Pai Eyes Rural Call Completion, Rural BDS Incentive Plan, Other Actions at April Meeting

Another item would allow the first auction of high-frequency spectrum for 5G to start Nov. 14 and an NPRM would aim to bar USF recipients from using international suppliers that pose national security threats (see 1803260037), Pai said. In addition, the April meeting is expected to consider a proposal to streamline the process for authorizing commercial satellites and media deregulation items on broadcast ancillary services and cable channel listings that aren’t expected to be controversial, FCC officials told us. The tentative agenda and drafts are be released Tuesday.

Pai said rural calls too often aren't completed or are dropped. New rules would "improve the monitoring by long-distance carriers of 'intermediate providers' to which calls are handed off," he blogged. "The goal is to ensure that carriers that are handed a call -- those who take the baton, so to speak -- don’t drop it, but instead take care to ensure it gets to its destination." At the same time, carriers would be freed "from burdensome FCC reporting requirements because those rules haven’t produced reports that are useful to the agency," he said.

The item would also address the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act, which was enacted last month (see 1802270002). "We’ll work diligently to implement this new law, including by seeking public input on certain aspects of rural call completion, and continue to take other measures 'to ensure the integrity of voice communications and to prevent unjust or unreasonable discrimination among areas of the United States in the delivery of such communications' (as the new law instructs)," Pai wrote.

The item is "another commonsense step forward to further ensure rural calls are completed," emailed USTelecom. "Eliminating unnecessary and burdensome regulations will help providers focus on effective approaches to ensuring calls get to their destination, regardless of zipcode.”

The BDS notice "would provide a path for rate-of-return carriers that receive high-cost universal service support under the Alternative Connect America Cost Model [ACAM] to voluntarily elect to migrate their business data services offerings to incentive regulation," Pai said. "[I]ncentive regulation -- that is, rules that set broad goals and reward a company for being productive and efficient in meeting those goals, as opposed to rules (like rate-of-return rules) that simply tell a company what its allowable costs and return on investment will be -- promotes better investment decisions and consumer welfare." He said "incentive regulation also minimizes the administrative burdens of regulation for everyone," companies and regulators: "The bottom line is that incentive regulation will allow carriers to spend scarce resources on things that more directly benefit consumers -- say, investing in better, stronger networks -- instead of paperwork to satisfy archaic rules."

ITTA is "very pleased" Pai plans to act in response to its joint petition with USTelecom "seeking relief from the filing of cost studies by ACAM carriers for their business data services," emailed President Genny Morelli. "We look forward to a quick resolution of the rulemaking so that ACAM carriers can begin experiencing the greater efficiencies and productivity removal of the current outmoded rules will bring about." USTelecom emailed, “Creating a more efficient regulatory framework for small carriers to provide business services will help providers better serve rural business customers and will bring us one step closer to reaching the Chairman’s goal of closing the digital divide.”

Spectrum, Satellite, Media Items

The FCC hopes for an auction of the 28 GHz band in November, followed immediately by a 24 GHz auction, Pai blogged in February at the Mobile World Congress (see 1802260047). He said Monday he's asking commissioners to vote April 17 on a public notice seeking comment on rules for both auctions, a key first step toward a spectrum sale. “By kicking off the pre-auction processes, we take another important step to promote American innovation in 5G wireless services, the Internet of Things, and other advanced spectrum-based services at previously underused high-band frequencies,” Pai said.

The FCC also plans to vote on a proposal to streamline the authorization process for small commercial satellite operations. “If satellites or systems have certain characteristics, such as short orbital lifetimes, they could choose to file under a new, alternative small-satellite process,” Pai said. "This process would be less burdensome in some respects, while still addressing important issues such as using spectrum efficiently and limiting orbital debris.” The proposal is intended to help the FCC process applications for constellations of satellites, Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup told us. The NPRM isn’t expected to be controversial, he said.

A draft order that would change reporting requirements so broadcasters who receive no income from ancillary services would no longer need to file a form reporting on such income is “simple common sense,” Pai blogged. “Taking this step would eliminate unnecessary paperwork,” he said. The proposal got no opposition after being teed up in an NPRM last year (see 1710240062), and the Media Bureau already waived the last deadline for reporting ancillary service income for broadcasters that don’t receive such income in anticipation of the form requirement being eliminated (see 1711160027).

That same NPRM also contained a more controversial proposal to do away with requirements that broadcasters provide public notice in print publications of applications and transfers, but the draft item set for the April agenda doesn’t go there, FCC officials told us. The agency wouldn’t comment on the draft item’s contents, but the blog doesn’t mention notice requirements and emphasizes the lack of opposition, and FCC officials told us the draft item narrowly concerns ancillary services. Broadcasters supported the proposal to get rid of the notice requirements, but it had received pushback from opponents of media consolidation, newspaper publishers, and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (see 1801020044).

The agenda also includes a second media modernization item that would seek comment on eliminating a requirement that cable carriers maintain hard copy channel listings at their local offices. “Talk about outdated; channel listings are a quick Internet search away, making absurd the notion of a trip to the company office for the answer,” Pai blogged. American Cable Association Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman praised the proposal as removing an unnecessary burden for cable operators. Such listings are available in so many ways that the proposal would not disadvantage consumers “one iota,” he said. An FCC official said removing the hard copy requirement isn’t likely to raise objections, but there could be some transparency concerns about language in the draft NPRM that such listings wouldn’t be included in the online public file.