State officials raised concerns about FirstNet's delay in choosing a vendor for the national public safety network. FirstNet planned to choose a vendor in November, but now the government can’t award a contract to build the network until the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (see 1612140053) resolves a Rivada Mercury protest. In an International Wireless Communications Expo webinar Thursday, state officials from Alabama, Washington and Illinois said an extended delay would be problematic for funding and other reasons. “I’m concerned about funding,” said Washington state single point of contact Shelley Westall. Washington is looking at contingency planning for an extended delay, she said. The state’s public safety network is funded completely by NTIA's State and Local Government Implementation Grant Program (SLIGP), and plans to use all the money it received, she said. “Delay is going to be very problematic for us. I am concerned about our governor’s opportunity to have staff available to fully brief him on his decision to opt in or opt out when he is presented with the plan.” The funding question also worries Illinois Statewide Interoperability Coordinator Joe Galvin, he said. The Illinois program also is funded by SLIGP, but also has other grants on which to fall back, Galvin said. “If SLIGP 2.0 becomes a reality, certainly that will help.” Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Executive Director Ryan Burchnell said a delay will be negative to public safety. “It worries me that public safety is going to start to turn away from the project itself and that we’re going to lose that great momentum that we’ve had in the last few months,” he said. Galvin agreed: “The stalling of the program would be very problematic because of all the energies we’ve built behind this thing.”
Frontier Communications may face penalties in California over the company’ difficult transition last April after acquiring Verizon wireline customers in the state. The California Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 to support a proposed decision on rural call completion issues, including a section directing the Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division (CPED) “to investigate post-transition outage issues raised by dial-tone outages and 9-1-1 access issues following the transfer of Verizon, California to Frontier.” The decision as proposed also orders a re-evaluation of the CPUC’s transaction approval process to avoid a repeat in future telecom integrations. The commissioners' meeting was the last for Commissioner Mike Florio.
A state investigation of Verizon in New Jersey will drive progress in underserved South Jersey communities, a state senator and the New Jersey Rate Counsel Division director said in interviews Wednesday. Private negotiations continue, Verizon and the state officials said. Monday, the Board of Public Utilities named President Richard Mroz presiding commissioner and said he would soon set a schedule for the probe into Verizon service quality (see 1612120066).
Vermont may conclude interconnected VoIP is a telecom service and not information under federal law. Public Service Board Hearing Officer George Young recommended the finding in a proposed decision in docket 7316 we obtained Tuesday. Comments are due Dec. 23 on the proposed decision, which isn’t final and may be modified by the board, Young wrote in a cover letter. The board has been examining whether fixed VoIP is an information or telecom service since 2013, when the Vermont Supreme Court remanded the board’s past VoIP decision, and PSB Member Sarah Hofmann last month hinted a decision was imminent (see 1611150014). The proceeding focuses on how Comcast’s fixed VoIP service meets that definition under federal law. The board previously ruled interconnected VoIP is a telecom service rather than information, arguing federal law doesn't pre-empt state regulation due to the ability to divide interstate and intrastate traffic. The company appealed the regulators’ decision. The court agreed with its appeal, but remanded to the board on the classification question. "Notwithstanding the differences in the manner in which calls are transmitted, from the consumer's perspective, there is no perceived difference between the VoIP service and traditional landline service,” said the proposed decision dated Friday. The customer uses the same phone, plugs into the same outlets and has the same voice communication experience, it said. Comcast markets its VoIP service as a substitute for the switched landline service, it said. The proposed decision cites in part the FCC net neutrality order, including an FCC finding that a provider is a common carrier “by virtue of its functions.” It also cited a 1998 FCC report to Congress in which the commission reached the tentative conclusion that "phone-to-phone" IP telephony is telecom service. And it referred to the Supreme Court Brand X decision saying an entity may not avoid Title II regulation of a telecom service by bundling it with an information service. Despite the precedent, some uncertainty remains, it said: "The FCC still has not definitively classified VoIP services as telecommunications services or information services." The proposed decision didn’t resolve how the board should regulate providers of VoIP services pursuant to state law authority. That question will be answered in a second phase of the investigation, it said. A PSB spokeswoman declined comment. Comcast didn't comment.
