Public Notice

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the Federal Communications Commission to update the rules governing Wireless Priority Service (WPS), a program that enables wireless emergency calls to get through if networks are congested. The petition is designed to update rules governing WPS, which were developed in the late 1990s and have not been updated since the program began following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Reports and recommendations that have been made to the Federal Communications Commission by Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC). These final reports and recommendations, adopted by the BDAC, were submitted to the BDAC by the following working groups:

• Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure (adopted January 23, 2018; Addendum adopted April 25,2018)
• Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers (adopted January 23-24, 2018)
• Streamlining Federal Siting (adopted January 23-24, 2018)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has made two appointments regarding the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC). First, Chairman Pai has appointed BDAC member David Young to serve as Vice Chair of the BDAC. Young represents the National League of Cities on the BDAC and is the Fiber Infrastructure and Right of Way Manager for the City of Lincoln (NE). Young replaces Kelleigh Cole, who left her position as the Director of the Utah Broadband Outreach Center and resigned from the BDAC recently to pursue professional opportunities in the private sector.

The Federal Communications Commission has provided a significant budgetary boost for its Rural Health Care Program to address immediate and longterm funding shortages driven by growing demand for rural telemedicine services. The FCC increased the annual cap on program spending by nearly 43 percent, to $571 million, which will reverse across-the-board spending cuts for the current funding year imposed by the old cap. These “pro-rata” cuts had created uncertainty and turmoil in the program for patients, health care providers, and communications companies alike.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier database (National Verifier) is now operational in Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. 

In this Order, the Federal Communications Commission authorize Audacy Corporation to construct, deploy, and operate a non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) satellite system to provide continuous, high-speed communications between other NGSO satellites and gateway earth stations, using frequencies in the intersatellite service (ISS) and fixed-satellite service (FSS). Grant of this application will enable Audacy to provide global line-of-sight visibility to low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites enabling operators of LEO satellites to have continuous access to their satellites through the Audacy

The Federal Communications Commission has long recognized that arbitrage opportunities in the intercarrier compensation (ICC) system harm consumers, undermine broadband deployment, and distort competition. Despite the FCC’s adoption of a national, default bill-and-keep framework as the ultimate end state for the exchange of all telecommunications traffic and its efforts to reduce wasteful arbitrage, a variety of arbitrage schemes continue to evolve and once again flourish.

In a notice of inquiry, we are asking all interested stakeholders – businesses, civil society groups, the technical community, academics, and the general public – to provide us with comments and recommendations. The input we receive will inform NTIA's international Internet policy priorities going forward. Four broad topic areas and some key questions we think are especially important:

As required by the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, with this Public Notice, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, in coordination with the Wireline Competition Bureau, establishes a portal for Internet service provider (ISP) transparency disclosures. The Order becomes effective on June 11, 2018, and the revised transparency rule requires ISPs to publicly disclose information about their service in one of two ways – by providing the disclosure on a publicly available, easily accessible website or by submitting it to the Federal Communications Commission for posting. On May 29, 2018

This Public Notice serves as notice that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has appointed members to serve on the Harmonization working group of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC). This working group is being formed following the vote of the BDAC on April 25, 2018, to approve both the Model Code for Municipalities and Model Code for States, subject to the understanding that further work would be done to address inconsistencies and otherwise harmonize the two codes.