FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said ensuring "the highest and best" intense use of spectrum and easing the path to infrastructure investment are among his top policy priorities. During a virtual AGL event Thursday, he said shrinking guard bands could be a potentially viable route. Simington said he's "skeptical" that a nationwide fiber buildout could be accomplished at $80 billion and cautioned that a Title II regulatory approach to broadband could raise the threshold for what constitutes a viable community for a broadband provider to offer connectivity. The FCC has done "quite well" in making low- and high-band spectrum available for commercial wireless, but midband needs remain, and that spectrum has a strong ability to drive 5G updates, Simington said: The FCC has the tools to make more spectrum available for terrestrial wireless, but the most effective way to use those tools is clear and open communication with federal users. "Often it's important to not let things get too far down the road before engagement." Simington said he hasn't heard any discussions about a twilight towers agenda item, though the issue could be under study at the staff level. Asked about Communications Decency Act Section 230 action at the FCC, he said it seems clear the agency has authority to take action, but whether it should is less clear. Congress might take up Section 230 without the FCC, he said, and the agency isn't likely to move any item forward before it has a fifth commissioner. He was largely critical of municipal broadband, saying systems frequently require ongoing taxpayer subsidization. Muni broadband "has on occasion filled gaps in some areas," but it's not an effective systemic solution to unserved areas, he said. Asked who will be permanent FCC chair, Simington said he has no insider knowledge, but acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel “has been doing a fantastic job. We are transacting business at a nice brisk clip.” Aurora Insight CEO Jennifer Alvarez said this fall's 3.45-3.55 GHz band auction won't be "quite as high-priced" as the C-band auction because while both represent midband spectrum, 3.45-3.55 GHz has to be shared with incumbent users. Localities lawyer Jonathan Kramer of Telecom Law Firm said small-cell deployments are varying widely in density, with two to three per square mile in some jurisdictions and 30-plus in others. He said local governments have pressing interests in knowing the numbers, locations and designs, because they are "the ones who will live with these things the next 30, 40 years."
Federal funding and public private partnerships and subsidies are keys to building long-term U.S. competitiveness in the semiconductor industry, commented PC market share leaders HP and Dell Technologies, plus contract manufacturer Foxconn, in postings Tuesday in docket BIS-2021-0011. Comments were due Monday in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security inquiry to help shape recommendations to the White House on President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order to relieve semiconductor supply chain bottlenecks (see 2103110054). Public and private sector investments in “people and education” are a good “first step” in developing “a ready and trained workforce that can sustain a U.S. semiconductor ecosystem,” said Foxconn in a rare public policy statement. “Decades of outsourcing has taken its toll on a semiconductor ready workforce,” said the self-described world’s largest electronics manufacturer. SIA also commented (see 2104060064)
The FCC Enforcement Bureau is investigating whether major wireless carriers are in compliance with rules requiring them to start delivering 911 callers’ vertical location information on calls in the top 25 cellular market areas by Saturday, the FCC said Friday. They're required to certify deployment by June 2. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile asked for 18-month waivers of the requirement (see 2103050043). Public safety groups opposed delays (see 2011040032). “Today we are taking action to ensure that wireless providers deliver on their public safety obligations,” acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said: “The FCC adopted comprehensive rules to improve location information for 911 wireless calls back in 2015. But there has been too little progress since then, and I have consistently called on this agency to do more to ensure that our rules are delivering actionable information.” Accurate location information “is critical in emergency situations,” a Verizon spokesperson said: “It is a priority we share. But in this case there are technical requirements that are outside of our control.” Verizon will “continue to work constructively with the Commission and public safety stakeholders to achieve our common goals in the months ahead,” the spokesperson said. “We have spent years and significant resources to improve 911 by providing public safety accurate latitude and longitude information to locate a caller’s address,” said an AT&T spokesperson: “We continue to work with the FCC, our industry partners and public safety to help locate 911 callers in multi-story buildings by adding vertical location information that meets or exceeds accuracy benchmarks.” T-Mobile didn’t comment Friday. In a waiver request, AT&T said its “compliance depends in large part on the actions of others” and “on events outside of any party’s control.” Verizon and T-Mobile also said failure to meet the deadline was beyond their control (see here and here).
