State and local governments may move ahead on cellsite simulator laws in the absence of federal action, privacy advocates said in interviews last week. An Illinois bill enacted in July could be used as a model for other states, they said. The California legislature may base a surveillance bill next year on an ordinance adopted June in Santa Clara County, a county supervisor told us. A cellsite simulator, also sometimes called a StingRay or international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catcher, is a type of surveillance equipment that mimics wireless towers, forcing nearby mobile devices to connect. Privacy advocates have been alarmed at growing police and other use of the devices, filing an FCC complaint against the Baltimore Police Department (see 1609020025).
The Communications Workers of America renewed its call for a Maryland probe of Verizon copper practices. In a letter Tuesday to the Public Service Commission, CWA said it supports Verizon investment in fiber, but only with consumer protections including transparency and advance notice during the copper-to-fiber migration. The company failed to maintain copper, then deceived customers who had copper service problems into making the IP transition under a policy known as “Fiber is the Only Fix,” said the union. The telco defended the program, saying it’s neither deceiving customers nor neglecting its copper network (see 1607140027). CWA has a similar complaint against Verizon at the FCC. CWA told the PSC its May request for investigation wasn't a publicity stunt timed to coincide with union workers' East Coast strike this year against Verizon. The union has presented testimony and evidence supporting commission action against Verizon since February 2009, it said. “The Commission will review the filing and make a determination as to the appropriate next steps,” a PSC spokeswoman emailed Thursday. “The Commission has not made a determination whether to open a proceeding in the matter.” Meanwhile in New Jersey, the state Division of Rate Counsel renewed its request that the Board of Public Utilities open a probe of Verizon. "Rate Counsel is concerned that in the four weeks that have passed since the Public Hearings in this matter the Board has yet to issue a procedural schedule as requested by the parties to fully investigate and address the testimony provided by Verizon customers" Aug. 4 (see 1608050043), Division Director Stefanie Brand said in a letter Wednesday. The board's staff continues to review information from hearings and comments filed; when that's done, it will make a recommendation to the board about next steps, a BPU spokeswoman said Thursday.
Local government officials would be glad to work with the FCC and industry on small-cell siting issues, but don't see an immediate problem, said NATOA Executive Director Steve Traylor in an interview Thursday. In a speech Wednesday at the CTIA conference, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC will drive 5G growth by working with local governments to speed siting of new wireless facilities (see 1609070033). The FCC could approve rules to ease small-cell siting next year, Cowen analyst Paul Gallant said in a research note Wednesday. The wireless industry also is asking states to streamline siting rules for small cells.
Under threat of lawsuit, the Nashville Metro Council advanced a “One Touch Make Ready” policy aimed at speeding Google Fiber rollout. Pole attachment policies are likely to be a continuing challenge for Google as it expands its gigabit network, said community broadband supporters in recent interviews. "If there's kind of a last line of defense for AT&T to protect itself from competition, it might be keeping competitors off of poles or making it very expensive for them to finally get on poles,” said Institute for Local Self-Reliance Community Broadband Networks Director Christopher Mitchell. Despite recent AT&T slams against Google, local officials in two Google Fiber cities highly praised the upstart ISP.
Big telcos clashed with competitors and a state consumer advocate over how to regulate fixed interconnected VoIP services in Iowa, in comments in docket RMU-2015-0002 Thursday at the Iowa Utilities Board, following up on oral argument last month where one IUB member wrestled aloud with the question of jurisdiction (see 1608090021). AT&T and Verizon supported complete deregulation of fixed interconnected VoIP, but T-Mobile and Windstream said the board should maintain regulation at least for wholesale VoIP services. The Office of Consumer Advocate and the Iowa Communications Alliance said the board should continue regulation for all interconnected VoIP services. FCC indecision on VoIP classification shouldn’t be read as an interpretation that fixed VoIP is a telecommunications service, Verizon commented. Regulation of fixed VoIP services, it said, “would undeniably result in discriminatory treatment of the subset of VoIP services offered by companies actually investing in deploying broadband facilities in Iowa … dissuading the sort of growth and investment the Board should instead strive to encourage.” VoIP is already an information service, AT&T said. “Mere deregulation of the service simply preserves the status quo and leaves it improperly classified as a ‘telecommunications service,’ far short of what the Board must do to bring its rules into conformity with federal law.” Windstream urged the IUB to deregulate retail but not wholesale VoIP, expressly retaining jurisdiction over customer complaints and intercarrier disputes including interconnection and switched access issues. Regulation is still needed for wholesale, T-Mobile commented. "ILEC networks remain the only way for competitive carriers to indirectly exchange traffic with many networks within Iowa. As a result, the largest ILECs continue to have market power in the wholesale market that, absent a regulatory backstop, could empower them to dictate unreasonable terms for traffic exchange and interconnection that would harm competition if exchange of IP-enabled traffic between carriers is outside the scope of the Board’s jurisdiction." But the Office of Consumer Advocate said state law requires the board to regulate all “communications services,” and the legislature never excluded VoIP from the definition. "The Board may not use the device of promulgating rules to change or add to the law," the office said. If companies seek deregulation, they should file a petition under Iowa’s statutory process for deregulation, it said. The Iowa Communications Alliance, an association of community-based telcos, said the FCC never preempted state regulation of VoIP. Since most LECs use VoIP to deliver landline, deregulating VoIP could remove board jurisdiction over most voice calls, it said. "The Board must regulate essential communications services based on core public interests, not based on the technology used to deliver the service,” it said. “Suggestions that the Board should single out VoIP services for deregulation -- or that the Board should single out VoIP services for regulation only on the wholesale level -- are inconsistent with Iowa law and ignore the Board’s important public interest functions.”
