Federal Communications Commission

On August 2, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect2Health Task Force (C2H) will unveil a new mapping tool in support of its efforts to further chart the broadband future of healthcare. The Mapping Broadband Health in America tool enables more efficient, data-driven decision making at the intersection of broadband and health and promotes stakeholder collaboration. By allowing users to ask and answer questions about broadband and health at the county and census block levels, the tool provides valuable data and insights to drive broadband health policies and connected health solutions for this critical space. Recognizing that technology innovations in clinical practice and care delivery are fundamentally changing the face of health care, C2H has been exploring and analyzing the intersection of broadband, advanced technology, and health.

This mapping tool builds on the group’s work and reflects the overarching vision of the Task Force for leveraging broadband in health: “Everyone connected to the people, services, and information they need to get well and stay healthy.”

As part of its preparations for the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) next World Radiocommunication Conference scheduled to convene in 2019, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced the appointment of Thomas C. Power as Chair and Christopher J. Murphy as Vice Chair of the FCC’s Advisory Committee for the World Radiocommunication Conference for 2019 (WRC-19). The Committee will be tasked with providing advice, technical support, and recommended proposals on matters relating to the WRC-19.

Thomas C. Power is Senior Vice President and General Counsel of CTIA. Before joining CTIA, Power served as the US Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications in the White House Office of Science and Technology Office. Previously, Power served as Chief of Staff for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, US Department of Commerce and as Senior Legal Adviser to FCC Chairman William Kennard, where he advised the chairman on broadband, common carrier and mass media matters. Christopher J. Murphy is Associate General Counsel, Regulatory Affairs, at ViaSat, Inc., a US-based broadband services and technology provider. Before joining ViaSat, Murphy was Vice President, Government Affairs at Inmarsat. Prior to working in the private sector, Murphy worked for a decade at the FCC’s International Bureau, on broadcast and mobile satellite licensing issues, as well as on domestic and international spectrum and broadband policies.

With this inaugural Tribal Radio Summit, we are leveraging the expertise of the Federal Communications Commission and those among you who have been through the process. We are providing a forum to share insights about what it takes to start and run a radio station. The ultimate goal, is that each of you will be empowered by taking the information and tools you receive during this Summit, utilize them and join the ranks of local broadcasters in augmenting the diversity of voices accessible to your communities.

We also should be both cognizant and mindful that broadcast and broadband are intersecting in today’s communications marketplace - and each can and sometimes does drive the other. Vertical real-estate for a broadcast facility can be leveraged to deploy other wireless services including broadband. Existing fiber loops can be harnessed to provide broadcast relays between studios and towers. And existing tower assets for wireless services can do double duty to house a broadcast transmitter. Each Tribe is different and therefore each has to determine the path that is best, based on its particular circumstances and community needs. I encourage you to enlist the FCC, through the Office of Native Affairs and Policy, as a resource in doing so. The Tribal Priority is just one example of an FCC platform aimed at implementing our Tribal Policy Statement. Not just today and tomorrow, but going forward, our experts, our tools, and our resources are designed to collaborate with you on new radio services and to facilitate increased use of the Priority

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced the departure of Jon Sallet as the FCC General Counsel and his intention to appoint Howard Symons as the next General Counsel. Sallet will become the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Litigation in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. In his new position as FCC General Counsel, Symons will lead the office that serves as the principal legal advisory office to the Commission as a whole.

Prior to joining the Commission, Sallet was been a partner in three law firms, served as chief policy counsel for MCI Telecommunications (later MCI WorldCom), and served as Director of the Office of Policy & Strategic Planning for the Department of Commerce. He was a law clerk to the Honorable Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and the Honorable Edward A. Tamm of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Symons has been working in telecommunications in both the public and private sectors for more than 30 years. Before his appointment to the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force in January 2014, he was the chair of the communications practice at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. and served as senior counsel to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications in the US House of Representatives. He graduated from Yale University and earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

This Public Notice is to announce that Commissioner Mignon Clyburn of the Federal Communications Commission will conclude her #ConnectingCommunities tour on October 19, 2016, with a Policy Forum in the Washington (DC) area. Policy Forum Topics include:
Bridging the Affordability Gap
What is 5G?
Combating Inequality in the Communications Sector
Health Care: An Unfinished Chapter of the National Broadband Plan
The Future of Viewpoint Diversity

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler sent letters to 25 Members of Congress on July 11, 2016, responding to their letter expressing concerns with the decision to limit the role of states in preventing waste, fraud and abuse within the Lifeline program.

