With Top Aides Leaving, Clyburn Discusses Accomplishments
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Thursday another key staffer, Chief of Staff David Grossman, is leaving her office. Clyburn announced his departure in a news release, which also discussed the departure of wireline aide Claude Aiken (see 1803220014), who's expected to be named president of the Wireless ISP Association. But with Senate Democrats yet to say for certain whom they collectively want as Clyburn’s replacement, she hasn't said when she'll leave the FCC. Clyburn spoke to the Competitive Carriers Association Thursday in a speech that had the feel of being a victory lap. She didn’t discuss her plans.
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Clyburn is replacing the two aides from within the FCC. Neşe Guendelsberger, senior deputy chief of the Wireless Bureau and former acting chief of the bureau, is replacing Aiken on wireline, said a news release. Michael Scurato, legal adviser to the chief of the Enforcement Bureau, will take over Grossman’s media portfolio. Clyburn called the departures “a huge loss to the office.” Senate Democrats appear to be coalescing around Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's, D-N.Y., recommended choice to replace Clyburn -- Enforcement Bureau Assistant Chief Geoffrey Starks (see 1803200055). Industry lawyers said they expect Clyburn to announce her departure date when there's something official on her replacement.
In a speech to CCA, streamed from Las Vegas, Clyburn said FCC rules mustn’t work against the interests of competitive carriers. “We must adopt and enforce rules that give CCA members a fair shot at competing with your larger counterparts,” she said.
Clyburn discussed specifically lower 700 MHz interoperability, an issue addressed in 2013 while she was acting chairwoman of the FCC, not through an order but through an agreement she forced between AT&T and smaller carriers (see 1309110036). Clyburn also touched on the pending Mobility Fund II auction, the need for “targeted and smart” reforms of the Lifeline program and the importance of data roaming, all issues which she championed.
It took more than four years for the FCC to address 700 MHz interoperability, but “that is a short period of time compared with the effort it has taken” to hold an MF-II auction, Clyburn said. Many don’t realize that “millions of Americans” still don’t have access to mobile broadband in the areas where they live, she said. “This is why I have been an outspoken supporter of a mobility fund that provides ongoing support for companies like CCA members” that “understood well before this commission did the importance of mobile broadband in areas where service would be unavailable absent federal support.”
Clyburn said an FCC proposal to limit Lifeline support to just facilities-based providers would be particularly harmful (see 1802220061). “Wireless resellers provide service to 70 percent of citizens who are eligible for the monthly Lifeline subsidy so, if that proposed rule and others go into effect, they would have a devastating impact on millions who rely on wireless resellers, whose low rates, together with the $9.25 subsidy, is the only way those families can afford wireless services,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Rural Wireless Association Thursday asked the FCC to extend the challenge process in the MF-II proceeding, which started Thursday. RWA also filed a petition for review of the challenge process. The 150-day challenge window runs through Aug. 17. RWA asked the FCC to extend it until 150 days after the FCC addresses the petition for review. The FCC declined comment.
“Stakeholders cannot rely upon the Commission’s challenge process to adequately address the MFII eligibility map’s shortcomings,” said Carri Bennet, RWA general counsel, in a news release. “Under the Commission’s rules, small rural carriers will have difficulty accessing private property to perform the tests needed to mount a challenge and even if they are able to gain access will be forced to mount challenges by testing on foot, or via drones, horseback, four-wheeler, or crop duster."
The question RWA presents for review “is whether the … decision to adopt a one kilometer grid cell size and 1⁄4 kilometer buffer radius conflicts with established Commission policy, involves application of a policy which should be overturned or revised, involves an erroneous finding as to an important or material question of fact, or constitutes prejudicial procedural error,” the petition for review argues. The application “answers each of these questions in the affirmative,” the filing said.
The Competitive Carriers Association also urged the FCC to fix the MF-II map. “Anyone who lives or travels to rural areas will know first-hand that the FCC’s map does not reflect the true on-the-ground consumer experience,” CCA said. “While the challenge process began today, we look forward to next month’s release of additional resources. It is absolutely critical for the FCC to have accurate, reliable data; otherwise, there is a real risk that unserved and underserved areas will not be eligible for critical Mobility Fund II support that will help close the digital divide.”