Commissioner Ajit Pai said the FCC should get tough on siting issues as carriers get set to deploy 5G, in a keynote at the Competitive Carriers Association meeting, live-streamed Wednesday from Seattle. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told the CCA Tuesday there's broad support among the commissioners for tackling siting issues (see 1609200058). Pai also endorsed Wheeler’s calls for a new mobility fund. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly also spoke Tuesday on zero-rating, though not at CCA.
Systems using dedicated short range communications spectrum “hold great promise,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a letter dated Sept. 7 and released by the agency Monday. “However, as you note, we must work to ensure technologies operating in DSRC spectrum and the future world of interconnected automobiles address the potential risks that these new technologies could create for consumers' privacy and security,” he said in the brief response. “Due to the number of interrelated issues that are implicated by DSRC, the Commission intends to work closely with our partners at the Department of Transportation (DoT), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to address the concerns raised in your letter.” The senators had asked questions on privacy and cybersecurity.
The FCC Technological Advisory Council continued its 2016 march, hearing updates from TAC's six work groups Tuesday on their efforts to develop new recommendations for agency consideration. The TAC plans to meet Dec. 7 to adopt recommendations that will be "actionable," said Chairman Dennis Roberson, Illinois Institute of Technology vice provost and research professor, at the end of a lengthy meeting. He said the group doesn't want to just give the FCC a long list of 40 or so recommendations, as it did last year, but wants to refine the list to a "top 10" with a laser focus on the best ideas. "That will be a very good outcome," he said.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, with less than an hour’s notice, convened its Thursday news conference on the Samsung Galaxy Note7 recall so hastily (see 1609150069) because the agency and Samsung wanted to announce a recall “as soon as we could,” Scott Wolfson, CPSC communications director and senior adviser to Chairman Elliot Kaye, told us Monday. But consumer response rates to CPSC recall notices are historically low, and the agency fears the Note7 recall will be no different, despite the smartphone's widely reported and "serious" fire hazards, Wolfson said.
Cable operators with networks that are mostly fiber shouldn't have to labor under cable signal leakage rules, said FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in a blog post Friday. Small cable operators use small airplanes to check their networks with RF sensors to look for signal leakage from loose connections, damaged paint or cracked coaxial cables, at a cost of thousands of dollars per system -- "money that can be used to curtail rate increases or expand the network’s reach to unserved homes," O'Rielly said. Pointing to the agency's now-moribund attempts in 2012 to update its cable signal leakage rules -- which was opposed by Verizon, NTCA and others (see 1212130055) -- O'Rielly said "substantial and valid concerns were raised about other ideas in that item." He also urged the agency to focus strictly on updating its rules governing cable signal leakage in systems with a sizable fiber footprint. Since fiber systems don't produce RF leakage, he said, making them not subject to such rules would cut compliance costs and could partially incentivize fiber deployments. O'Rielly didn't give specific recommendations on how the rule should be changed. American Cable Association in a statement said the blog item "is another good example of Commissioner O’Reilly’s knack for identifying common sense updates to the Commission’s rules" and it "would welcome further discussion of this matter, which could eliminate needless burdens" on smaller cable operators. NCTA didn't comment. At an Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers lunch Friday, O'Rielly said: "The impact in the scheme of things might not sound earth shattering, but can quickly become significant. It seems to me a reasonable minor step we should be able to make without much controversy." According to his speech made available online, O'Rielly also said he would like the AM revitalization proceeding split off relief for the main studio rule from the final NPRM so it can be completed by year's end. He said the FCC shouldn't just approve the ATSC 3.0 standard but rewrite its rules so broadcasters can offer 3.0 in an effort to "avoid any tech mandates or overly prescriptive measures." Since "both adopting the new standard and removing barriers to allow flexibility and choice of technologies get to the same end point, why not pursue the one that sets the stage for ATSC 4.0 or 5.0?" he said.
The California Public Utilities Commission agreed to reduce the phone bill surcharge rate for the state low-income fund to 4.75 percent from 5.5 percent, effective Nov. 1. At a meeting Thursday, commissioner unanimously approved that and several other telecom items on its consent agenda. The new rate for California LifeLine “strikes a good balance between sufficient revenues to meet anticipated growth in participation and maintain a positive program fund balance,” CPUC said in a draft of the order. The surcharge applies to all telecom carriers and interconnected VoIP providers. As of June 30, more than 2.1 million customers were enrolled in LifeLine, the CPUC said. The previous surcharge was in effect since Oct. 1, and was meant “to increase program fund reserves and meet increased program growth from wireless customers,” it said. Communications Division (CD) "analysis shows that current CA LifeLine surcharge may be reduced to 4.75% due to adequate fund reserves, even though CD expects an increase in program participation during the second half of FY 2016-17.” The CPUC noted a declining billing base for the fund, a trend seen in other state USF funds (see 1607010010), due to fewer landlines, dropping prices and an increasing number of wireless carriers reporting intrastate revenue using the FCC safe harbor formula. Also at the meeting, CPUC agreed to an AT&T Mobility motion to dismiss a complaint against the telco by O1 Communications. O1 sought an order prohibiting AT&T from disconnecting direct connections between their networks. But the commission found the complaint procedurally defective because it failed to state a cause of action for which relief could be granted. “Nothing in California or federal law or Commission orders requires AT&T Mobility Wireless to directly interconnect with O1 Communications network,” CPUC said in the proposed decision. Also, the commission granted a certificate allowing eNetworks to provide full facilities-based and resold competitive local exchange service throughout territories of AT&T, Frontier Communications, Consolidated Communications and Citizens Telecommunications, and full facilities-based and resold interchange services statewide. And it granted a certificate to Mobilitie Management to provide resold and limited facilities-based competitive local exchange telecom services.
Federal officials highlighted the need for improved metrics on industry use of cyber-risk management best practices, and restated their commitment to using public-private partnerships to address cybersecurity issues. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews emphasized metrics development, during an Internet Security Alliance (ISA) event Thursday. He announced that the National Institute of Standards and Technology was releasing a draft version of its Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder voluntary cyber-risk management self-assessment tool for industry. ISA released a cybersecurity policy plan for the next administration and Congress aimed at streamlining the federal regulatory process and increasing incentives for the private sector to improve their cyber practices.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler again pressed for action on public safety communications, during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Thursday. He promised many updates on the commission’s broadband and spectrum efforts, noting items to come up in the final months of the Obama administration. "Our work is far from done," Wheeler told senators.
USTelecom proposed a business data service market test at the census tract level that the FCC could use to determine where facilities-based competition instead of regulation could constrain BDS pricing. "The test proposes that the FCC step back from dictating prices for BDS services wherever two competitors exert competitive discipline over pricing," said a USTelecom filing posted Monday in docket 16-143. Parties on all sides are continuing to lobby the FCC as Chairman Tom Wheeler attempts to push through an overhaul this year (see 1609070033).
Local government officials would be glad to work with the FCC and industry on small-cell siting issues, but don't see an immediate problem, said NATOA Executive Director Steve Traylor in an interview Thursday. In a speech Wednesday at the CTIA conference, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC will drive 5G growth by working with local governments to speed siting of new wireless facilities (see 1609070033). The FCC could approve rules to ease small-cell siting next year, Cowen analyst Paul Gallant said in a research note Wednesday. The wireless industry also is asking states to streamline siting rules for small cells.