Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission seeks comment on two petitions, one filed by Microsoft Corporation, Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC) and other petitioners, and the other filed by the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic on behalf of the Boulder Valley School District. The petitions request that the FCC allow E-rate-subsidized broadband networks to be accessed by students at home for educational purposes, without an obligation on the E-rate applicant to cost allocate the portion of the traffic attributable to off-campus use.

In the petition filed by Microsoft Corporation, Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation, Charlotte County Public Schools, Halifax County Public Schools, GCR Company, and Kinex Telecom, petitioners seek clarification that if they use TV White Spaces (“TVWS”) technology to extend an eligible school’s E-rate-covered Internet access service to the homes of students in and around those schools for educational purposes, they do not have to cost allocate out of their requests for E-rate support the traffic that originates off-campus. In the alternative, petitioners seek a waiver of the FCC’s rules to permit them to implement a pilot project as described in the petition. In the petition for waiver filed by Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic on behalf of Boulder Valley School District (Boulder Valley), the petitioner seeks a waiver of the cost allocation rule in order to allow students at neighboring housing authorities to get Internet access through Boulder Valley’s E-rate subsidized, self-provisioned fiber network after school hours, without Boulder Valley having to cost allocate for the amount of service attributable to off-campus use. According to the petition, local housing authorities or other entities would pay the cost of connecting the affordable housing complexes to Boulder Valley’s network. The Boulder Valley Petition takes the position that the E-rate supported network and Internet access costs for after-hours use are minimal and arguably immaterial because providing access to the district’s broadband network after-hours will not incur an additional charge. They explain that because the school district’s network is designed to ensure that students and teachers have enough bandwidth during school hours, there will be enough bandwidth afterhours to meet students’ needs without incurring additional cost.

Comments in the proceeding are due November 3, 2016; reply comments are due December 5. (CC Docket No. 02-6; WC Docket 10-90; WC Docket No. 13-184)

On August 4, Sens Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler regarding the safety and privacy of dedicated short range communications services (DSRC).

On Sept 7, Chairman Wheeler responded by saying that, "Due to the number of interrelated issues that are implicated by DSRC, the Commission intends to work closely with our partners at the Department of Transportation (DoT), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to address the concerns raised in your letter. In this regard, the Commission is seeking comment on a petition requesting the adoption of service rules protecting the cybersecurity and privacy of DSRC users and that DSRC spectrum be reserved for vehicle safety use. Comments were due on August 25, 2016, and reply comments are due September 9,2016. Those comments, coupled with coordinated DoT and NHTSA activities, will inform our actions going forward."

On July 7, Sens Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Al Franken (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) wrote a letter to Federal Communications Commission expressing support for the FCC's efforts to adopt privacy and data security rules protecting the privacy of broadband customers' personal information.

On Sept 7, Chairman Wheeler responded by writing, "As the Commission continues to examine the substantial record in the proceeding, I can assure you that we will carefully consider the important issues you raise in your letter to ensure our final rules provide consumers with the protections needed to consistently safeguard consumer data and to bolster consumer confidence in their use of these modem telecommunications networks."

On July 20, Sens Ed Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Michael Doyle (D-PA), wrote to federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to request that as the FCC completes its work on business data services reform that it also keeps in place an interim condition ensuring continued access to wholesale voice service.

On Sept 7, Chairman Wheeler responded by writing, "To provide greater certainty and clarity with respect to enterprise voice service, in August 2015 the Commission adopted the interim requirement that incumbent carriers seeking to discontinue legacy [time-division management] services and transition to an all-Internet Protocol environment must continue to provide commercial wholesale platform services at reasonably comparable rates, terms, and conditions. The Commission provided that this interim requirement will sunset when new business data services (BDS) rules and/or policies are effective. As you state and as the Commission recognized, BDS and wholesale voice are distinct services, but the Commission adopted this time limitation to provide a definitive point in the future at which it could reassess the efficacy and necessity of this interim requirement. The United States Telecom Association has challenged this interim requirement in court, and my staff is defending it vigorously. The Commission has an open rulemaking asking how we can best facilitate the continuation of commercial wholesale platform services used by competitive carriers for multilocation voice services. Staff is actively meeting with interested parties and reviewing submissions on this important issue."

Are there ways to reduce burdens on small cable providers without undermining the Federal Communications Commission’s overall mission and requirements? These providers say: look into eliminating or modifying the cable signal leakage rules for those companies that have deployed fiber in a service area.

While it is easy to conclude that our rules are obsolete as they pertain to fiber networks, the harder step is actually fixing the situation. When these rules were adopted, a traditional cable system used coaxial cable to transmit radio frequency (RF) signals carrying content to residential and business consumers. If operated properly, such systems do not cause any interference to spectrum users, such as aeronautical and navigation users. However, RF can “leak” from a cable coaxial system for various reasons, including loose connections, damaged plant or cracked cables. As a way to prevent this from occurring, system operators are required under the Commission’s rules to conduct regular monitoring for signal leakage, maintain logs showing the date and location of any leak, and test annually to demonstrate that a systems cumulative signal leakage is below acceptable interference levels. I learned during my meeting with the small cable providers a while back that, to comply with the annual testing requirement, they rent a small plane and circle their territory with appropriate RF sensors to determine if there any leakage. In the grand scheme of things, this is not a huge expense ($5,000) but when you operate 15 small systems, it costs upwards of $100,000 adding in time and labor. And that’s money that can be used to curtail rate increases or expand the network’s reach to unserved homes.