The Members asserted it could be more efficient and cost effective to allow states to continue serving as the primary verifiers of applicant eligibility and the FCC should focus on working with the states to ensure they have the information needed to perform checks of eligibility. Chairman Wheeler said the Lifeline Order will allow states to continue to play an important role, and said states maintain their authority to designate Lifeline voice and high-cost ETCs within the state.

Federal Communications Commission Tom Chairman Wheeler sent letters to 20 US House members from New York on July 11, 2016, in response to their May 18, 2016 letter, which supported the adoption of Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction rules that would ensure CAF funds originally allocated to New York are not diverted to other regions.

Chairman Wheeler said among the issues on which the FCC sought comment in the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking are ways the FCC can structure the CAF II auction to ensure an equitable distribution of funds to states like New York, where the price cap carrier declined to accept significant amounts of USF support.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Wheeler sent letters to House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), and Rep Michael Burgess (R-TX) on July 11, 2016, in response to their June 1, 2016 letter, which urged the FCC to reconsider its proposed privacy rules for broadband internet access service providers.

Chairman Wheeler said Congress has enacted sector-specific privacy protections in a variety of areas in which especially sensitive information is collected and stored, and the Commission has a long history of protecting consumer privacy of information carried by communications service providers. He said the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes a path forward toward final rules for broadband Internet access service (BIAS) that will provide clear guidance to both BIAS providers and their customers, and include the Federal Trade Commission's core principles of transparency, choice and security.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the Incentive Auction Task Force identify 62 applicants found to be qualified to bid in the upcoming forward auction (Auction 1002), and announce that bidding in the clock phase of the forward auction in the initial stage will begin on August 16, 2016.

This Public Notice provides details, instructions, and specific dates regarding the availability of educational materials, the opportunity for each qualified bidder to participate in the clock phase practice and mock auctions, and the start of clock phase bidding in the forward auction. This Public Notice also addresses the continuing obligations and auction procedures for all Auction 1002 applicants, including those that have been deemed not qualified to bid.

For all our progress on accessibility issues, there’s more to be done. We’ll have an opportunity to build on this progress at our August meeting. The Federal Communications Commission will consider a draft report and order to convert the pilot National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP) into a permanent program. Known as “iCanConnect,” this program provides equipment needed to make telecommunications, advanced communications and the Internet accessible to Americans who have significant vision and hearing loss. The new NDBEDP would be able to spend up to $10 million annually to distribute equipment to low-income individuals who are deaf-blind. The program would also provide training and other technical support, including individual assessments of each consumer’s specific accessibility needs, to help low-income people who are deaf-blind better utilize the communications equipment they need to fully participate in society.

I also circulated a proposed report and order that would further strengthen our hearing aid compatibility rules and increase the number of wireless handset models that must be hearing aid compatible. The item builds off new rules and a further proposal that the FCC adopted unanimously last November. The new order would enshrine a consensus plan developed collaboratively by the wireless industry and groups representing people with hearing loss that puts us on the path to achieve hearing aid compatibility for 100 percent of new handsets within eight years. This evolution will greatly expand options for people with hearing loss, simplify the task of finding handsets that work with hearing aids and ensure that people with hearing loss have full access to innovative handsets. At the same time, the implementation time line would ensure that manufacturers and service providers will include HAC features from the earliest stages of the design process.

In addition to these accessibility items, the FCC’s August meeting will also feature an item that will both ensure that the rates for inmate calling services (ICS) are just, reasonable, and fair for local and long-distance calls, and that the nation’s jails and prisons are compensated for reasonable costs associated with the provision of inmate calling services. The proposed item takes a careful look at the costs that facilities incur as a result of ICS and covers these ICS-related costs through modest increases in the inmate calling rate caps previously set by the FCC. As always, special thanks are due to Commissioner Clyburn for her leadership on this issue.