Fostering prepaid and resold wired internet services and thereby creating competition similar to that existing in the wireless industry could close the digital divide and address systemic racial discrimination reducing internet adoption among minorities, Free Press reported Tuesday. It may be a challenge to convince a Republican-led FCC next year to require those options or stop market-power abuses, said Policy Director Matt Wood in an interview. While a prepaid internet service offered by Comcast lowers one adoption barrier, it may raise other hurdles, Wood said.
Congress probably will work on a Communications Act rewrite next year, but enactment is more likely in 2018, a local telecom attorney said on a NATOA webinar Monday. Chances of Congress enacting the rewrite in 2017 are “not high, but there will be movement in that direction,” said Spiegel & McDiarmid's Tim Lay, predicting several hearings. With the GOP controlling the executive branch and Congress, it could pass in 2018, he said. Lay predicted the next FCC may agree with a Mobilitie petition for a ruling interpreting Section 253(C) to preclude cities from charging carriers more than other providers for use of the right of way. Local governments disagreed with the petition, he said. The current FCC wasn’t a particularly “friendly forum” to local governments on the wireless siting issue, and next year’s agency probably will be less friendly, he said. The current GOP commissioners have “have been quite vocal … saying that local governments have been an obstacle to wireless deployment,” he said. Best Best local telecom legal practitioner Gail Karish said Mobilitie filed alone without the rest of the wireless industry, showing the company may be an “outlier” in the wireless community. Lay said though the company filed alone, it doesn’t mean others in the industry won’t support the petition after the FCC seeks comment.
Global intellectual property theft is a serious threat to U.S. interests, the White House reported Monday. The Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) sent Congress a joint strategic plan setting IP rights enforcement as a national priority for three years. It "represents a ‘call for action’ for all nations -- as well as international organizations, industry, educational institutions, and consumer protection and public interest groups -- to provide forward-thinking leadership and a collaborative approach to combatting illicit IP-based activities,” Coordinator Daniel Marti wrote.
The Michigan Public Service Commission directed Lifeline eligible telecom carriers to keep using the existing Michigan Lifeline Eligibility Database but to add the Veterans and Survivors Pension Benefit Program as an eligibility criteria for potential Lifeline customers. Commissioners approved the order (Case No. U-18213) at a meeting Friday. Earlier this month, the FCC Wireline Bureau granted Michigan a waiver until Dec. 31, 2017, to align its Lifeline eligibility criteria and database with the updated federal commission rules (see 1612070043 and 1612010070). The order clarifies “the rules of the road” for Michigan providers after the FCC waiver, signaling it’s “really status quo going forward” until 2018, Michigan PSC Chairman Sally Talberg said in an interview Friday. Adding the veterans benefit program -- a requirement the FCC declined to waive -- should be “manageable,” she said. Talberg was “very pleased” by the FCC waiver order, she said. “We’ll need to be working diligently over the course of next year to make sure everything’s in place, including looking at the laws in our state and how they sync up with the new federal criteria,” she said. “But I think we’ll be in good shape to address all the issues during that time frame.” To reflect the changes, the PSC updated its online Lifeline eligibility database, is now revising its Lifeline consumer tips sheet, and plans to highlight changes in a news release and upcoming outreach events, a commission spokeswoman added.
The Idaho legislature plans a VoIP bill next year clarifying whether the state may regulate IP-based services, Senate President Pro Tempore Brent Hill (R) told us Thursday. Responding to a request by Hill and Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke (R), the Public Utilities Commission this week submitted a report with three legislative options: (1) adopt AT&T-proposed legislation to codify deregulation of all VoIP services, (2) keep the status quo or (3) clarify that interconnected VoIP is included under Idaho public utilities statute. Keeping the status quo might be least risky, the report said. Commissioner Paul Kjellander cautioned state legislators to observe that the recent general election may change federal VoIP treatment.
Two state commissions that sought but didn’t receive FCC waivers of the Dec. 2 Lifeline deadline are moving forward with rulemakings to align state rules with the updated federal low-income program, state officials said. The FCC last week denied waivers to states including New Mexico and Missouri, while granting them to others (see 1612010070). At a Wednesday meeting, New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioners adopted a staff motion to open a Lifeline proceeding. Meanwhile, Missouri Public Service Commissioners are considering a draft rule after the PSC prepared in advance for possible rejection of the waiver request, a spokesman said. Other states that either received waivers or didn’t need them also are taking steps to ensure a smooth transition, including campaigns to raise public awareness about the changes.