March 2017

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the March Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, March 23, 2017. Continuing the Chairman’s pilot program, the FCC is publicly releasing the draft text of all six matters that are expected to be considered at the March Open Meeting, along with one-pagers describing each of these items in greater detail.

1. Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry that would enable voice service providers to better protect subscribers from illegal and fraudulent robocalls. (CG Docket No. 17-59)
2. Promoting Technological Solutions to Combat Contraband Wireless Device Use in Correctional Facilities – The Commission will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would adopt rules to facilitate the deployment of technologies used to combat contraband wireless devices in correctional facilities, while seeking comment on additional proposals and solutions. (GN Docket No. 13-111)
3. Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Video Relay Service – The Commission will consider a Report and Order, Notice of Inquiry, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and Order that would enhance service quality and propose a new provider compensation plan for video relay services. (CG Docket Nos. 10-51 and 03-123)
4. Cellular Service Reform – The Commission will consider a Second Report and Order, Report and Order, and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would facilitate mobile broadband deployment, including LTE, promote greater spectrum efficiency, and reduce regulatory burdens and costs. (WT Docket Nos. 12-40, 10-112, 16-138)
5. Part 43 Reporting Requirements for U.S. Providers of International Services – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to (1) eliminate the Traffic and Revenue Reports and (2) streamline the Circuit Capacity Reports. (IB Docket Nos. 17-55 and 16-131)
6. Channel Sharing by Stations Outside the Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Context – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would authorize channel sharing outside the context of the incentive auction and thus permit stations with auction-related channel sharing agreements to continue to operate if their auction-related agreements expire or otherwise terminate. (GN Docket No. 12-268; MB Docket No. 03-185; MB Docket No. 15-137).

Today’s action by the Wireline Competition Bureau is a welcome step in the right direction. We strongly urge the Commission to move forward with implementing the modernization of the Lifeline program so that our nation’s most vulnerable are connected to the opportunities made possible by broadband. Every day that the FCC delays in implementing Lifeline is another day veterans, rural students, people with disabilities, and other low-income people are left waiting in the digital desert.

How would you like it? That's the short version of a defense offered by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Ca), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, as reporters questioned him about looking into contacts between members of President Trump's administration and Russian officials.

“Look, I'm sure some of you are in contact with the Russian Embassy,” Chairman Nunes told a group of journalists. “So be careful what you ask for here. ... Do you want us to conduct an investigation on you or other Americans because you were talking to the Russian Embassy? I just think we need to be careful.”

A journalist's contacting the Russian Embassy — presumably in the course of reporting on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Attorney General Jeff Sessions — is not even remotely comparable to what Flynn and Sessions did. It is just plain silly for Chairman Nunes to suggest that it is.