Battery Backup Debate Should Consider Market Realities, ACA Says
Battery backup power regulations being considered by the FCC (see 1503100063) should reflect “market realities” that customers are migrating to wireless for voice service, American Cable Association officials said in several meetings with agency officials, according to an ex parte…
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filing posted Friday in docket 14-174. Consumers switching to VoIP service realize their devices won't work during power outages without a backup power source, and as far as the ACA officials know, cable VoIP customers “have not expressed concern about not having line power during a power outage or with having to use some type of backup power supply,” the filing said. While VoIP subscriptions increased over the past decade, the growth has leveled off and many cable operators are losing voice subscribers to wireless, ACA Chairman Robert Gessner and other representatives of the group told David Simpson, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau chief, and other agency officials March 25, according to the filing. ”This trend would only accelerate if the Commission adopts its battery backup proposal since the new regulations would impose additional costs on VoIP providers that would be passed along to retail consumers,” ACA said. Ross Lieberman, ACA senior vice president-government affairs, and Thomas Cohen, of Kelley Drye, made the same arguments to Chairman Tom Wheeler's aide Daniel Alvarez and to an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in separate meetings the same day, according to the filing. Cohen also met with an aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on the same day.