Commissioners will consider at the July 10 FCC meeting an NPRM on broadband deployment in multiple tenant environments (MTEs), an order to wrap together and rule on a business data services transport and USTelecom forbearance proceeding, and an NPRM on a connected care telehealth pilot program, Chairman Ajit Pai blogged Tuesday. The NPRM and declaratory ruling on MTEs follows a 2017 notice of inquiry in docket 17-142 (see 1706220036) on "the unique challenges to deploying broadband to apartment, condominium, and office buildings," Pai wrote. The agency wants to decide whether to back or pre-empt a San Francisco code that requires multitenant buildings to allow residents to access competing broadband providers (see 1811140017). The agency will release an order next month that wraps together two related issues, on a business data services transport proceeding (docket 16-143) and a USTelecom petition for unbundled network elements forbearance (docket 18-141), an FCC official said Wednesday. USTelecom and other telco incumbents say they should no longer be required to unbundle and resell access to some of their networks at below-market rates (see 1905140012). Competitive LECs say there's not enough facilities-based competition in all areas to warrant nationwide forbearance (see 1906130005). Pai wrote that the agency plans to "grant relief only where there is actual or potential competition that ensures reasonable prices." Also at the meeting, commissioners will vote on an NPRM on a three-year, $100 million USF telehealth pilot called connected care designed to support eligible healthcare providers to low-income patients outside hospitals and other traditional healthcare facilities. The Wireline Bureau initiated a notice of inquiry (docket 18-213) in August to wide support (see 1809110039). Commissioner Brendan Carr is leading the effort and will offer more details at the July meeting, Pai wrote.
The FCC overreached with its September infrastructure order to streamline 5G small-cells deployment, said Communications Workers of America, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and Public Knowledge in an amicus brief Monday at the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Intervenor briefs were due Monday, after initial briefs last week (see 1906100021). “To protect public welfare and address the digital divide, states and localities must be able to charge appropriate fees,” said the CWA brief. The FCC shifted (in Pacer) political responsibility for unpopular rules to local governments, said the Association of Washington Cities. “The FCC failed to consider that the regulatory structure it created must be implemented by local government agencies whose powers and authority are structured, pursuant to and limited by the laws under which they are created.” Forcing localities to act quickly on applications threatens public safety, they said. Municipal utilities should be exempt to federal pre-emption on small cells, said Missouri River Energy Services (MRES), representing energy utilities in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Municipal utilities act in a proprietary capacity, and “the FCC's understanding of federal preemption is at best inapplicable to municipal utilities,” it said (in Pacer). MRES members are in two states with small-cells laws exempting municipal utilities, and one in Marshall, Minnesota, negotiated a small-cells agreement without needing FCC action, it said. "Their experience with collocation of small wireless facilities does not support the FCC’s Order and affirms that the issue should be left to state and local control.” The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council (BLEC) supported (in Pacer) Maryland’s Montgomery County, which argued the agency inadequately addressed comments on the FCC's outdated RF emission standards. Studies show negative biological and environmental effects of 5G wireless exposure, said BLEC. Small cells have amplified RF safety concerns (see 1906140050).
The FCC is taking nominations for a new Precision Agricultural Connectivity Task Force through July 17. Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday the agency will work with the Agriculture Department to develop policies to speed broadband deployment for unserved agricultural lands. The task force will prepare a report due within a year on the status of fixed and mobile broadband access for agricultural lands; projections for future connectivity needs of agricultural operations; and ways to measure availability of broadband on agricultural lands. The FCC seeks representatives from diverse demographic regions, including small farmers and tribal agriculture producers; state and local government, data collection and mapping experts; and industry representatives, including from fixed and mobile broadband service providers, satellite broadband and telecom equipment manufacturers. Requirements and duties are in Monday's public notice. Congress sought ways to ensure federal spending on broadband deployment in rural areas is better coordinated across agencies (see 1905020058).
The U.S. is stuck in the starting blocks of the 5G race as it awaits an FCC decision on how to free up C-band spectrum, former Chairman Tom Wheeler blogged Friday for the Brookings Institution. He said European nations over the past year have done 5G spectrum auctions, but a C-band decision looks to come late this year. He said substantial time has been spent on debates about various potential auction processes, but the technical specifics of what to auction in terms of such issues as power levels, out-of-band emission levels and geographic and spectrum license sizes are far more difficult. "We are behind where we would have been if the FCC had stepped up and done their public interest job in the first place," he said. The agency didn't comment.
