The FCC released an order Tuesday to assess and collect $356.7 million in regulatory fees from industry parties for FY 2017, with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly partially dissenting from the item, which included an NPRM. The agency also extended the comment and reply deadlines on its Telecom Act Section 706 advanced telecom deployment notice of inquiry to Sept. 21 and Oct. 6, respectively (they had been Thursday and Sept. 22), in an order from two bureaus. Some Democratic senators and groups had sought a delay, though the groups didn't get all the time they requested.
The FCC is expected to take up the next wireless completion report, the first under President Donald Trump, at the Sept. 26 commissioners' meeting, industry lawyers said Tuesday. The item is likely to be the most contentious at the September meeting because of the longstanding fight between Democrats and Republicans on whether the U.S. industry should be considered effectively competitive, former FCC officials said. All of the reports released during the Obama administration declined to make this finding, a break from the FCC’s stance during the George W. Bush administration. The Ajit Pai FCC also is expected to find effective competition (see 1705080047). Most of the other items said to be teed up are less contentious, including media modernization, a hearing-aid compatibility small-business report, AM revitalization and an item on cable-signal leakage. The FCC declined to comment.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appointed new members to the Consumer Advisory Committee, to serve from Sept. 1 to Oct. 21, 2018, unless the committee terminates earlier, a public notice said. The new members serving as primary representatives are CTA Vice President Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney, Digital Policy Institute co-Executive Director Barry Umansky, T-Mobile Chief Counsel-Policy Luisa Lancetti, and Alex Phillips former president of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. Kyle Hildebrand and American Action Forum director-technology and innovation policy William Rinehart were added as subject matter experts and special government employees, the PN said. With the new members, the FCC expects the CAC to provide guidance on “robocall blocking and reassigned numbers, preventing slamming and associated cramming, and outreach on spectrum repacking,” the PN said.
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will meet Oct. 26, said a Friday public notice. The FCC also released the assignments of CSRIC members to its three working groups (see the personals section in this issue). The groups are: Working Group 1: Transition Path to NG911, chaired by Mary Boyd, vice president-regulatory, policy and government affairs at West Safety Services; Working Group 2: Comprehensive Re-imagining of Emergency Alerting, chaired by Farrokh Khatibi, director-engineering at Qualcomm Technology; and Working Group 3: Network Reliability and Security Risk Reduction, chaired by Travis Russell, director-telecommunications cybersecurity at Oracle. The rechartered CSRIC held its first meeting June 23 (see 1706230049).
All nonexempt responsive records sought by American Oversight (AO) in its lawsuit against the FCC were produced last week, the agency said in a docket 17-1492 reply (in Pacer) filed Thursday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The transparent government advocates sued in July seeking documents it had originally sought via Freedom of Information Act requests about agency leadership contacts with telecom industry parties related to a rollback of Title II regulation (see 1707260045). AO said Friday it was still reviewing the FCC production.
The FCC Friday changed the date of the September commissioners’ meeting, from the 28th to the 26th. Draft items will still be announced and released on Sept. 7 rather than two days earlier, said a notice. The change was made to accommodate a commissioner’s schedule, the agency said. The meeting starts at 10:30 a.m. and will be the first to feature new Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel. The FCC last met Aug. 3.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Friday named the top official of a wireless ISP in Arkansas chair of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. The new chair is Elizabeth Bowles, chairman of the board of Aristotle. The former chair was Elizabeth Pierce, CEO of Quintillion Subsea Operations, who resigned from BDAC for personal reasons, said a public notice. Cities also picked up a seat on BDAC. Local government groups have repeatedly complained of being underrepresented (see 1706010054). The new BDAC member who replaces Pierce is Larry Hanson, city manager of Valdosta, Georgia, who already serves on BDAC’s Model Code for Municipalities working group, but not the full committee.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment on the Technological Advisory Council’s quest to identify obsolete technical rules. “Some technical rules may no longer be applicable to modern communications equipment,” said a public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest. “Rules that describe the operation of certain technologies may no longer be necessary as those technologies are obsolete. Data reporting requirements for technical operations, which help the FCC to determine how effectively the communications environment is being utilized and also how communications entities are complying with the current laws, may no longer be necessary.” Comments are due Oct. 30 in docket 17-215.
Correction: The industry group headed by Jonathan Adelstein is the Wireless Infrastructure Association (see 1708300020).
The number of cellsites down due to Tropical Storm Harvey continues to decline, though other communications services are faring worse. According to the FCC's latest communications status report Thursday, 3.8 percent of the cellsites in the 55 directly affected Texas and Louisiana counties and parishes were down, compared with 4.2 percent on Wednesday (see 1708300054) and 4.7 percent on Tuesday (see 1708290029), and no county has more than 40 percent of cellsites out of service. It said at least 270,139 cable and wireline subscribers were without service, up from Wednesday's 267,426. It also said nine radio stations were down, up from five Wednesday, while the number of TV stations down was two, one fewer than on Wednesday. The agency said the number of public safety answering points down was seven, compared with 11 the previous day, and that none of the downed PSAPs is without a re-route. In a public notice Thursday, the agency said it would extend its disaster data collection to nine additional Texas counties at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Meanwhile CompTIA encouraged tech companies to make donations, which it said it would help double. AT&T said it would use 25 drones to inspect cell towers and determine network damage in areas of Southeast Texas not accessible to cars or trucks due to flooding. AT&T also said it would deploy two satellite cell on wheels in Beaumont, Texas, and stage 12 more in the area to support customers and first responders following Harvey's second landfall.