Commissioner Mike O'Rielly asked the FCC to "Stop Unfairly Censoring Commissioners." In a blog post with that title Wednesday, he sought a change in the way the agency is applying a rule intended to protect nonpublic information, which he said "hinders commissioners' ability to engage in the fulsome dialogue and obtain the data needed to most thoroughly and thoughtfully consider and comment on items." O'Rielly also said the rule is "being applied discriminatorily as Commissioners are silenced while the Chairman, the Commission’s media relations team and select staff are not only allowed to openly discuss items, but also post blogs, tweet, issue fact sheets, brief the press, and inform favored outside parties" about the content of items. "While I’d prefer to make certain draft documents available to the public and will continue to fight for this, other changes could help improve transparency in the meantime," he said. "As a first step, let’s make it standard procedure that all Commissioners and their staffs can discuss the substance of items on circulation or a meeting agenda, minus adjudicatory law enforcement items. To effectuate this, the Chairman should provide blanket written approval to the Commissioners to permit open discussion about the items before us."
A court set a briefing schedule running through June on NARUC's challenge to an FCC order allowing interconnected VoIP providers to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering administrators (see 1601050050). NARUC's brief is due April 4; the FCC's response is due May 19; intervenor's (Vonage) brief supporting the commission is due May 26; NARUC's reply brief is due June 9; and final briefs (which include an appendix) are due June 30, said an order Wednesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in NARUC v. FCC, No. 15-1497. The order noted that oral argument is typically at least 45 days after briefing is completed.
The FCC should consider Lifeline USF changes to "allow for subsidy aggregation to support ongoing efforts to bring fast and affordable broadband to public housing residents," New York City officials said in a meeting with staffers for Commissioner Mignon Clyburn summarized in a filing Friday in FCC docket 11-42. The NYC officials shared details of a recent trip to learn more about "Philadelphia's efforts to win unprecedented concessions from Comcast to support low income families," the filing said. They also highlighted "the importance of Wi-Fi networks" to the city's connectivity efforts and updated the status of a franchise contract proposal, "from negotiations with cable providers to efforts to convert payphones on City property to payphone and wi-fi facilities." The NYC officials "voiced strong support" for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal "to unlock the set top box market to give consumers more choice by allowing for competition," the filing said. The city officials also met with Gigi Sohn and another aide to Wheeler and with Wireline Bureau staff, other filings said (see here and here).
Google Fiber is rolling out in Huntsville, Alabama, using part of a fiber network that municipally owned Huntsville Utilities plans to build, Google said in a blog post Monday. Google said it has built most of its fiber networks from scratch but found every city was unique, prompting it to take different approaches in different places. "Few places are better positioned than Huntsville to show what’s possible with top Internet speeds. The Rocket City boasts the highest concentration of engineers in the country, and ranks among the best places in the country for STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] workers. Ultrafast Internet will help enable Huntsville to remain at the forefront of science and tech," said Google, which noted it responded to a collaboration request from the city to fiber providers. Google said that Huntsville Utilities will design and construct its network after receiving final approvals. "Google Fiber, or any other broadband provider" will then be able to provide high-speed Internet service to the city's residents, Google said, noting that Huntsville will join 20 other metropolitan areas where the company is "serving customers, designing and building networks, or exploring the possibility of Google Fiber." Fiber to the Home Council Americas applauded Google and Huntsville for their public-private partnership to bring gigabit fiber to the city's residents. "All fiber networks are essential for communities," FTTH Council CEO Heather Burnett Gold said in an emailed statement. "Each community should have every opportunity to get better broadband."
The FCC said Friday that it’s circulating a policy statement that an agency official and industry lobbyist separately said would adopt the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council’s (CSRIC) 2015 report on recommendations for communications sector cybersecurity risk management. The CSRIC report, which was meant to adapt the National Institute of Standards and Technology-facilitated Cybersecurity Framework for communications sector use, included nine recommendations to the FCC on how the agency can encourage industry use of the NIST framework and other cybersecurity best practices. The private sector also voluntarily committed via the CSRIC report to promoting the use of FCC-initiated confidential meetings with individual companies to discuss their cyber risks and their use of cybersecurity best practices (see 1503180056). The policy statement would in part set up a process for conducting the confidential FCC-private sector meetings, an industry lobbyist told us.
FCC proposals on industry regulatory fees and consumer protection are circulating, according to the agency’s list of such items, which was updated Friday. One NPRM would seek comment on a schedule of industry regulatory fees to conform with congressional appropriations mandates for FY 2016, a commission spokesman said Monday. A second NPRM would propose rules to address federal debt collection under Telephone Consumer Protection Act amendments in 2015, which gave the FCC nine months (from enactment) to adopt any new restrictions, another commission spokesman said. He said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is making various proposals to help consumers avoid unwanted debt collection robocalls, including on: consumer rights to stop unwanted calls; limiting calls only to debt collection of delinquent debts, including debt servicing calls that can help consumers avoid default; and limiting the number of calls per month.
