The FCC deactivated its disaster information reporting system for Lane, the former hurricane (see 1808230044) threatening Hawaii that was downgraded to a tropical depression, said a public notice Sunday. The FCC deactivated DIRS at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Coordinating Center for Communications, the PN said. Communications providers don't need to provide any more reporting in DIRS in connection with the event, the PN said. The FCC said it will “continue to monitor the status of communications services and work with providers and government partners as needed to support remaining restoration efforts.” The final DIRS report on Lane, from Sunday at 1:30 p.m. EDT, said the storm “has had minimal effect on communications.” All of Hawaii’s public safety answering points were functioning normally, 0.6 percent of cellsites in Hawaii were out of service and 3,991 cable and wireline subscribers were affected. One TV station, six FM stations and one AM station were reported as out of service, though elsewhere in the report the FCC said independent monitoring of AM stations showed them all operational.
Ian Cohen
Ian Cohen, Deputy Managing Editor, is a reporter with Export Compliance Daily and its sister publications International Trade Today and Trade Law Daily, where he covers export controls, sanctions and international trade issues. He previously worked as a local government reporter in South Florida. Ian graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2017 and lives in Washington, D.C. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2019.
Unwanted phone calls to reassigned numbers are a consumer nuisance, but the FCC in tackling it needs to avoid putting unnecessary costs on rural carriers. Instead, that burden should be on the callers in need of reassigned numbers data to avoid running afoul of the law, NTCA told Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff, relayed a docket 17-59 filing Wednesday. It said the most expeditious path is expanded use of already available commercial reassigned numbers databases, paired with safe harbor protection for callers' use of the databases. NTCA argued against database access being at low cost or free and said an FCC-created database would take too long to implement -- potentially several years.
With CenturyLink facing revenue-growth and other challenges even after buying Level 3, an analyst recommended investors sell the stock. They appeared to do just that the day of his downgrade Wednesday. "Longer term challenges facing the company are significant. The company will eventually realize all the synergies it’s going to realize and make all the other cost cuts and business improvements," wrote MoffettNathanson's Nick Del Deo, noting it's "not growing organically." A "large chunk of its revenue is in inexorable decline, another chunk is 'at risk' of that," he said. Cash flow is aided by $500 million in annual Connect America Fund Phase II money, he said: That ends in 2021, but most investors think it could occur on a perpetual basis. The telco declined to comment. The stock closed the day down 6.5 percent at $22.42.
IP caption telephone service providers told the FCC that industry needs “meaningful minimum standards” for measuring new approaches to providing IP CTS captions, including fully automated speech recognition. “Failure to deliver, at a minimum, an experience comparable to that provided by legacy IP CTS technology is not acceptable,” the providers said in docket 13-24 Tuesday: Metrics and minimum performance standards for all providers, regardless of technology creating captions, will help improve quality. CaptionCall, ClearCaptions, Hamilton Relay, Mezmo and Sprint signed the recommendations. They stressed the importance of defining IP CTS, creating testing and performance procedures and establishing performance standards. “Failure to address these three areas together could lead to unintended consequences,” the providers said. “For example, what does the establishment of an accuracy requirement of 88 percent mean in the absence of established testing criteria? Without prescribed testing procedures, a testing method can be created which yields any percentage that is desired.”
Verizon's ask for FCC clarity on LEC billing for access functions is getting pushback from Peerless Network. In a docket 18-221 FCC filing Tuesday responded to Verizon's June petition for declaratory ruling (see 1807230025), Peerless said it and other VoIP providers "do not simply 'hand off' traffic to IP-enabled platforms," and it and other LECs are entitled to tariffed terminating switched access charges for their services. It said the FCC has never stopped LECs from collecting switched access charges for terminating calls to IP-enabled platforms and shouldn't do so now, but instead should confirm traffic delivered to an IP-enabled platform terminates at that platform and LECs can collect applicable switched access charges for terminating that traffic. Backing the petition for declaratory ruling, AT&T said FCC precedent has been that calls don't terminate at two-stage platforms and that an LEC might deliver a call to an IP-enabled platform doesn't change application of the end-to-end analysis.
