Lifeline wireless resellers defended their request for FCC reinstatement of port freezes of 12 months and 60 days for broadband and voice services, respectively, and subsidization of Premium Wi-Fi service under the low-income USF program. Telrite, i-Wireless and AmeriMex Communications noted Q Link Wireless and TracFone Wireless backed their reconsideration petition's port-freeze request (TracFone's support was limited to the voice part), saying they recognized "the scourge of flipping" service from one carrier to another, both for Lifeline providers and program costs. They disputed Smith Bagley's lone opposition to their petition's requests, in their reply posted Friday in docket 17-287. A Smith Bagley counsel didn't comment Monday.
USF "disbursements from operations" totaled about $8.8 billion in 2017, said Universal Service Administrative Co.'s annual report posted Monday in FCC docket 96-45 (such disbursements are "cash outlays less admin transfer to USAC"). USAC said the disbursements were $4.67 billion for high-cost (most rural) operations, $2.62 billion for E-rate (schools and libraries), $1.27 billion for Lifeline (low-income) and $261 million for rural health care. USAC said its operating expenses were $196.7 million in 2017, compared with $179.5 million in 2016. Radha Sekar, who joined USAC as CEO in January, looks forward "to transforming the organization into a high-performing team while having a watchful eye on fraud waste and abuse."
NTCA is the latest group to express concerns about an NPRM teed up for a vote at the April 17 commissioners’ meeting proposing to bar use of money in any USF program to buy equipment or services from companies that “pose a national security threat” to U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain (see 1803260037). The draft NPRM cites a 2012 report by the House Intelligence Committee raising concerns about Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE.
Comments are due May 29 at the FCC on disaster information reporting system duties, which now affect wireless, wireline, broadcast, cable, VoIP and ISP entities, said a notice in the Federal Register Wednesday. The commission is to review comments on the DIRS burdens for industry under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and make any appropriate adjustments, which the Office of Management and Budget must approve. The FR is to publish several FCC items Thursday, including: a notice seeking PRA comments by May 29 (calendar) on Lifeline USF information-collection requirements; a notice seeking PRA comments by May 29 on telecom relay service information-collection requirements; and a rule requiring short-form applications to be filed by Friday in the Connect America Fund Phase II fixed service subsidy auction to start July 24.
The FCC will publish in the Federal Register Thursday its specific parameters and procedures for implementing the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge process. The document lays out the steps the FCC will use “to establish a map of areas presumptively eligible for MF-II support from the newly collected, standardized 4G Long Term Evolution coverage data and proposes specific parameters for the data that challengers and respondents will submit as part of the challenge process, as well as a process for validating challenges,” the notice said. The challenge window opens Thursday and will remain open through Aug. 27. AT&T said Wednesday the FCC laid out challenge rules that are “clear-cut and manageable” and it’s time to get the process started. “Predictably, many of the same carriers who have long criticized the FCC data collection methods have criticized the MF-II maps as well,” said Mary Henze, AT&T assistant vice president-federal regulatory. “The FCC has collected new data to generate an up-to-date LTE coverage map designed specifically to meet its USF goals and created a hands-on way to crowdsource more granular data through a comprehensive challenge process to make the map even better.”
A draft NPRM on rules potentially barring the use of the USF to buy equipment or services from companies that “pose a national security threat” to U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain wouldn’t necessarily mean a blanket ban. Smaller wireless carriers said they must buy equipment from Chinese providers Huawei and ZTE and don’t have good alternatives (see 1803260037). “One bright-line approach would be to prohibit use of USF funds on any purchases whatsoever from companies that have been identified as raising national security risks,” the FCC says in the draft. “Would such a rule be most appropriate here? Another approach would be to limit the scope of the proposed rule to equipment and services that relate to the management of a network, data about the management of a network, or any system the compromise or failure of which could disrupt the confidentiality, availability, or integrity of a network.” The FCC asks about a phased-in schedule for the ban and whether an effective date should be later for smaller USF recipients. The FCC also asks about potential waivers. “Should we establish a separate process from our general waiver provision for waivers of our proposed rule?” it asks. “If we provide such a waiver process, how should it function? Should we require a higher standard than good cause for granting waivers, such as ‘extraordinary circumstances?’”