NARUC opposed any Lifeline USF changes that would usurp state regulators' role in designating eligible telecom carrier (ETCs) participation in the program subsidizing low-income telecom service. NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay met with FCC officials recently to discuss proposals by others that the agency give Lifeline USF support to non-ETCs, establish a federal designation process that bypasses state ETC designations in the first instance, or fund broadband without requiring carriers to provide voice service. “The impetus for this seems to be the misguided notion that, by cutting States out of the process, it will somehow encourage cable providers of broadband services to focus on providing facilities-based lifeline service at a discounted rate very close to the current lifeline subsidy rate,” Ramsay said in a filing posted Friday in docket 11-42. He said the Communications Act doesn't allow the FCC to: create a federal ETC designation process bypassing state commissions from the beginning, give funds to entities that aren’t telecom service providers and are ETCs, or give subsidies to carriers that don’t offer all designated support services. He said Section 214(e) makes “crystal clear” that states are to designate carriers as ETCs before they can receive USF support and that the FCC has no ETC role unless the state can't act due to state law. He also said the proposals were bad policy because they would: take “state cops off the beat” and thus lead to more Lifeline fraud and abuse; undermine other state efforts to promote service to low-income consumers; seem unlikely to succeed in getting cable and others to provide Lifeline service; and “certainly will undermine the program’s service quality.” AT&T, Comcast, Public Knowledge and others have urged eliminating or streamlining Lifeline ETC designation requirements. Ramsay met with aides to all four regular FCC commissioners or gave them copies of the filing. He also met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's counselor Gigi Sohn, incoming Wireless Bureau Chief Jon Wilkins, Wireline Bureau Telecom Access Policy Division Chief Ryan Palmer and Eric Feigenbaum of the Office of Media Relations. Some lobbying was during NARUC's meetings last week in Washington, where a resolution was adopted on Lifeline (see 1602150004).
The FCC released in a Friday public notice the final report of its Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture, which the group approved Jan. 29 (see 1601290051). The report combines three working group reports on PSAP funding, cybersecurity and optimal PSAP architecture, which were largely completed last year (see 1512100043). The task force has another year to run. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at the Jan. 29 task force meeting that he will make advocacy of more funding for next-generation 911 his top priority every time he appears before Congress in his remaining time as chairman. The FCC said it plans another notice on the work that it will ask the group to do this year.
FirstNet delayed the deadline for final request for proposal submissions for the deployment of a U.S. public safety broadband network by two weeks -- from April 29 to May 13 -- and pushed back the final day to submit voluntary capability statements by two weeks, to March 31, a news release said Friday. The extended deadlines were in response to the more than 400 questions FirstNet received on the RFP, it said. FirstNet also released the first set of answers to the industry RFP questions, most of which focused on "administrative actions and procurement processes," a FirstNet Q&A overview fact sheet said. The remaining answers to submitted stakeholder questions "will be provided on a rolling basis as expeditiously as possible," FirstNet said. "We are pleased with the interest and questions we received from industry, states, and public safety regarding the FirstNet RFP," CEO Mike Poth said in a statement. Poth called the opportunity for stakeholders to submit questions and have them answered a "vital next step in the iterative process as potential offerors work to craft their proposed solutions" to deploy a network for first responders and said FirstNet staff "are diligently working to answer each question" from stakeholders. FirstNet said it will work to post any amendments to the RFP it deems necessary after reviewing questions "as quickly as possible" and "may do so in increments." FirstNet will host a pre-proposal conference on the RFP March 10 in the afternoon at its headquarters in Reston, Virginia.
TechFreedom sued the Federal Aviation Administration, saying it exceeded the agency's authority when it imposed a $5 registration fee for drones that weigh more than 0.55 pounds (see 1512140019). “Whether or not requiring drone registration is a wise policy, the rules the FAA rushed out before Christmas are unlawful,” TechFreedom President Berin Szoka said in a statement on the lawsuit. Szoka said the FAA didn't give the public an opportunity to comment on the regulations, meaning the agency wasn't able to consider "the real-world complexities of drones," which could lead to unintended consequences. Tom Struble, policy counsel for the group, said the notice-and-comment rulemaking process gives agencies stakeholder viewpoints so it can assess "competing considerations." He also called the cost-benefit analysis in the FAA's interim drone regulations "paltry." The FAA said it doesn't comment on pending litigation.