Section 706 Authority, 911 Reliability Among NARUC Meeting's Focuses

NARUC members will consider one telecom-related resolution, which would object to the FCC’s findings about utilities’ access to spectrum for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and smart grid systems. The resolution would urge the FCC to reconsider its position and give utilities “expeditious access” to spectrum for SCADA and smart grid systems because they are important for protecting utilities’ services (see 1411100042). NARUC was also set to elect its 2014-2015 officers Monday, with current NARUC First Vice President Lisa Edgar of Florida seen likely to become the group’s president. The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) is to hold its annual meeting concurrent with NARUC’s meeting.

A panel on state regulators’ use of Section 706 authority will headline the NARUC Telecom Committee’s program at the meeting, said Committee Chairman Chris Nelson of South Dakota. The discussion will focus on how far states’ Section 706 authority extends following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Verizon v. FCC, said Nelson, who is to moderate the discussion. National Regulatory Research Institute Principal Researcher Sherry Lichtenberg said she's interested to hear the discussion “given the fact that 34 states have said ‘no regulation of IP services.’ I’m looking forward to hearing that one.”

Aspects of the net neutrality debate apart from Section 706 will also come up during NARUC, though not to the same degree as during the group’s July meeting, Lichtenberg and Nelson said. NARUC’s board approved a resolution at that meeting encouraging the FCC to use Section 706 as its main legal justification for new net neutrality rules and to use Titles I, II and III as backup justification (see 1407170063). Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell, NCTA president, was expected to discuss the FCC net neutrality NPRM and Title II reclassification Monday as part of a Q&A with NARUC President Colette Honorable, an NCTA spokesman said. A separate panel Wednesday will focus on IP-based voice interconnection and state regulation of interconnection.

District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairwoman Betty Ann Kane said she sponsored the resolution on utilities’ access to spectrum for SCADA and smart grid systems in response to commissioners’ “growing concerns” about utilities “having access to secure spectrum." Those concerns stemmed from an FCC September order allowing Maritime Communications/Land Mobile’s (MCLM) requested transfer of an automated maritime telecom system (AMTS) spectrum license to the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) to be processed without a hearing. The order denied MCLM’s request to process an application to transfer other AMTS spectrum to a set of electric, gas and oil companies without a hearing. SCRRA wants to use the AMTS spectrum for positive train control (PTC).

It's been "very frustrating for many commissioners and utilities to gain access to good-quality spectrum” amid growing state commission activity on smart meters and concerns about security, Kane said. Utilities "don’t get any kind of priority," she said. "I was frankly shocked to find that the FCC had said PTC gets priority. That’s an important thing and nobody’s questioning PTC getting priority access.” If "you look at the impact of reliability and safety nationwide, certainty I don’t think” utilities shouldn’t also get priority, said Kane.

NARUC’s Telecom Committee is the main committee considering the resolution because it involves spectrum allocation, but the Gas Committee has also asked to provide input, Kane said. It’s possible that the Electricity and Water committees could also seek involvement, she said. It wasn't clear Friday how much support the resolution had, but that would become clearer once the Staff Subcommittee on Telecom voted on the resolution Sunday, Kane said. The Telecom Committee was scheduled to vote on the resolution Monday, followed by a vote by NARUC’s board Tuesday. NARUC members will vote on the resolution Wednesday. Nelson said he’s “looking forward” to the Telecom Committee’s discussion about Kane’s resolution, but said it’s not an issue that the committee “has had any discussion about in our bi-weekly telephone calls.”

A Monday panel on the USF contribution base will have important policy implications, Lichtenberg and Nelson separately said. The discussion is to center on issues the FCC’s Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service is examining as it decides on recommendations to the FCC on how to reform the USF contributions methodology, particularly as it relates to imbalances in fund contribution caused by broadband systems. A Tuesday panel on next-generation 911 will focus on recent reliability issues, including the multistate 911 outage in April that resulted in more than 6,600 emergency calls going unanswered. The FCC said a “preventable software error” at a 911 call processing center in Englewood, Colorado, was responsible for the outage (see 1410170057). The NARUC panel will also focus on how states should be involved in addressing 911 outages and how they should work with the FCC on 911 regulation, Nelson said.

The NARUC meeting will also include two discussions about municipal broadband, both led by Lichtenberg. NRRI’s report to NARUC focuses on municipal broadband deployment and state laws regulating those deployments. The NRRI said municipal broadband networks can “fill in” gaps in broadband coverage and can be successful if the community supports deployment and if the network has a solid business plan at the outset. The report also said the effects of service limitations like those included in municipal broadband laws in North Carolina and Tennessee are difficult to assess, but said the “ultimate decision” on broadband deployment rested with state legislatures. The report frequently mentioned petitions to the FCC from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and from Wilson, North Carolina, seeking pre-emption of their states’ municipal broadband laws, but noted that the FCC’s decision won’t end the debate.

“We’ll have a good discussion” on municipal broadband at the NARUC meeting, but “it’s not one of our biggest issues,” Nelson said. "Our biggest objective is trying to convince the FCC not to take away the authority of states to regulate that as each individual state sees fit. Obviously, that’s going to come to a head sooner rather than later.”