Telecommunication

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the February Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, February 22, 2018.

Feb 2 is Groundhog Day. Fittingly, I’m announcing an agenda for the Federal Communications Commission’s February meeting that revisits some familiar themes from the past year: modernizing outdated rules, closing the digital divide, and most significantly, promoting innovation.

In Jan 30's State of the Union message, President Donald Trump called on Congress to allocate at least $1.5 trillion for "the infrastructure investment we need."   Much of the conversation relates to people's most tangible perception of infrastructure: roads, rails and bridges. The media rightly give us increasingly frequent images of derailed train cars, collapsed trestles, cracked stanchions and crumbling bridges. But in the 21st century, infrastructure is more than concrete and metal. Equally important is the digital infrastructure that underlies America’s economy and governments.

Congressional action to update the Telecommunications Act will be incremental, according to House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). "We're looking at it piece by piece," Walden said at the 2018 State of the Net conference on Jan 29. He added that Congress also "needs to look at the FCC operation" overall, acknowledging that "we live in a different era" than when the 1996 Telecom law was enacted. Walden said he expects a "program-by-program" evaluation, but did not suggest any timetable or urgency for the review.

In a comment provided to the Federal Communications Commission, staff of the Federal Trade Commission responded to the FCC’s request for input on potential mechanisms to address erroneously blocked robocalls, without imposing undue harm on callers and consumers.  In the comment, FTC staff stresses its support for the FCC’s inquiry into this important issue, which requires balancing the “long-overdue progress in developing call-blocking and call-filtering solutions to protect consumers from illegal and unwanted calls,” along with “the interests of subscribers and legitimate callers that coul

As the Federal Communications Commission begins to explore potential changes to its regulations for rate-of-return carriers, we both wholeheartedly support action to curb impermissible expenditures.  The public trust is violated, if or when bad actors take extensive leeway in defining what is acceptable for reimbursement by the FCC and ratepayers.  Past stories highlight spending on personal mansions, fancy boats, lavish parties, and country club memberships, just to name a few.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed an $18,715,405 fine against DataConnex for apparent violations involving the Universal Service Fund Rural Health Care Program. The Florida- and Mississippi-based telecommunications services provider is charged with violating the Communications Act, the program’s competitive bidding rules, and using forged, false, misleading, and unsubstantiated documents to improperly seek funding from the Universal Service Fund (USF).

The Federal Communications Commission took the final actions required to launch its innovative Connect America Fund Phase II auction, which will provide up to nearly $2 billion over the next decade to expand fixed, high-speed Internet service in unserved rural areas. In a Public Notice adopted Jan 30, the FCC scheduled the auction to begin on July 24, set a March 30 deadline for applications to participate, and set out detailed procedures for the auction. The FCC also adopted an Order on Reconsideration resolving all pending challenges to earlier FCC auction implementation decisions.

The Federal Communications Commission is following through on its promise to work with corrections and public safety officials to combat contraband cellphones in the nation’s prisons, setting a meeting in Feb to work on the issue.  The meeting among state and federal prisons officials, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, has been scheduled for February 7 at FCC headquarters.