An FCC rural call completion order and Further NPRM draft seek new ways to solve problems with long-distance calls to rural areas, which often aren't connected or are dropped. The draft item in docket 13-39 would shift from "covered provider" data reporting and related requirements to relying on monitoring of "intermediate carrier" performance, and seek to implement a new rural calling law. Another draft NPRM in docket 17-144 would offer business data service (BDS) "incentive regulation" to rural telcos receiving model-based Connect America Fund USF subsidy report. Both items were put on the April 17 commissioners' meeting tentative agenda announced Monday and released Tuesday (see 1803260028 and 1803270052).
The FCC released its tentative agenda for the April 17 commissioners’ meeting, and as indicated in a Monday blog post by Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1803260028), it contains proposals on rural call completion and rural business data service (BDS) actions, and a public notice on the 28 GHz and 24 GHz band auctions. Along with the tentative agenda, the agency released draft versions of the items proposed for the meeting. The FCC proposes to use its standard simultaneous multiple-round (SMR) auction format for the upcoming auction of the 28 GHz band and a clock-auction format for the 24 GHz band, the draft 5G PN said. “By initiating the pre-auction processes for Auctions 101 and 102, we take another important step to promote the deployment of fifth-generation wireless, the Internet of Things, and other advanced spectrum-based services at frequencies above 24 GHz,” the FCC said in the notice. “In doing so, we help ensure continued American leadership in wireless broadband, which represents a critical component of economic growth, job creation, public safety, and global competitiveness.” Differences between the bands dictate the need for different auction formats, the FCC said. "For example, the similarities among blocks in the 24 GHz band facilitate using a clock auction with generic blocks, which will speed up the bidding relative to license-by-license bidding, which is needed when blocks in the band are less uniformly available, as in 28 GHz," the FCC said. The agency said it will offer a total of 5,986 licenses through the two auctions. The agenda also includes an NPRM on barring USF recipients from using risky international suppliers, a proposal to streamline commercial satellite authorization, and media deregulation items on broadcast ancillary services and cable channel listings. As expected, the broadcast ancillary services item doesn’t include changes to broadcast notice rules.
Cable and telco executives said Congress should resolve the net neutrality dispute and end policy flip-flops that, one suggested, threaten broadband investment more than heavy regulation. "It's time to put the rules in place and move on," said Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen at a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. But the executives expressed more hope than optimism, with some pessimistic about the near-term prospects. Recent revelations and concerns about the use of Facebook data could drive privacy legislation discussions, some said. Others focused on 5G wireless and fiber deployment efforts.
An FCC draft order on an Alaska Communications Systems targeted request on the Connect America Fund was sent to commissioners March 19, said the agency's circulation list updated Friday. The draft in docket 10-90 addresses an ACS petition to reconsider an Oct. 31, 2016, order setting CAF Phase II voice and broadband service obligations for the carrier, an FCC spokesman emailed Monday. That petition sought to revisit one aspect of the order. To receive $20 million in annual "frozen" USF subsidy support over 10 years, ACS was "required to offer voice and broadband service at the same speed, latency, usage and pricing metrics as established for Phase II model-based carriers to at least 31,571 locations, primarily in census blocks identified as high-cost that are unserved by unsubsidized competitors, with limited exceptions," said the 2016 order (see 1610310056). "The Commission allows up to 2,714 of those locations to be in census blocks that are deemed 'low-cost' under the Connect America Model ... provided such census blocks are adjacent to high-cost census blocks, and provided Alaska Communications certifies that the selected locations themselves are actually 'high-cost," said the ACS petition. "Alaska Communications objects to none of these conditions, but seeks reconsideration only of the meaning of 'high-cost' in this context."