Dish Network slammed T-Mobile Thursday, telling the FCC the carrier’s opposition to higher power levels in the citizens broadband radio service band shows that after buying Sprint, the “Un-Carrier” became anti-consumer. “It is ironic that T-Mobile, with the largest spectrum trove in the United States, is against increasing the utility of CBRS licenses held by other competitors,” Dish said in docket 19-348. “No doubt they would take a different approach if they had real ownership of CBRS spectrum.” Dish slammed T-Mobile for its plans to shutter its legacy CDMA network from Sprint at year-end. “Unfortunately, a majority of our 9 million Boost subscribers (many of whom face economic challenges) have devices that rely on Sprint’s CDMA network and will be harmed if T-Mobile prematurely shuts down that network,” Dish said. T-Mobile didn’t comment.
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal, which includes $100 billion for broadband (see 2103310064), got attention during a Thursday meeting between administration officials and six community broadband groups, participants told us. ACA Connects, the Competitive Carriers Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, NTCA, Rural Wireless Association and the Wireless ISP Association participated in the meeting, a WISPA spokesperson confirmed. The groups didn’t object to the general plan the White House released Wednesday, but they want to hear more details, the spokesperson said. The meeting was cordial and had been set before the proposal’s release as a “get to know you” introduction of the industry groups. It appears the Biden administration is “still working out the details” and is in a fact-finding mode aimed at making the plan better, said a lobbyist. The White House appeared interested in how to improve the federal government’s collection of broadband coverage data and “boost competition and affordability,” the lobbyist said. Administration officials didn’t appear to have specific proposals on minimum broadband speed requirements. CCA “was pleased to participate in the discussion,” a spokesperson said. The White House and other participating groups didn’t comment. Biden said Thursday he’s designating five Cabinet-level officials to “take special responsibility” to sell his infrastructure plan to the public, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The Fiber Broadband Association praised the proposal Thursday, while the Wireless Infrastructure Association praised its proposed funding for registered apprenticeships. ACA, CTA and TechNet gave mixed assessments based on what they know so far.
The FCC released an initial list Thursday of providers participating in the $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit program (see 2103260047). Some big ISPs are on the list while others aren't, our review found. The commission plans to announce regular updates as more providers are approved, said a spokesperson. Among those participating so far are Cable One, Comcast, Consolidated Telephone and Windstream. AT&T and its affiliates, including BellSouth, Southwestern Bell and Pacific Bell, are also participating. Most providers will offer discounts for fixed broadband services. Several larger providers were notably missing from the list, including Frontier, Lumen, T-Mobile, UScellular, Tracfone, and Altice. It couldn't immediately be confirmed whether any of those companies' affiliates are participating. Most of the apparently missing companies didn't respond to questions about whether they plan to participate. A spokesperson for Lumen didn't answer our question about its participation but again said it's "reviewing the program's rules" (see 2103040049). Verizon, missing from the initial list, previously told us it will participate. Charter was approved to participate, but the company hasn't filed its confirmation yet. "We will do so shortly," emailed a spokesperson. A spokesperson for Altice said the company was approved to participate and is looking into why it was omitted from the list.
FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Secretary of State Antony Blinken backed Doreen Bogdan-Martin’s candidacy for ITU secretary general Wednesday. Bogdan-Martin, director of ITU's Telecom Development Bureau, would be the first woman to lead ITU and the first U.S. secretary general in more than 50 years. Rosenworcel said "no one is more qualified to sit at the helm of the ITU." Bodgan-Martin "has dedicated her career to championing gender equality and the expansion of digital access and adoption across the developing world," Raimondo said. Blinken said she's a "widely admired expert on global communications issues." In 2018, delegates to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference elected Bogdan-Martin director of the ITU Telecom Development Bureau, the first American elected to one of five leadership positions there in 30 years (see 1811010052).
