The FCC Consumer Advisory Committee approved recommendations to the agency by its Truth-in-Billing (TIB) Working Group. CAC was also warned that scam robocalls are evolving under COVID-19 and consumers need to be vigilant. Members met virtually Monday.
The FCC is seeking to better assess emergency communications reliability by adding data fields to the network outage reporting and 911 reliability certification systems, the Public Safety Bureau said. On an FCBA CLE webinar, also Monday, T-Mobile officials raised some related cautions. North Carolina, meanwhile, hasn’t faced major challenges with emergency-call delivery amid the coronavirus but can't “let our guard down,” the state’s 911 Board Executive Director Pokey Harris said in a Thursday interview.
Industry, policymakers and consumer advocates are seeking new ways to expand Lifeline enrollment and benefits in response to the public health and economic crisis, we're told. Some advocates are pursuing emergency funding to provide a more robust residential broadband Lifeline benefit to meet the demands of working and learning at home. Stay-at-home orders put restraints on Lifeline promotion and enrollment.
States have authority to require 72 hours of backup power at wireless cellsites, the Greenlining Institute replied Thursday in docket R.18-03-011 at the California Public Utilities Commission. It disagreed with T-Mobile, which said it’s illegal for CPUC to regulate wireless carriers (see 2004060061). Greenlining cited Communications Act Section 332.
Commissioners are expected Thursday to approve 5-0 an order and Further NPRM allowing unlicensed sharing throughout 6 GHz, FCC and industry officials said in interviews last week. A few tweaks are anticipated, but no material changes, despite widespread concerns raised by many groups about harmful interference from indoor devices that don’t use automated frequency control (AFC). Chairman Ajit Pai said agency engineers fully vetted the technology and believe sharing doesn’t pose a risk to the huge number of incumbents across the 1,200 megahertz (see 2004060062).
T-Mobile/Sprint got its final OK, as California Public Utilities Commissioners voted 5-0 Thursday for a revised proposal that reasserted the agency’s authority to review the deal and adjusted some conditions (see 2004150058). The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said it's disappointed the CPUC didn’t punish carriers for closing their deal two weeks before the scheduled vote.
It took White House proxy support and concerns about commercial spectrum being essentially claimed by federal agencies to break the years-old logjam of Ligado's proposed terrestrial use of L-band spectrum with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's decision to circulate a draft approval order (see 2004160019), we were told Thursday. Swift action could be next, with multiple commissioners' offices expecting to vote on it this week. An array of primarily aerospace interests urged the FCC to close and dismiss the proceeding.
The FTC created an agency-wide pandemic response team and a pandemic-specific plan to address evolving COVID-19 issues, according to documents we obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Chairman Joe Simons declined to share the plan's annex with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., calling it “nonpublic” in a March 13 letter to the Senate Commerce Committee ranking member. Federal guidance on COVID-19 hasn’t "always kept up with the most pressing concerns expressed by FTC staff,” Simons wrote. He recommended a “timely and consolidated” source or site for federal agencies to plan for and “adapt to quickly changing circumstances.”
State regulators will scrutinize Frontier Communications as the midsize carrier goes through bankruptcy, commissioners told us Wednesday. Some felt reassured by the company pledging uninterrupted service and no change to selling some systems in the U.S. Northwest and West.
The California Public Utilities Commission plans to act soon on COVID-19 responses via state LifeLine and the California Advanced Services Fund. “Swift action by the Commission in response to issues that have a nexus with COVID-19 impact mitigation is appropriate,” CPUC Administrative Law Judge Brian Stevens wrote in a ruling emailed Monday to the service list in R.12-10-012. The Communications Division will mail a proposal to be voted on by commissioners modifying the CASF adoption account, said Stevens. Later this month, the agency will release a proposed decision on emergency LifeLine measures for COVID-19, said assigned Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma in a Monday scoping memo in docket R.20-02-008, detailing a schedule for broader LifeLine changes. “This process will reflect our continued commitment to ensure access to voice services across the state, as federal subsidies for voice services decline, and our policy goals for increasing program participation and access to broadband services,” Shiroma wrote. Fund authorizations “will require ... sufficient information from Program carriers.” The CPUC will weigh more funding to spur wireless carriers to meet or exceed federal Lifeline minimum broadband requirements, and “to incentivize carriers to provide broadband packages for wireline participants,” she said. Comments on the scoping memo are due May 4, replies May 26. The agency will host a status conference June 23, with comments due July 7, replies July 17. The CPUC plans to release a PD in August or September, voting at least 30 days later. Shiroma agreed with commenters who asked to priortize revamping the renewals process (see 2004060061). A working group will file a proposal to improve renewals in Q4 2020 or Q1 2021 and the CPUC will issue a proposed decision within 90 days. An external contractor will assess LifeLine Q3 2020-Q2 2021 to find ways to improve participation and renewals, and the commission plans to make a proposed decision on recommendations in Q4 2021, she said.