FCC E-rate changes are working, but this isn't the time for the agency to stop moving forward, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition in a speech Friday. The group understands “E-rate modernization was about far more than just adopting speed targets and revamping a budget,” Clyburn said in written remarks. “I am optimistic, because the FCC remains focused on its objective of ensuring access to world-class digital learning tools -- an objective shared by SHLB and the education community.” Clyburn asked attendees to provide plenty of feedback about how the revisions are working in practice. Also “tell us what we are doing right, because positive feedback is welcome as well,” she said. Clyburn also repeated calls for similar overhaul of the USF Lifeline program. The FCC isn't meeting a congressional mandate to ensure that all Americans, including those with low incomes and in rural and high-cost areas, have access to advanced telecom and information services at affordable prices, Clyburn said. “Lifeline, the only universal service program focused on bridging the affordability gap, remains stuck in an era where leg warmers, stretch stirrup pants, and scrunchies were the fashion craze, and talking on our home telephone or sending a letter through the mail were the main means of communicating.” Lifeline should help people build a better life, she said. The program's goal should be “for it to work so effectively that current subscribers will no longer need Lifeline, or any other federal benefits program,” she said. Industry and FCC officials have predicted Lifeline changes could headline the agency’s June 18 open meeting (see 1505010051). Chairman Tom Wheeler is to circulate draft orders for that meeting Thursday. Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach said in a blog post Friday that the FCC has drawn some important lessons from its Low Income Broadband Pilot Program, including lessons for possible Lifeline changes. Among the lessons is that consumers “respond well to having a choice of plans” and all households don’t have the same needs for “data speeds, usage amounts, service type and devices,” Veach wrote. Price matters, even if it is not the only barrier to adoption, and carriers “aren’t necessarily the best” at addressing these barriers, especially “lack of digital literacy and relevance to one's life,” Veach said. There is no “silver bullet,” she said. “While the pilots were focused on different approaches for adoption, let's be clear that Lifeline is focused on ensuring services are affordable, not to solve the broadband adoption challenge,” she said. “As the Commission moves forward to consider how to restructure the Lifeline program for the digital age, the pilot report will help provide useful data for the Commission and public to consider.” The FCC also released the report on the pilot program Friday.
The FCC is being pressed by both sides to resolve an intercarrier compensation fight between LECs and interexchange carriers (IXCs) over “intraMTA” (major trading area) wireline-wireless traffic. A court reviewing related IXC claims also could ask the agency to weigh in, LEC representatives told us. AT&T, which has interests on both sides, said “hundreds of millions” of industry dollars are at stake and has urged the FCC to act in a targeted way to avoid destabilizing intercarrier arrangements, either by disrupting past LEC access-charge revenue or creating unintended IXC access payment obligations for complicated traffic routing.
The non-profit Technology Business Management Council established a Commission on IT Cost Opportunity, Strategy and Transparency (IT COST) Wednesday to “define a set of recommendations and best practices for Federal departments and agencies to transparently measure and communicate their IT costs so that Federal CIOs [chief information officers] are better equipped to govern their IT spending and support agency missions with limited resources,” a news release said. The federal government spends more than $78 billion on technology per year, but each agency uses its own standards to measure, benchmark and communicate the value of its technology investments, the release said. Lack of standardization creates numerous challenges and complications, it said. CIOs from the departments of Health, Transportation, Interior, Commerce and Agriculture are participating in the first IT COST Commission meeting, to be held in June. CIOs from Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and DirecTV are also participating. The goal is to release a report in early 2016 outlining a series of recommendations to reduce waste and increase efficiency, demonstrate cost, quality and value of IT spend, and aid in the implementation of the new Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act, the release said.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Friday issued a ruling that phone service provided by a cable company is a telecommunications service subject to state oversight, a release from the commission said. An investigation determined that in March 2013 Charter Fiberlink Companies transferred all of its more than 100,000 Minnesota voice phone customers to an affiliate, Charter Advanced Services Companies, which provided VoIP phone service that was not certified by the state, the commission said. Charter did not notify or seek approval from the PUC, it said. After the transfer, Charter also stopped complying with two state programs designed to support universal phone access for disabled and low-income Minnesotans, the commission said. The commission’s decision does not apply to computer-to-computer communications nor services like Skype or FaceTime that do not travel on the public switched telephone network. “This unanimous ruling is a major victory to protect people,” said Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman in the release. “Phone companies cannot gain unfair advantage and evade their responsibility to deliver fundamental services, especially for disabled and low-income Minnesotans who depend on it.” Charter claimed in the proceeding that federal law pre-empted state jurisdiction, the release said. However, several commissioners specifically pointed out that neither the courts nor the FCC has established exclusive federal authority over this kind of phone service, it said.
The FCC is seeking comment by July 6 on the Paperwork Reduction Act implications of public file rules, with the act requiring the agency every three years to get an OK from the Office of Management and Budget on information collections, the commission said in Wednesday's Federal Register. It seeks comment on whether the public file rules are “necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the [collected] information shall have practical utility,” and whether the commission’s burden estimate is accurate. The public file rule might serve some valid purpose, but since the FCC has never done anything to investigate the validity of that proposition, nobody can say for sure, said Harry Cole, a broadcast lawyer for Fletcher Heald, on its blog. "It’s probably safe to assume that the FCC is not enthusiastic about launching such an investigation on its own," he wrote. "As we have previously observed, the Commission has ignored for nearly a decade a petition for rulemaking filed by our friend, communications attorney David Tillotson, challenging the validity of the public file requirement."
The $21 million it costs to keep 28 field offices open with 108 employees using “out-of-date equipment” is too expensive and field office staffers have too little work to do, said William Davenport, deputy chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau, telling the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council Wednesday why the agency is considering a controversial proposal to make sharp cuts in the number of field offices and agents in the field (see 1503110054). The cost of the field offices also increases each year, he said.
Entercom promotes Louise Kramer to chief operating officer; hires Stephanie Callihan, ex-iHeartMedia, as vice president-general manager, Austin; and adds David Levy, Turner Broadcasting System, to board ... Crown Media promotes Lisa Barroso to senior vice president-distribution ... Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., hires Chandler Smith, American Hotel & Lodging Association, as communications director for Thune’s leadership office, the Senate Republican Conference, effective May 11, and promotes Ryan Wrasse to communications director, Thune’s personal office, effective May 18, succeeding Rachel Millard, leaving for Glover Park Group ... American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers elects board member Doug Wood, composer and producer, writer vice chairman, and as publisher member Jody Gerson, Universal Music Publishing Group.
The Supreme Court said it won't hear appeals of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision a year ago upholding the FCC’s requirement that USF recipients provide broadband. Industry officials said the decision was a big positive for the FCC because if the court agreed to hear the case it would have meant many months of uncertainty for the FCC’s landmark November 2011 order “modernizing” USF and the intercarrier compensation regime. The Monday court order also shifted the fund to support broadband as well as traditional voice service.
The FCC could be headed for a vote at its June 18 meeting on a rulemaking reshaping the Lifeline program, including providing support for Internet access, agency and industry officials said. With a light agenda at both the April and May meetings, Chairman Tom Wheeler appears likely to take on a bigger, more controversial issue in June, and Lifeline changes could be ready for a vote, the officials said.
The primary goal of the FCC as it looks at public safety answering point architecture is to look at how to build the PSAP of the future as the world moves away from the public-switched network, said David Simpson, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau, Wednesday at the second meeting of the FCC Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (TFOPA). The task force got updates from three working groups, including a report emphasizing that cyberthreats to PSAPs are very real.