BALTIMORE -- State members of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service are ready to recommend how to revamp USF contribution, said State Chair Chris Nelson at a NARUC meeting. State members met unofficially Sunday without their FCC counterparts, Nelson told us. Monday, the NARUC Telecom Committee delayed voting on two competing Lifeline resolutions, but voted for a draft resolution to support requiring direct dialing of 911 in hotels and other enterprises.
Stakeholders objected to proposed FCC Lifeline actions in a draft item on the agenda for next Thursday's commissioners' meeting, with many against a possible move to eliminate low-income funding support for resellers. Wireless industry parties, civil rights advocates, tribal groups and others voiced concerns about the combined draft orders and notices, in meetings and filings posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 11-42.
The Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee approved six sets of recommendations for speeding deployment of wireless and wireline infrastructure Thursday, but disagreements surfaced, especially from the local government officials appointed to the group. The FCC posted the documents for the committee, which meets again in January to finalize recommendations.
Officials working for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai have often used Twitter to slam news critical about the commission, according to our eight-month review of social media activities. Also unlike at DOJ, the FTC and NTIA, FCC aides using their government Twitter accounts regularly praise the substance of reporting that sheds a positive light on the agency under Pai. Some of the negative tweets may not abide by best practices, FCC responses to our Freedom of Information Act requests show.
The 911 grant program should target funds to proofs of concept in urban, suburban and rural areas, while requiring interoperability, APCO commented this week on revised implementation rules proposed by NTIA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (see 1709200043). Also in docket NTIA-2017-0002, some state and local agencies urged the agencies not to exclude certain areas from grants. The 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act made $115 million available from the Public Safety Trust Fund for the 911 grant program, which funds improvements to 911, E-911 and next-generation 911 services and applications. NTIA and NHTSA plan to award NG-911 grants in FY 2018, which started Oct. 1 (see 1701200026).
Electric utilities pushed "creative and common sense" FCC pole-attachment solutions for communications providers that recognize the safety and reliability of their power infrastructure. "Utility poles have already become crowded, and will become more so with hundreds of thousands of new 5G wireless and other attachments expected to be installed," said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-84 by members of the Coalition of Concerned Utilities on meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide to Commission Mignon Clyburn. They repeated support for "One-Touch, Make-Ready" changes, "identified attachment management tools" to help address process delays and "proposed economic and other incentives to encourage utility pole owners to problem solve" issues. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said broadband service providers were trying to blame pole-attachment rates for rural broadband deployment difficulties even though deployment is largely driven by population density. Electric co-ops "offered major service providers the federal cable rate or even free pole attachments in exchange for coverage of their entire cooperative service territory," said a NRECA filing on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "The offers were not accepted, indicating that pole attachment rates are not the impediment to deployment some major providers claim." Noting a draft order on the Nov. 16 tentative agenda (see 1710270040), Comcast and Charter Communications urged the FCC to reaffirm "longstanding precedent holding that overlashers need not 'obtain additional approval from or consent of the utility for overlashing other than the approval obtained for the host attachment,' and 'are not required to give prior notice to utilities before overlashing,'" said a filing on commission meetings. (Overlashing defined.)
Expect lively debate about Lifeline at the NARUC annual meeting Nov. 11-15 in Baltimore, said Telecom Committee members and staff in interviews. In separate NARUC telecom draft resolutions, Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades and District of Columbia PSC Chairman Betty Ann Kane disagreed whether Lifeline should support reseller services (see 1710310051). The conflict is likely to be the “hot item” at the NARUC meeting and already is spurring discussion and lobbying, said NARUC Telecommunications Staff Subcommittee Chair Lynn Notarianni, from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. A less contentious draft resolution aims to show a united front by states in favor of requiring direct dialing of 911 in hotels and other enterprises, said Colorado PUC Commissioner Wendy Moser.
States with dwindling intrastate USF revenue aren't waiting for the FCC to decide how to revamp federal contribution. The Nebraska Public Service Commission this week became the second state regulator to adopt connections-based contribution to replace a revenue-based model. A representative for small rural companies applauded and said it’s time for the FCC to act. The Utah PSC previously adopted a connections mechanism that will take effect Jan. 1 (see 1710240042). The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission may soon hold stakeholder discussions about moving to connections.
Puerto Rico ISP Open Mobile says hurricane-disrupted service could be fully restored to its 250,000 customers across the island by year's end, as long as electricity is similarly restored. "Nothing could prepare us for what happened," said OM Advertising Manager Ricardo Hernandez. He called Hurricane Irma, which preceded Maria, "like a dress rehearsal" that had OM working on restoring towers.
Two NARUC draft telecom resolutions disagree on whether Lifeline should support reseller services. Tuesday, NARUC revealed three draft telecom resolutions on Lifeline and E-911 for its annual meeting Nov. 12-15 in Baltimore. One by Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades would urge the FCC to keep providing Lifeline funds to non-facilities-based carriers “because they have been crucial in ensuring that low-income households are connected to telecommunication services.” The FCC sought comment on discontinuing that support in a draft NPRM released as part of a Lifeline package that’s scheduled for vote at commissioners’ Nov. 16 meeting (see 1710270013). The Rhoades draft said such an action would “disconnect millions of low-income households.” Another draft by District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairman Betty Ann Kane takes the other side. Not requiring federal Lifeline participants to use their own facilities “removes any incentive for companies to invest in and to build voice-only or voice and broadband-capable facilities and, thereby, subverts the Act’s principle of promoting access to advanced telecommunications services as set forth in section 254(b),” it said. The Kane resolution also would support several other FCC tentative decisions from the Lifeline proposal, including to (1) eliminate the stand-alone Lifeline Broadband Provider designation, (2) reverse the agency’s pre-emption of State regulatory authority to designate eligible telecommunications carriers and (3) require that Lifeline broadband service providers must also provide voice services. A third draft resolution, by Colorado Public Utilities Commissioner Wendy Moser, would support federal and state actions to require enterprise communications systems (ECS) “manufacturers, installers, and operators to design and configure ECS to allow direct dialing of 9-1-1, route 9-1-1 calls to the proper PSAP [public service answering point] regardless of the particular location of the extension used to call 9-1-1, provide the PSAP with location information accurate enough for first responders to locate the caller, and to support on-site notification.” Federal requirements shouldn’t preclude state from adding nonconflicting requirements, the draft said.