Washington, New York, Boston, San Antonio and other local governments that received FCC waivers to build wireless networks using 700 MHz spectrum provided the commission with updates on their efforts. In May, the agency approved 21 waiver requests on file at the commission. Meanwhile, industry commenters offered advice to the FCC on rules for a 700 MHz network that would ensure nationwide interoperability, addressing critical issues including roaming and priority access.
USTelecom expressed disappointment with a coming FCC report that reportedly breaks with tradition and declines to find U.S. broadband deployment reasonable and timely (CD July 19 p1). The report is expected to be released this week. “It is puzzling that the Commission would take the data from its own National Broadband Plan showing U.S. broadband deployment to be an unprecedented American success story, turn it on its head, and conclude that broadband deployment is neither reasonable nor timely,” said USTelecom President Walter McCormick. “It is absolutely appropriate for the Commission to be concerned about the remaining small percentage of Americans who may not yet have access to wired broadband. Identifying important communications objectives for Congress is the right thing to do, and we support efforts to bring the benefits of broadband to everyone. However, it is inconsistent with the Commission’s own data to conclude that deployment is not progressing in a timely and reasonable manner.” Qwest also raised a red flag. “We are very disappointed that the FCC, for the first time, has found that broadband deployment is not reasonable or timely,” said Senior Vice President Steve Davis. “While there are some remote areas where broadband is not available because of the high cost of deployment, Qwest has submitted an application for federal stimulus funds to bring broadband to many of these primarily rural communities.” A senior FCC official questioned how industry players can comment on a report that hasn’t been released: “It’s comical the industry is commenting prior to seeing the report.”
Former FCC member Deborah Tate opposes a resolution favoring a “fourth way” to regulate broadband providers that’s under consideration by state utility commissioners at their summer meeting this week in Sacramento, Calif. The draft resolution being weighed by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and titled as a play on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” approach, endorses the FCC and the 50 state utility commissions sharing authority to regulate Internet traffic. “The `third way’ is Genachowski’s latest attempt to put a moderate face on what, in effect, would be unprecedented new regulatory mandates governing Internet providers and the management of their broadband networks,” Tate wrote in an op-ed piece in Sunday’s editions of The Sacramento Bee. Adding oversight usually boosts consumers’ costs and it could drive out investment capital even as demand for broadband booms, she warned. Spreading regulatory authority broadly would intensify the flow of capital elsewhere, perhaps even overseas, Tate predicted. “The state public utility commissioners’ proposal is unsound because, if adopted, it would place yet another layer of regulatory oversight on top of one that is itself unnecessary and counterproductive, and at least according to one federal court: not legally sustainable,” she said. “Of course, state utility commissions and consumer protection offices still have important roles to play in the digital age. For example, the FCC has invited the states’ participation regarding reform of the arcane universal service system intended to increase access to communications networks by persons with disabilities or low income. But having 50 states asserting authority to engage in public utility-like regulation of broadband Internet services in this truly global communications environment is not only beyond their legal jurisdiction, it would certainly deter much-needed investment and innovation. This doesn’t make sense at a time of continuing severe economic distress when their states -- and this country -- desperately need the jobs that more investment and innovation can mean.” Invoking the deregulatory path of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Tate urged NARUC and the FCC to “say `no way’ to a `third way’ or `fourth way’ and focus on the incredible successes of the deregulatory way."
Advocacy groups and some smaller providers of telecommunications relay services (TRS) backed Purple Communications’ request for waiver of a rule regulating how users’ phone numbers are mapped in the numbering directory. Sorenson Communications, however, opposed a waiver, saying Purple failed to show special circumstances and that the commission should make changes only with a formal rulemaking. Convo Communications also opposed the request and suggested a rulemaking notice as an appropriate step. Purple asked for clarification or waiver of the rule that requires the numbering directory to have records that map an Internet-based TRS user’s telephone number to the user’s Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Instead, in order to implement its call forwarding “Follow Me” service, it asked to populate the numbering directory with URIs containing the IP address of its own servers, rather than the customer’s IP address. The request seeks to “avoid compliance with an industry-wide technical standard so that it can implement a feature that may be inconsistent with the FCC’s carefully considered numbering regime,” Sorenson said. The waiver is in Purple’s interests, but not necessarily those of the public, Sorenson said. Sorenson said Purple provided limited information and didn’t explain how a waiver would permit more effective implementation of the system. The commission shouldn’t grant either a provider-specific waiver or an industry-wide waiver, Sorenson said. Granting the request could “undermine the Commission’s comprehensive numbering regime, which involves a delicate balance between several interrelated rules,” it said. Snap Telecommunications and CSDVRS, however, said server routing would allow video phones to be fully functional behind firewalls and in secure environments. “Server routing is in widespread use and is a standard routing method for VoIP connections,” Snap said. It said it has a server routing system “ready today to provide to federal and state government agencies and businesses who have requested it as the only acceptable means of installing video phone technology.” Snap and CSDVRS said server routing would improve the interoperability problems that frustrate customers. “CSDVRS has seen this devolve into some consumers reverting to older [customer premises equipment] technology as distributed by the largest provider (Sorenson) which does not provide forward compatibility, in favor of the more technologically advanced CPE offered by CSDVRS and other providers, simply to avoid interoperability frustrations,” CSDVRS said. A group of deaf and hard-of-hearing advocacy groups also supported Purple’s petition. Hearing individuals have call forwarding services, and the Americans with Disabilities Act says those with disabilities should have the same benefits, it said. At a minimum, the commission should grant the waiver on an interim basis, it said. Convo, though, said Purple didn’t show that its method is the only way to implement call forwarding. Call forwarding is desirable, it said, but Convo and others “have already expended considerable sums in designing and implementing VRS calling and routing platforms to comply with FCC and Neustar rules.” An NPRM is the “most appropriate vehicle” for exploring how to implement call forwarding by all providers, it said. Reply comments on the petition are due July 23.
