The FCC’s Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) is slated to recommend...
The FCC’s Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) is slated to recommend that the FCC take steps to “turn off” the public switched telephone network (PSTN). TAC is examining a proposed “sunset date” for the PSTN, informed in part by when broadband…
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.
is available everywhere under the National Broadband Plan and the rollout of wireless, said TAC officials at a meeting Wednesday. TAC, the advisory panel chaired by Tom Wheeler, met at the FCC Wednesday to discuss what may be its most controversial series of recommendations yet. TAC was recently rechartered for a two-year term with Wheeler again at the helm. A draft report by a TAC working group recommends that the FCC “take steps to prepare for the inevitable transition from the PSTN.” The report also recommends setting a date for the transition when the PSTN would no longer be “the system” of record for the U.S. Among other recommendations are that the FCC examine some form of subsidy for helping public safety answering points make the transition to IP. The report also is expected to examine how regulation needs to change so companies can deploy emerging technologies, which regulations should be kept in place, and which should be eliminated. Working group members agreed to do more work on the implications for regulation of retiring the PSTN in time for TAC’s next meeting in September. “If anything we probably wanted to make the recommendations a little more provocative,” said working group Chairman Adam Drobot, chief technology office of 2M Companies. “As the IP-based solutions become richer and richer … the PSTN will very naturally start decaying. The question is how long do you carry it.” In the end, Wheeler suggested, since everything is just an app in the IP world, there’s “no difference between voice and Angry Birds.” Drobot said the working group is still exploring how wireless fits in to the sweeping changes in wireline. “We thought we had underplayed the role of wireless,” he said. The working group also has not yet agreed on a “date that makes sense” for retiring the PSTN, he said.