The telecom world largely responded cautiously as the FCC on Thursday adopted its Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime changes. But telecom officials and observers predicted lawsuits would begin pouring in after the 400-plus page order is published and digested. Meanwhile, the order itself hadn’t been finished, an FCC official told us. Staff were continuing to incorporate edits agreed upon by the commissioners late in the process but before the vote, and the order won’t be ready for release until at least the end of next week, the official said. Less-substantive changes are also still being made.
Comments on proposed changes to FCC rules about how it grants exemptions from its closed captioning mandates are due 30 days after the they're published in the Federal Register, replies 15 days later, said a commission order and rulemaking released Thursday. The order reversed almost 300 closed captioning exemptions issued by the FCC, as expected (CD Oct 6 p5). Those whose exemptions are subject to dismissal can file a new petition for exemption within 90 days and provide updated information to support their claims that providing closed captions would be “economically burdensome,” the order said. The agency is soliciting comment on its interpretation that the term “economically burdensome,” as it is used in Section 202 of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, is synonymous with the term “undue burden” as it was used in Section 713(e) of the Communications Act, it said.
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is pressing other FCC members to look more closely at the appropriate size of a proposed Mobility Fund as the agency completes its Universal Service Fund proceeding, her wireless aide, Louis Peraertz, told a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch Thursday. Elsewhere, aides to the four commissioners mostly talked about spectrum, with several conceding that spectrum sharing will be the trend of the future.
The FCC, CTIA and Consumers Union unveiled “Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines” as an alternative to bill shock rules proposed by the agency last year. The announcement Monday as expected (CD Oct 17 p10) was in keeping with the Obama administration’s broader move away from regulation where possible. But FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski warned that rules are still possible if voluntary guidelines don’t work. Other members of the commission were not given advanced notice of the agreement, agency officials said.
Two of the three judges who heard ICO Global Communications v. FCC focused on the issues of definition of band entry and sunset date to seek reimbursement as they considered ICO’s appeal of an earlier FCC declaratory ruling intended to clarify several rules on broadcast auxiliary spectrum relocation expenses. The declaratory ruling (CD Oct 1 p2) helped Sprint Nextel’s lawsuits against DBSD, then owned by ICO Global, and TerreStar seeking reimbursement of the expenses or relocating BAS spectrum. In a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit hearing Friday, judges also questioned if reimbursement requirements were clearly explained.
TV sets and video game consoles that allow their users to make phone calls, video calls and send text messages aren’t yet categorically exempt from new federal accessibility rules, but their manufacturers can seek waivers from those rules on a case-by-case basis, said an FCC order implementing parts of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) released late Friday. CEA and the Entertainment Software Association had sought broader class-waivers from the accessibility rules (CD July 21 p11). They aren’t in the order released Friday, but the commission said it will consider waivers for classes of devices as they come in.
The FCC issued 20 enforcement actions against online retailers in 12 states for illegally marketing more than 200 “uniquely-described” models of cellphone jammers, GPS jammers, Wi-Fi jammers and similar signal jamming devices, the agency said. The devices can interfere with authorized radio communications. The FCC directed each online retailer to immediately cease marketing signal jamming devices to consumers. That includes removing the illegal signal jamming devices from online display, expressly excluding consumers in the U.S. as potential customers, and declining to sell signal jamming devices or complete any sales transaction to consumers in the U.S. In a request for information, the FCC also ordered the online retailers to provide information about their signal jammer suppliers, distribution channels and sales, including the manufacturer of each illegal signal jamming device, the websites that the online retailer has used to market the devices, and the corrective actions the online retailer has taken or will take to comply with federal law prohibiting the marketing and sale of jamming devices. Because these enforcement actions were taken against retailers who are not otherwise regulated by the commission, the Communications Act requires the commission to first issue a “citation” describing the violation and warning against future misconduct. The agency emphasized that a second violation could lead to penalties of $16,000 to $112,500. It also noted that a separate penalty could be imposed for each jamming device sold or each day on which a jamming device is marketed, and that additional violations could result in the seizure of equipment and imprisonment.
Transition to a Next Generation 911 system, technical solutions like call prioritization and rerouting, procedure and policy changes are answers to 911 overloading issues, speakers said during the 911 Industry Alliance’s 911 workshop Wednesday. But many solutions have issues like funding that need to be addressed, they said.
The FCC confirmed that Chairman Julius Genachowski will circulate a proposed order that he hopes will lead to reform the universal service and intercarrier compensation regimes. The FCC called a briefing with reporters where agency officials spoke on the condition they not be named and said Genachowski will deliver a speech Thursday laying out some of his proposals. FCC officials declined to discuss specifics in Tuesday’s briefing, set for Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at FCC headquarters, instead reiterating their talking points about why reform was necessary.
San Diego County, Calif., fired back at NextG Networks, which argued in a July FCC filing that the county’s siting process for new wireless facilities is “protracted, bureaucratic and replete with hidden, circular and unreasonable requirements.” Delays are the fault of NextG, not the county, the county said. Meanwhile, other local governments are filing early reply comments at the FCC questioning the need for the FCC to take any steps regarding local management of rights of way and wireless facilities siting, as examined in an April notice of inquiry (http://xrl.us/bmeu7w).