Employees from ITTA members and other carriers that don't offer sales incentives to enroll Lifeline customers should be exempt from registering their own personally identifiable information (PII) as Universal Service Administrative Co. develops a Lifeline representative accountability database (RAD), the group told the FCC, posted Friday in docket 17-287. Executives from ITTA and its member companies met Tuesday with Wireline Bureau officials to get clarification on who will be required to register. The RAD is part of a national verifier program to ensure beneficiaries are qualified (see 1903080016). ITTA noted the vast majority of abuses in the Lifeline program involve sales agents not employed by member companies. If USAC determines carrier employees must register with the RAD, the association said, registration information should be limited to name, employee status and business-related contact information rather than birth dates or social security numbers. ITTA called it an "undue risk" to require PII "when massive data breaches are a near daily occurrence." On the Lifeline consumer side, beginning last Thursday, any changes in information for the qualifying person requires service providers to de-enroll the consumer, make edits to the enrollment information, and reapply for benefits using the new information, USAC said.
The FCC isn’t affected by President Donald Trump's executive order directing all federal departments and agencies to eliminate one-third of their current Federal Advisory Committee Act-authorized committees by Sept. 30, a spokesperson told us Friday. The order limits the total governmentwide number of advisory committees to 350. Eliminated committees should include those found to deal with subject matters that have “become obsolete,” have accomplished their stated objectives, have primary functions “that have been assumed by another entity” or that the agency finds have a “cost of operation [that’s] excessive in relation” in relation to their “benefits to the Federal Government.” Agencies can count committees already eliminated since Trump entered office in January 2017 toward their quota. Agency heads can seek a waiver of the requirement if OMB concludes “it is necessary for the delivery of essential services, for effective program delivery, or because it is otherwise warranted by the public interest.” All agency heads will need to submit recommendations by Aug. 1 to OMB for eliminating committees. OMB will recommend which committees to eliminate by Sept. 1. The order doesn’t apply to the FCC because it generally exempts independent regulatory agencies, the FCC spokesperson said. The FTC's also an independent regulator. An NTIA spokesperson was checking at our deadline on how it would affect that Commerce Department.
Government collection of Timothy Carpenter’s cellsite location information violated the Fourth Amendment, but his robbery conviction stands because police “relied in good faith,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Wednesday (see 1807050025). Police acted in good faith because the collection occurred years before the Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Carpenter (in Pacer) the search unconstitutional, the court said. Thursday, Carpenter's attorney didn't comment.
The Q3 USF contribution factor would grow to 24.4 percent, its highest ever, under an FCC proposal in Thursday's Daily Digest and on docket 96-45. The USF contribution factor rose above 20 percent for the first time in Q4 (see 1809120035). Some advocates for the USF urged the FCC to find new sources of contribution to help sustain the program (such as from fees on broadband service) since revenue from interstate telephone charges continues to decline (see 1904020022). The prospect of ever-rising consumer fees played into a recent NPRM on an overall budget cap for the USF program (see 1905310069). The new contribution factor rate for Q3 would be set within 14 days of the announcement without further action from the agency, said an Office of Managing Director public notice.
DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim gave his most aggressive speech yet toward the tech industry Tuesday, signaling structural remedies are a possibility against Google and Apple, Cowen’s Paul Gallant said (see 1906110076). The speech want further than Delrahim's talk in May 2018, when he suggested companies offering free services aren’t “immune from antitrust enforcement,” the analyst emailed investors Wednesday.
The FCC granted the North American Numbering Council a three-month extension to file a document on the technical requirements for establishing a comprehensive database containing reassigned phone numbers, said a Wireline and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus order Wednesday in docket 17-59. The report is due Sept. 13, and status update July 12. In April, NANC requested an extension until April 13, 2020, due to the complexity of FCC's initial request, delays stemming from the government shutdown early this year, and scheduling conflicts among working group members engaged in other commission work, it said. "The additional time will ensure the development and consideration of a complete record to address the complex technical aspects of the database's establishment, operation, and funding." Commissioners voted in December for the new database to let callers check whether a number has been permanently disconnected to help prevent robocalls intended for others (see 1812120026).