The California legislature killed a proposed review of state telecom regulation, but passed other parts of a Public Utilities Commission overhaul package Wednesday before the midnight buzzer ended its session. Lawmakers decided the fates of many bills related to telecom and internet issues in the final days. Several await the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
States, the FCC and industry plan extensive outreach to reduce consumer confusion about changes to Lifeline that will allow the USF program for low-income people to get broadband and not just phone service, officials said on a Wednesday webinar staged by the National Regulatory Research Institute, the research arm of NARUC. "We think it's very important that we help in getting the word out … because there will be a lot of confusion," said Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable Commissioner Karen Charles Peterson. Lifeline tops the department’s list for planned outreach efforts, and the state government hopes the low-income program will play a big role in a state effort to increase broadband adoption, she said. The FCC plans to make copious amounts of information available through its website and other outreach venues, said Wireline Bureau Telecommunications Access Policy Division Chief Ryan Palmer. TracFone plans targeted communications to customers rather than a broad and generalized approach, said the company’s Corporate Counsel Stephen Athanson. AT&T sees potential for customer confusion because it will take some time for states to sync their programs with the federal program, said Executive Director-Public Policy Beth Fujimoto. She said the company supports a USTelecom reconsideration request pending at the FCC, including deferring the effective date of the streamlined eligibility criteria to give states more time to make necessary changes (see 1608090023). States won’t find a uniform method to implement the order, said Peterson. "Each state is unique and they're going to have to address it in their own way." The commissioner said one concern of states is what happens to consumers’ ability to call 911 if they're moved from voice to broadband plans. She said the issue is “hard to explain to the average citizen.” Massachusetts plans to work with consumers, industry and the FCC “to make sure a consumer doesn’t have to pick” between voice and broadband, she said.
Under fire from state agencies, CenturyLink defended the completeness of a petition for deregulation in each of its 108 exchanges in Minnesota. The ILEC asked the Public Utilities Commission June 30 to be regulated instead as a CLEC because it serves less than 50 percent of households and competitors offer service to at least 60 percent of the households in each exchange. Under a deregulation process established by a recent state law, the PUC has 180 days to address the petition. But in Aug. 15 comments in docket 16-496, the Minnesota Attorney General and the state Department of Commerce separately said CenturyLink didn’t provide enough information to make a decision. They asked for more information showing competition for each local service offered in each exchange, evidence the telco lost customers to competitors over at least the past five years, and a demonstration that competition data it filed is accurate. In a reply Monday, CenturyLink said its petition is complete. "The Agencies’ arguments misread the relevant statute, confuse the distinction between completeness and sufficiency, and should be summarily rejected,” it said. “The statute clearly does not contemplate that all issues … must be unequivocally resolved before a petition is deemed complete. If that were the case, there would be no need for the 180 day review period.” The law allows the PUC to seek more information from the petitioner, but the PUC can’t reject a petition as incomplete for “failure to include information the petitioner was never notified was necessary," the telco said. The state agencies disagreed. “In essence, a carrier filing a petition under this statute must ‘show its work’ in the initial filing in order to have a complete petition for review,” the AG commented Monday. “CenturyLink has not shown its work. As a result, any analysis of the merits of the petition is both premature and impossible, given the lack of detail provided in the petition.” The petition is incomplete, but the PUC should keep the docket open so CenturyLink can file additional information, the department replied. The information sought by the state agencies “is very detailed, and that’s unlike most of the other states that have deregulated,” National Regulatory Research Institute Principal Sherry Lichtenberg emailed us. NRRI is the research arm of NARUC. In most former AT&T states, for example, ILECs could “elect” to have reduced regulation because the laws were predicated on the idea that competition exists, she said. “The Minnesota law seems to be the first that will require such detailed information.”
The District of Columbia is reviewing its processes after learning human error led to a 100-minute outage of the 911 system in the District of Columbia over the weekend. The outage initially was reported as an equipment failure (see 1608290027). Now, a D.C. Office of Unified Communications spokesman said officials have determined the failure was caused by a contractor hitting an emergency shutoff button. A National Emergency Number Association official said developing standards and best practices for 911 centers could prevent similar outages at other such centers.
Regulatory reviews of the Verizon's planned buy of XO Communications $1.8 billion moved forward in states and at the FCC. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission posted reply briefs by parties Thursday, while New York regulators continued their analysis after comments closed in June (see 1606270062). With the Hawaii PUC waiving review last week, 15 of 17 states have now cleared the deal. Wednesday, the FCC resumed its informal 180-day review clock at Day 86, making the target date for a federal decision in late November.