ECIP FNPRM OK'd 4-0 With Starks' Change
FCC commissioners approved a Further NPRM 4-0 Thursday on an enhanced competition incentive program. The ECIP item includes, as expected (see 2111170054), language requiring staff prepare a five-year report on the program's effectiveness, sought by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. Only Starks and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel offered substantial comments on the item during the meeting.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Bipartisan legislation aimed at providing incentives for large carriers to make their unused spectrum available to smaller rural carriers was folded into the Mobile Now Act, which became law in 2018, noted Rosenworcel. “Today we are working to put this idea into practice … proposing a new program to help grow wireless competition and create new opportunities for smaller carriers and tribal nations."
“Some wireless providers have access to airwaves that others might be better positioned to deploy,” Rosenworcel said: “Our rules don’t always make it easy to get spectrum resources to those who want to build in the places that need it most. This new program will help fix that.” The proposed rules encourage carriers “to create new spectrum opportunities for small carriers, tribal nations, or others serving rural areas,” she said: The FCC will “reward them with longer license terms, more flexible construction requirements and some more options.”
Connection problems are especially severe in tribal areas, Starks said. A 2019 American Indian Policy Institute study “found that, even though most tribal respondents relied on their smartphones to access the Internet, more than a third had issues connecting,” he said: The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis says mobile wireless download speeds are 45% slower in tribal than nontribal areas.
Starks said he proposed seeking comment on a five-year review on how well ECIP is working, which was adopted. “Far too often, federal agencies adopt policies without making any subsequent effort to review whether those policies are achieving their objectives,” he said. Starks also said the FNPRM is right to ask about preventing fraud, waste and abuse.
The FNPRM offers “interesting new ideas, and I’m happy that we’re moving forward and exploring them,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr. The notice “takes the next steps to fulfill the commission’s duties under the Mobile Now Act,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington.
“By eliminating unnecessary barriers to spectrum use, the FCC can create new opportunities for expanding mobile access,” a CTIA spokesperson emailed: “The wireless industry looks forward to helping expand deployment and supporting the Commission’s efforts to close the digital divide.”
The FCC said the proposed program offers “three primary benefits” to participating providers. They are a five-year extension of license terms for a qualifying transaction, a one-year extension of construction deadlines when a license is partitioned, and“alternate construction requirements for partition and disaggregation in rural-focused transactions.” The notice was OK’d largely as circulated, except for the change sought by Starks, acting Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt told reporters.