Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

A Connecticut bill to resolve a long-standing fight about municipal broadband is headed to the Senate floor. SB-846 got wide support from the Joint Finance Committee, which voted 42-6 Tuesday. It clarifies local governments may use a reserved space on poles called the “municipal gain” for municipal broadband. Frontier Communications claims the bill would stunt broadband growth.

As the FCC considers changes to its national broadband map, states are waiting to see what ramifications those changes have on their own maps. Minnesota's broadband map shares some of the same shortcomings as the FCC's Form 477-centric map, and it's worked with providers on improvements, emailed state Office of Broadband Development Executive Director Danna MacKenzie. "We will gladly give it up if and when the federal map improves and meets our needs."

Prospects again seem iffy for Rhode Island lawmakers to stop 911 fee diversion this session. Advocates told us they’re trying to build momentum outside the State House. The House Finance Committee plans Wednesday to hear testimony on H-5933 by Rep. John Lyle and four other Republicans. House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello (D) told us the matter should be taken up in the budget process, and only if Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) edits her proposed budget that doesn't end the practice. Similar Republican bills failed in previous sessions under a Democratic political trifecta.

Backhaul, roaming and coordination problems slowed wireless restoration after Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle last year, the FCC Public Safety Bureau reported Thursday. Backhaul wasn’t resilient enough, reciprocal roaming was inadequate, and coordination among wireless providers, power crews and municipalities was lacking, it said. Wireless providers in hurricane-prone areas should make roaming agreements as part of pre-storm preparations; diversify backhaul technologies, such as by using microwave or satellite links; and work on best practices related to cooperation and coordination with local utilities, the report recommended. Communications providers should participate in coordination trainings, and they and power companies should make coordination agreements for mutual preparation and restoration efforts, it said, and the FCC should work with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on harmonizing restoration practices across sectors. Recovery efforts often led to outages, with “numerous” cases of third-party crews damaging communications equipment while doing other restoration work, the report said. “Hurricane Michael demonstrated starkly how some wireless providers in the Florida Panhandle were able to rebound from this devastating storm through foresight and appropriate planning, while others stalled in their efforts to restore full service,” it said. “Some providers appear not to have comported with the Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework (Framework), the voluntary commitment that several nationwide service providers proposed and committed to abide by in 2016. Specifically, it appears that some wireless providers demurred from seeking assistance from potential roaming partners and, therefore, remained inoperable.” The bureau disagreed with carriers that claimed the framework worked as intended. “The effusive praise given by Framework signatories that commented in this docket simply does not ring true, in light of the lengthy wireless outages in Bay and Gulf Counties,” it said. “At least tens of thousands wireless customers had to wait days, unnecessarily, for their mobile phone service to be restored while their provider held off entering into roaming arrangements.” Chairman Ajit Pai urged wireless, other communications providers and power companies to implement the bureau’s recommendations. “It will come as no surprise to the residents of the Florida Panhandle that there is significant room for improvement on the recovery efforts seen in the wake of Hurricane Michael.” Wireless carriers didn’t comment.

The FCC is looking at revoking Communications Act Section 214 certifications of China Unicom and China Telecom, Chairman Ajit Pai said after the commissioners’ meeting Thursday. Commissioners voted 5-0 to deny China Mobile’s long-standing Section 214 application. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks, as expected (see 1905060057), said the FCC is going too little to shore up 5G security.

House Communications Subcommittee members broadly agreed during a Tuesday hearing there is significant support for seven bills aimed at combating abusive robocalls, but it's less clear how they would package them for final passage. It's also unclear how they will reconcile those measures with the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act. HR-2015/S-151 is being targeted for fast-track Senate passage yet wasn't considered at the Tuesday House hearing (see 1904290166).

DOJ has made no decision on T-Mobile buying Sprint, antitrust chief Makan Delrahim told CNBC Monday, in perhaps his most complete comments yet on the deal, which as of Monday is a year old. Delrahim said there’s no magic number of national carriers to guarantee wireless competition. T-Mobile and Sprint, meanwhile, postponed the deadline for completing the deal from Monday to July 29, said an SEC filing.

CTIA raised concerns about two California bills responding to controversial incidents involving wireless carriers: Verizon throttling traffic of Santa Clara County firefighters during the Mendocino Complex Fire last year (see 1808220059) and carriers selling customers’ real-time data location (see 1904180056). But at a Wednesday hearing, the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee widely supported both measures. The panel also supported a bill to require text-to-911 across the state.

Public safety issues rarely dominate the agenda of any FCC chairmen, as in 2004 when one of the biggest focuses of then-Chairman Michael Powell was the 800 MHz rebanding, aimed at protecting safety users from interference. Four years later, then-Chairman Kevin Martin pushed through a failed plan to reallocate the 700 MHz D block for public safety. The main contender, Frontline, dropped its pursuit of the band, which went unsold at auction but now is part of FirstNet. Every chairman since has focused on a few public safety issues.

The FCC routinely released public safety and emergency communications documents in the evening, outside the time frame that experts recommend. This trend, seen on many other issues at the commission over more than a decade, possibly deprived stakeholders from being fully and timely informed on important issues. From Jan. 1, 2018, until Oct. 25, when Communications Daily filed a Freedom of Information Act request and the practice ceased, four such items were made public later than 5:30 p.m. Eastern when the commission's business hours end. That's according to results from the FOIA request and our database.