Comments filed on USF contribution reform show little agreement and point to the need for more discussion, Verizon and Verizon Wireless said in FCC reply comments. That conclusion was seconded by many companies and groups filing replies this week. Though many suggested short-term fixes, most agreed there is little consensus to move to a numbers-based or connections-based approach.
The GAO urged the FCC to formally reassess its requirements concerning cellphone radio frequency (RF) safety, in a report (http://xrl.us/bnjqzm) released Tuesday. Three minority members of the House Commerce Committee separately urged the commission to revise its cellphone RF standards and testing requirements. Though the FCC has not reviewed RF standards for handheld devices since 1996, the agency’s Office of Engineering and Technology circulated a notice of inquiry last month on the rules (CD July 15 P1).
The 700 MHz waiver order released by the FCC last Monday approved the interoperability showings of Charlotte, N.C., and Harris County, Texas. The order otherwise did little to smooth their way to starting early first responder networks, officials said. Meanwhile, government and public safety officials told us, there appears to be no real accounting of how much the 21 700 MHz waiver recipients have spent so far on the groundwork to build out networks that may well never start.
The FCC review of Verizon Wireless’s buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox appears to be reaching its final stages, as FCC officials work through issues raised by the commercial agreements tied to the AWS license sales. Meanwhile, the Rural Telecommunications Group raised concerns about a “flurry of activity” in the secondary spectrum market, with AT&T proposing several spectrum buys, and asked the FCC to halt consideration of the Verizon/cable transactions, the Verizon/T-Mobile spectrum swap and other pending deals “until parties have the opportunity to weigh the numerous transactions contemplated by AT&T."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has reached out to Department of Defense officials first hand on making more spectrum available for wireless broadband, he said in a press conference following the FCC’s meeting Friday. DOD is a major spectrum user and a key player in talks with federal officials over freeing up more spectrum for sharing or reallocating for a future auction. Half the meeting had a wireless focus, with the FCC approving an order designed to spur greater use of microwave for wireless backhaul. The meeting was the third August session in a row where the commission addressed wireless backhaul rules.
Proposed rules by the NTIA on a technical panel and dispute resolution boards mandated by Congress to speed the conversion of federal spectrum to commercial use, and spectrum sharing “will bring needed clarity” to the process, but need to do more to ensure the transition occurs as Congress intended, T-Mobile said in comments at the agency. The rules the NTIA proposed in mid-July would define terminology for the transition regulations, lay out how the transition’s technical panel would work and establish resolution boards to solve transition-related disputes (http://xrl.us/bni6f6). NTIA posted the comments Thursday, a day after the submission deadline. The changes on which NTIA sought comment were part of spectrum bill enacted in February.
Ad networks and plugins would fall under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rule enforced by the FTC under its “supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking” published in the Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bniz45) Wednesday. The proposed revisions would also encourage websites with “mixed” audiences to “age-screen” everyone as a means of complying with COPPA and designate persistent identifiers used to communicate with devices as “personal information” in some cases, though fewer than the agency originally proposed. The commission said it received more than 350 comments in response to its original notice of proposed rulemaking on COPPA rule changes nearly a year ago, and that its proposed revisions in response demanded a new comment period.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- State commissions need to get involved in the growing cybersecurity problem, said panelists at a midyear meeting of state utilities regulators, although they also said sometimes the best way for regulators to get involved is to regulate at a minimum.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Multiple challenges emerged for the FCC at a midyear NARUC meeting. Some regulators and officials questioned USF methodology, called for Federal State Joint Board on USF referral of FCC decisions and questioned the broader direction the commission has moved on telecom in recent years. The strains have manifested in broader misgivings that some panelists discussed about the November USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://xrl.us/bnhyb7) as well as a more focused critique and controversy surrounding a quantile regression analysis for the fund.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- “We need more spectrum, I can’t say it enough times,” said AT&T’s Joel Lubin, vice president-public policy, during a panel about the 2020 vision of telecom at NARUC’s midyear meeting. He said “legacy systems are broken” and an “all-broadband world” is on the horizon. Lubin said that over the last dozen years, switched-access line counts have declined enormously as housing units grew. The infrastructure should transition to all IP, he said. The FCC is on the right track with the Transformation Order and its conclusion that “consumers want advanced mobility,” but more needs to be done, he said.