NARUC Telecom Committee Advances Utility Spectrum Allocation Resolution
SAN FRANCISCO -- NARUC’s Telecom Committee voted Monday for a resolution that would urge the FCC to allow utilities and other critical infrastructure industries equalized access to spectrum licenses for supervisory control and data acquisition and smart grid systems. The resolution would also urge the FCC to reconsider the “precedential effects” of the position it stated in a September order allowing a spectrum license transfer involving positive train control (PTC) to be processed without a hearing while denying a similar request involving a spectrum transfer to a group of utilities (see 1411140060). NARUC’s Gas Committee tabled the resolution Monday. The NARUC board will consider the resolution Tuesday, followed by a vote by all NARUC members Wednesday.
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The vote followed a Staff Telecom Subcommittee vote Sunday to postpone consideration of the resolution until NARUC’s February meeting in Washington, D.C. Karlen Reed, Massachusetts Department of Telecom and Cable director-Competition Bureau, said she was concerned that other NARUC committees should have had jurisdiction over the resolution before the Telecom Committee, and that the committee hadn’t been actively discussing the issues the resolution deals with. Other Staff Subcommittee members raised similar concerns.
District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairwoman Betty Ann Kane, who sponsored the resolution, urged the Telecom Committee to “move forward” with the resolution at the current meeting, noting that it would empower NARUC to file comments in two open FCC dockets. The two open dockets -- 11-71 and 13-85 -- relate to petitions for reconsideration related to the allocation of Maritime Communications/Land Mobile’s (MCLM) automated maritime telecom system (AMTS) spectrum. “The timing is important,” Kane said, noting that if NARUC waited until its February meeting to consider the resolution, it would miss the chance to comment on the petitions.
Utilities Telecom Council Assistant Secretary/Treasurer Michael Oldak and Edison Electric Institute counsel Russell Frisby, a Stinson Morrison lawyer, urged the Telecom Committee to vote for the resolution. Critical infrastructure industries need to be considered for AMTS spectrum allocations on an equal footing with PTC because they need spectrum to protect their systems from “100-year events” like the June 2012 derecho that resulted in widespread power outages in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states, Oldak said. Jolynn Butler, AT&T executive director-state and legislative affairs strategy, urged the Telecom Committee to delay consideration of the resolution until the committee could more fully explore the implications for FirstNet and other systems. Butler noted that the FCC’s proceedings with MCLM involve an investigation of wrongdoing. Kane said the resolution doesn’t deal with the FCC investigation of MCLM.
Several Telecom Committee members said they were concerned about the complexity of the issues surrounding the resolution and they would have preferred to have had more advance knowledge of the issue, but ended up voting for the resolution anyway. Committee Co-Vice Chairwoman Catherine Sandoval said she would support the resolution, noting that FCC work on allocation of spectrum to utilities has been “insufficiently cognizant” of the role information technology to utilities. Virgin Islands Public Service Commissioner Johann Clendenin said he believed “inaction” on the resolution would be worse than moving forward without additional briefings. Florida Public Service Commissioner Richard Brisé said he was concerned the committee would be “doing ourselves a disservice” by moving forward with the resolution without further consideration of the policy issues involved.
The Telecom Committee also approved resolutions honoring retiring Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Anne Boyle and former West Virginia Public Service Commissioner Ryan Palmer, who resigned to become Wireline Bureau deputy chief. Democrat Crystal Rhoades, Douglas County Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative coordinator, won the race to replace Boyle on the Nebraska PSC (see 1411050037).