Siding with NTCA, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office ...
Siding with NTCA, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy told the FCC it agreed with concerns raised by small wireline carriers about a further notice on wireless local number portability (LNP). Some wireline companies urged the FCC…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
in comments last month not to impose costly technical solutions to ease wireless-to-wireline number porting in cases in which there was a mismatch between the rate center associated with a wireless number and the one in which a wireline operator would serve the customer. NTCA in particular criticized the notice as procedurally flawed, saying the questions it raised should have been covered by a notice of inquiry. In a filing at the FCC, the Office of Advocacy, an independent arm of SBA, agreed, saying it had concerns about the vagueness of the notice and the extent to which its initial regulatory flexibility analysis (IRFA) didn’t comply with the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The office “agrees with comments filed on behalf of wireline carriers, including small, rural wireline carriers in particular, that the changes suggested by the FCC’s further notice would impose significant economic burdens,” it said. It recommended that the Commission convert the further notice to an inquiry and not move ahead on those issues until it published a proposed rule. The proposal should have “specific regulatory requirements and a meaningful IRFA with consideration and analysis of significant alternatives that minimize the economic impact on small wireline carriers,” the filing said. The office said the FCC’s further notice didn’t lay out specific compliance requirements, recordkeeping requirements or cost information for small businesses. While the further notice contains an IRFA that seeks comment on 2 options for facilitating wireless-to-wireline porting, “it does not address how these options will minimize any significant economic impact on small businesses,” the office said. The filing said it agreed with comments to the Commission that requiring wireless-to-wireline number portability where the rate centers did not match would impose significant burdens on small wireline carriers.”