recommendations to several federal agencies on phony public comments, but the FCC wasn’t one of them, despite alleged issues with the agency’s 2017 net neutrality NPRM. GAO scrutinized the comment filing systems of the FCC and nine other agencies. It recommended some agencies “more clearly” communicate comment policies and associated identity-gathering information. The FCC received more than 22 million comments through its electronic comment filing system for the NPRM. GAO noted, “Media and others reported that some of the comments submitted to FCC were suspected to have been submitted using false identity information.” GAO said, according to FCC officials, the agency requires the name and mailing address of the commenter or an attorney of record. The commission accepts anonymous comments to comply with Administrative Procedure Act guidelines and to “minimize barriers that could prevent or discourage commenters from participating in the commenting process,” GAO said. It noted the FCC doesn’t collect or “store IP addresses as part of the comment data it collects when a public user ultimately submits a comment.” GAO addressed the issue of when a person claims that a comment was filed under their name without consent. Similar to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency and the SEC, the FCC directs the complainant to file a new comment to correct the record but doesn’t remove the original comment.

The 2019 nationwide test of the emergency alert system planned for Aug. 7 (see 1907010041) is expected to be largely routine. It will involve aspects of the system that haven’t been tested since the first nationwide test in 2011, said emergency alerting officials and broadcasters in interviews. Since the 2011 test experienced some complications, they are seen as possible this time around as well, EAS and broadcast officials told us.

The FCC boosting some standards for what type of broadband is eligible for Lifeline government subsidies caused some stakeholder confusion in the hours after Thursday's release at 3:13 p.m. EDT. Some state telecom and industry representatives were puzzled why the otherwise routine-looking staff action came as a CTIA et alia petition is pending (see 1906280012). The agency replied that the action was previously mandated. The Wireline Bureau public notice came a day after NARUC members approved a resolution asking the FCC to not make such changes (see 1907230040). The PN noted it's delivering on what a 2016 order envisioned.

The FCC is taking its commitment seriously to promote broadband on Indian land, Chairman Ajit Pai said in letters to two members of Congress posted Friday. Pai told Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., the FCC is following up on an April GAO report. The report said some tribal representatives believe federal agencies don’t consider their input and consultations start too late. “There is always room for improving communications. Consistent with GAO’s recommendation, I have asked FCC staff to explore ways of documenting how FCC staff could communicate with Tribes about how Tribal input was used in FCC decisions on telecommunications infrastructure projects,” Pai said. Pai told Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the agency is acting to promote broadband in tribal areas. Pai said outreach is planned in several venues in his state, including at the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission’s upcoming rural networks conference in Farmington.

An FCC order on emergency alert system testing and false alerts adopted a year ago (see 1807120059) is in effect, with OMB OK, the commission said in Tuesday's Federal Register. It requires communications providers report false alerts and changes to EAS equipment to reject alerts that don’t have necessary digital signatures or are incorrectly timed.

House Communications Subcommittee members focused on the spectrum policy fracas between the Commerce Department and the FCC during a Tuesday hearing to a far greater extent than expected (see 1907150020). The quarrel involves NASA and NOAA concerns about potential effects of commercial use of spectrum on the 24 GHz band, sold in the recent FCC auction, on federal technology using adjacent frequencies (see 1905230037). Lawmakers also showed significant interest in the debate over the best plan for clearing spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band, though an industry-focused panel that appeared centered on the issue was truncated amid House votes.