Senate spectrum legislation introduced Monday would authorize incentive auctions to pay federal and commercial users that voluntarily give up unused frequencies and would require a national spectrum plan. The Spectrum Measurement and Policy Reform Act, sponsored by Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., aims to update national spectrum planning, management and coordination activities. The legislation would give the the FCC and the NTIA $10 million over the next two fiscal years.
Telephone service providers asked to be relieved of the duty of verifying customers’ eligibility for the Lifeline program. Verification should be a government function, they said in comments to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service on proposed changes to the Lifeline and Link-Up programs. They split on the question of whether the Lifeline program should include broadband and whether households should be eligible for more than one discounted phone connection.
Verification procedures should be strengthened to prevent “double-dipping” in the Lifeline program, commenters said in response to a Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service notice. “The sky-rocketing disbursement of funds for CETCs from $55.2 million in first quarter 2009 to $146.6 million in first quarter 2010 shows why it is urgent to ensure legitimate enrollment,” said the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. “While under-enrollment in Lifeline was always a concern in the past, we believe that legitimate enrollment is the new concern.” The Ohio commission recommended a clearinghouse be used to certify legitimate enrollment. The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia said it would be inappropriate for service providers to have access to each others’ lists of subscribers for verification purposes. Instead, a third party, like the Universal Service Administrative Co., could perform audits. However, the District commission said, there are no rules on what should happen once double-dippers are identified. The Florida Public Service Commission said any national database of applicants would need to be maintained under strict confidentiality. The D.C. commission also said it supports including broadband in the low income program. Nexus Communications said the FCC should review the eligibility, verification and outreach rules “as they pertain to new technologies.” It cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that said 36 percent of adults in poverty and 29 percent of those near poverty have only wireless telephones. The Ohio commission encouraged the board to look at income guidelines set by qualifying programs. Lifeline participants can either qualify directly with Lifeline, which sets an income guideline at 135 percent of the federal poverty level, or by participating in one of a number of qualifying programs, including the school lunch, food stamps and Medicaid programs. But the differing income guidelines mean a family of four qualifying directly with Lifeline could earn only $29,768, but that same family qualifying through participation in the school lunch program could earn $44,000, the Ohio commission said. The Florida commission said Florida automatically enrolls participants through the Department of Children and Families, but it recommended against a federal mandate for automatic enrollment. The Florida commission also recommended that prepaid providers be required to contact Lifeline customers who don’t use the phone for 60 days. If there’s no response, the phone should be deactivated, it said, rather than allowing the carrier to continue issuing minutes and collecting reimbursement. By following this process in Florida, the fund saved $8.5 million in six months from one provider, it said.
A revamped rural health care telecom subsidy program should help more health facilities use broadband to connect to the outside world, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. The commission initiated a rulemaking Thursday to change the rules of the USF program based on lessons learned from the Rural Health Care Pilot Program. The original program failed to live up to its potential, Commissioner Michael Copps said. In most years it disbursed less than 20 percent of the $400 million that could be spent.
CTIA, USTelecom, AT&T, Verizon, Qwest and Sprint Nextel said the FCC should drop, at least for now, plans for a voluntary cybersecurity certification program that the commission proposed. In an April 21 notice of inquiry, the FCC asked how such a program would work and whether it would improve security.
A senior executive of a relay service provider must certify under penalty of perjury that information submitted for compensation from the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Service Fund is correct, said an interim rule adopted Tuesday by the FCC. The commission said in a Federal Register notice that it adopted the rule without notice or comment “in light of the explosive growth of the TRS Fund in recent years and evidence of fraud against the Fund.” The Justice Department in November charged 26 people with stealing more than $50 million total from the fund (CD Nov 23 p5). The FCC is taking comments on the new rule until Sept. 13. Under the interim rule, a senior executive will need to certify that minutes of use submitted for compensation were handled in compliance with the Communications Act and weren’t the result of kickbacks or other improper payments and that cost and demand data are true and correct. In a separate notice, the FCC reminded providers that TRS payments can be suspended if the providers don’t submit to audits.