I believe everyone should have online opportunity. I know there’s virtually no limit to what Americans who are disconnected today could achieve tomorrow if they were participants in, rather than spectators of, the digital economy. Today, high-speed Internet access, or broadband, is critical to economic opportunity, job creation, and civic engagement. But there are too many parts of this country where broadband is unavailable or unaffordable. We need to close this digital divide.

1) Gigabit Opportunity Zones: For starters, we have to focus on bringing high-speed broadband to economically deprived areas. And to do that, we must recognize that deploying broadband isn’t easy. I am calling on Congress to create Gigabit Opportunity Zones. The concept is simple. Provide financial incentives for Internet service providers to deploy gigabit broadband services in low-income neighborhoods. Incentivize local governments to make it easy for Internet service providers (ISPs) to deploy these networks. And offer tax incentives for startups of all kinds in order to take advantage of these networks and create jobs in these areas.

2) Mobile Broadband for Rural America: Rural Americans deserve the same digital access as those living in more urban areas. That’s why I’m proposing a three-step plan to improve high-speed, mobile broadband throughout rural America.

3) Remove Regulatory Barriers to Broadband Deployment: There are some problems with broadband deployment throughout our nation. In particular, government at all levels too often makes the task harder than it has to be.

4) Promote Entrepreneurship and Innovation: The Internet is a means to an end—the end being the countless online applications and opportunities that are transforming our lives. We all know about the innovation that happens on that broadband platform—after all, most of you are busy creating it! From ecommerce to connected health, consumers rely on Internet-based services in countless ways. How do we make sure that our policies promote Internet-based entrepreneurship?

On September 13 at 10:00 AM ET bidding resumes in the Incentive Auction with the opening of Stage 2. We wanted to take a moment to preview what happens next and describe how this stage will be different from Stage 1. For Stage 2, the Auction System set the clearing target at 114 megahertz, the next-highest target that meets the Commission’s standards for setting a clearing target in a stage (explained in the Bidding Procedures Public Notice). Compared to the 126 megahertz clearing target, the 114 megahertz clearing target generally clears nine blocks of spectrum in each partial economic area (PEA) instead of 10 blocks and adds two additional channels to the TV band. Adding more channels to the TV band allows more stations to be repacked in their pre-auction band. Thus, some stations that were provisionally winning after Stage 1 will become “unfrozen” in Stage 2 and will be presented decreasing price offers during the bidding rounds. This process will result in lowering the overall costs of clearing spectrum for wireless use.

In this Public Notice, the Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the fourth quarter of 2016 will be 0.174 or 17.4 percent. Contributions to the federal universal service support mechanisms are determined using a quarterly contribution factor calculated by the Federal Communications Commission (Commission). The Commission calculates the quarterly contribution factor based on the ratio of total projected quarterly costs of the universal service support mechanisms to contributors’ total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications revenues, net of projected contributions. USAC submitted projected collected end-user telecommunications revenues for October through December 2016 based on information contained in the Fourth Quarter 2016 Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-Q).

The amount is as follows: Total Projected Collected Interstate and International End-User Telecommunications Revenues for Fourth Quarter 2016: $14.215126 billion. To determine the quarterly contribution base, we decrease the fourth quarter 2016 estimate of projected collected interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues by the projected revenue requirement to account for circularity, and decrease the result by one percent to account for uncollectible contributions. Accordingly, the quarterly contribution base for the fourth quarter of 2016 is as follows: Adjusted Quarterly Contribution Base for Universal Service Support Mechanism Fourth Quarter 2016 Revenues - Projected Revenue Requirement - 1% ($14.218126 billion – $2.083590 billion) * 0.99 $12.013191 billion.

In this Order, the Wireline Competition Bureau adopts the proposals we made in the ESL Public Notice and releases the eligible services list (ESL) for funding year 2017 for the schools and libraries universal service support program (more commonly referred to as the E-rate program). We also authorize the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to open the annual application filing window no earlier than 60 days after release of this Order.

The Federal Communications Commission seeks nominations for board member positions on the Board of Directions of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) for a three-year term:

• Representative for incumbent local exchange carriers (Bell Operating Companies), (position currently held by Joel Lubin, Consultant, AT&T);
• Representative for libraries that are eligible to receive discounts pursuant to section 54.501 of the Commission’s rules (position currently held by Robert Bocher, Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction);
• Representative for state consumer advocates (position currently held by Wayne Jortner);
• Representative for commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) providers (position currently held by Matt Gerst, Director for Regulatory Affairs, CTIA – The Wireless Association);
• Representative for cable operators (position currently held by Jose Jimenez, Executive Director, Cox Communications, Inc.); and
• Representative for schools that are eligible to receive discounts pursuant to section 54.501 of the Commission’s rules (position currently held by Dr. Daniel A. Domenech, Executive Director, American Association of School Administrators).

All nominations must be filed with the Office of the Secretary by October 21, 2016.