NTIA Asks FCC To Help Federal Agencies With IP Transition Challenges
NTIA urged the FCC to be “prepared to address” challenges facing federal agencies and departments as the telecom industry moves from circuit-switched copper phone networks to packet-switched, IP-based systems using fiber and other broadband platforms. Most federal agencies will continue to “rely heavily” on traditional TDM services and copper-based networks to support “mission-critical communications capabilities, including national security, public safety, and emergency activities,” said NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling in a letter posted Thursday in the FCC’s docket 13-5 on the IP technology transition. Given that reliance, “an accelerated shift to IP-based services may entail significant, unexpected costs for federal users,” and that's a particular problem for federal agencies, which face complicated budgeting and implementation issues, he said.
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The NTIA letter was among the many filings as FCC lobbying restrictions took effect Thursday, a week before the commission plans to vote on two draft orders circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler that are intended to protect wholesale competition and consumers during the IP technology transition (see 1507100050). Competitive LECs and allies are pressing the FCC to ensure incumbent LECs can’t use the transition as an excuse to raise rates for incumbent circuits serving wholesale and retail business customers or to engage in “de facto” copper retirement. But the ILECs say the critics are seeking unnecessary and counterproductive regulation that will slow the industry move to advanced IP-based systems over higher-capacity fiber connections.
Strickling said the IP changes may require federal agencies to buy new IP-compatible equipment and services, with "special construction costs" also possible when existing services are discontinued and replacement services need new infrastructure. Price hikes “can present unique challenges for federal agencies because of the timeframe and uncertainties inherent in the budgeting, appropriations, and procurement process,” he said. “Many agencies have not yet budgeted for, or begun to implement, a complete transition to IP services,” a process that could “span a decade or more,” he said. Because federal agency services are often mission-critical, “it is vital that the actual changes to circuits and services (including any discontinuation of particular services and/or functionalities) be made with appropriate planning and testing.” He urged “the FCC to take concrete steps” to help agencies and carriers find “solutions to address the critical mission needs of federal agencies.”
Strickling welcomed the FCC’s recently announced plans to establish criteria for comparing replacement and legacy services. He said federal agencies sometimes need only voice-grade or 64 kbps digital services. “Through discussions with carriers, however, some agencies have discovered that the minimum service level offered for an IP-enabled service may be considerably higher, perhaps as high as 10 [Mbps],” he said. “Such a large change in available service options (if accompanied by a significant change in price) raises discontinuance concerns, but also may call into question a carrier's compliance with its Section 201 obligation to provide service upon reasonable request and on just and reasonable terms.”
One FCC IP transition draft order would require ILECs to notify consumers and competitors of copper retirement plans, and offer competitors replacement wholesale services at rates, terms and conditions that are “reasonably comparable” to those of legacy services, FCC officials said. It would also define copper retirement in a way “to prevent retirement of networks by neglect (sometimes referred to as ‘de facto retirement’),” an FCC fact sheet said. CLECs have welcomed those proposals while ILECs have expressed concerns. The other draft order would require providers to inform consumers about their electrical power limitations and give them the option of buying at least eight hours of backup power capability.