Targeting consumers struggling with navigating competing internet services, Frontier launches a new national marketing campaign, "Don't Go It Alone," this week via broadcast, online and social media, it said Wednesday.
The FCC solicited further comment from state public utility commissions on two NPRMs that proposed (1) a 15-year extension in a jurisdictional separations freeze and (2) incentive-based regulation of business data services (BDS) offered by model-based, rate-of-return rural telcos. "In order that the Commission's decision in this proceeding be guided by the fullest possible record, we are providing each State commission with additional notice" regarding each rulemaking, said two Wireline Bureau letters (here, here) posted Monday in dockets 80-286 (on separations), and 17-144 (on rural BDS). The initial comment deadline on separations is Aug. 27, but state commissions were given until Sept. 10, the same day as the reply date. They also were given until Sept. 10 to weigh in on the rural BDS rulemaking even though that comment cycle already closed. The rural BDS NPRM includes proposed changes to separations category relationships for carriers that had opted to freeze those relationships, noted the bureau. Its letters cited a Communications Act Section 220(i) mandate. "I do not recall an FCC order making 220(i) inquiries related to anything but the Part 32 Uniform Systems of Accounts," said Colorado Public Utilities Commissioner Wendy Moser, a member of a federal-state joint board on separations, in a statement. "But I agree that 220(i) applies to Part 36 [separations] changes also and am pleased by the FCC’s recognition of the requirements of the statute. However, I remain concerned that the agency may be planning to ignore the specific mandate in 47 USC Section 410, which requires as a pre-requisite to the changes referenced in both letters, a referral to the Separations Joint Board."
E-rate stakeholders proposed "improvements" to FCC Forms 470 and 471 -- used by schools and libraries to seek competitive bids for projects and apply for funding -- and related Paperwork Reduction Act review requiring Office of Management and Budget approval. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and State E-rate Coordinator's Alliance said Form 470 "Category 1" (broadband connection) dropdown menu options must be revised to accurately describe internet-access service options. Instructions changed in 2017 "without any PRA review ... caused a great deal of confusion" and "jeopardized applicants' E-rate funding approvals" (see 1804110026), said the groups' filing Thursday in docket 13-184. "Had the FCC not intervened to ... hold applicants harmless because of the poorly worded and/or defined options (see 1805020038) there very well could have been funding denials." New tweaks were made but "do not resolve the underlying confusion and deficiencies," they said. The FCC should modify Forms 470 and 471 and instructions "consistent with our recommendations," publish drafts for comments this fall, and submit the forms to OMB, for approval by Dec. 31, they said, citing the need for "lead time" to develop online systems implementing changes. The new Form 470 could be available online by July 1, 2019 (for funding year 2020), and the new 471 available online by January 2020 (for the FY 2020 application window), they suggested.
The FCC received prohibited filings in two proceedings as commissioners considered a pole-attachment item they approved at an Aug. 2 meeting, said an Office of General Counsel public notice Friday in dockets 17-84 and 17-79. The filings were made by Portland, Oregon; NATOA; Wabash Communications; Mukilteo, Washington; San Jose; and three individuals. The PN said the presentations received July 27-Aug. 2, when submissions are generally barred, "will be associated with, but not made part of, the record." A "large number" of prohibited brief comments will be treated likewise, it said. An order streamlined pole-attachment processes and a declaratory ruling said local and state moratoriums on deployment would be pre-empted (see 1808090011).
DOJ won't object to B. Riley Financial buying magicJack VocalTec licensees YMax Communications, magicJack SMB and Broadband Global if the FCC conditions license transfers on commitments and undertakings in a declaration and letter of agreement. The assurances will help the FBI uphold its responsibilities, said the DOJ petition posted Thursday in docket 17-356.