No satellite operators are reporting delays in C-band clearing in docket 18-122 status reports through Wednesday. Intelsat told FCC acting General Counsel Michelle Ellison and acting Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt its work is "on schedule and under budget," in an ex parte post. It said its ongoing Chapter 11 reorganization shouldn't affect things. The company urged guidance on the claims handling process to be implemented by the relocation payment clearinghouse. In its quarterly report, Intelsat said all encoding systems required to meet the first-phase Dec. 5 deadline are installed, and integrated receivers/decoders needed to complete phase one have been shipped to the earth station operators or are at Intelsat’s vendor’s warehouse. It said critical design reviews for the Galaxy 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36 satellites were completed in Q1, as was preliminary design review for Galaxy 37. SES said it's "on track and in some cases ... ahead" of schedule. It said it has done 57% of phase one satellite transitions, including installing 25% of antennas being done in the first phase, with the rest to be completed by Aug. 31. It said incumbent earth stations needing compression equipment have received it, and phase one transition of services needing compression will be done in Q2. It said the pandemic is affecting replacement satellite manufacturing, with some subcontractors' production capabilities impacted, which will delay component deliveries. Eutelsat said it ordered 500 filters and can confirm receipt of the first 100. No transition delays are expected due to filter procurement lead times, and virtual site audits have been completed for 24 of 33 antennas scheduled for transition. Embratel said it notified its Florida earth station customers about the coming retirement of its Star One C1 satellite and its use of spare capacity on SES' SES-4 to ensure continuity of C-band service. It said no earth station customer expressed interest in receiving C-band service after C1 is out of service.
A federal court agreed with CTIA that a Kentucky 911 law conflicts with the 2018 federal Wireless Telecommunications Tax and Fee Collection Fairness Act. Responding to that federal statute, the 2020 state law made Lifeline providers directly liable for 911 fees and barred them from passing the charge to users. In an opinion (in Pacer) entered Tuesday, U.S. District Court in Frankfort, Kentucky, granted an injunction and restraint against the Kentucky 911 Service Board in case 3:2020-cv-00043. Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove agreed with industry that the Kentucky law is preempted by Section 1510 of the Fairness Act, which limits states from requiring someone out-of-state from collecting state or local fees. “Though the Board alleges that Kentucky’s intention” with the 2020 law “was to comply with Section 1510, the state has failed to do so,” wrote Van Tatenhove. The judge disagreed with CTIA that the law violated two sections of the Communications Act, and he didn’t address the association’s constitutional claims. Section 254(f) on USF doesn’t preempt the Kentucky charge because the fee “has no relation to the manner by which Kentucky operates its universal service fund,” he said. Section 332(c)(3) stopping states’ from regulating wireless provider rates and entry can’t “be read so broadly as to prevent any incidental effects on entry or rates that a [statute] might impose,” he said. The judge disagreed with the state board that CTIA lacks standing as an association representing affected carriers and that Communications Act Section 616a-1(f)(1) exempts state 911 charges from preemption. Such a “broad reading ... would allow states to impose extreme requirements, like the taking of large portions of the service providers’ subsidies, in the name of ‘collecting fees for 911 services,’” he wrote. CTIA is glad the court recognized that the Kentucky law "discriminated against Lifeline providers serving low income consumers," said General Counsel Tom Power. "We are committed to working with policymakers at all levels to ensure all Americans benefit from wireless connectivity and ensure that 9-1-1 systems are appropriately funded." The Kentucky board didn’t comment.
Commissioners OK'd rules 4-0 for round two of the COVID-19 telehealth program, the FCC announced Tuesday. They denied an American Hospital Association petition for reconsideration to include for-profit hospitals as eligible providers. Nearly $250 million will be awarded during the second round. The commission created an application filing window rather than a rolling basis for accepting applications because "smaller providers with more limited resources may have faced difficulties quickly compiling their applications." The filing window is expected to open within 30 days. The FCC will announce this start date "very shortly," said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Round one applicants that didn't receive funding must submit a new application for round two and "will receive an increase in points in Round 2 which are not available to other Round 2 applicants," the order said. Universal Service Administrative Co. will administer funds again, prioritizing applications from the hardest-hit and low-income areas, unfunded round one applicants, tribal communities, critical access hospitals, federally qualified health centers, healthcare provider shortage areas, new round two applicants and rural counties. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the rules give "significant weight to applications proposing to serve low-income communities" and included some of his proposed edits. Rules "strike the right balance between ensuring a wide and equitable distribution of funding and promoting the widest possible participation of health care providers," said Commissioner Brendan Carr. Commissioner Nathan Simington didn't release a statement. The FCC extended from six to 12 months the time applicants may receive funding, saying "providers will likely continue to rely on telehealth and connected care services as a critical means of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic through at least a good portion of 2022." Funds will be awarded in two phases, as expected (see 2103170047). The first $150 million goes to highest-scoring applicants. After a 10-day period, USAC will re-rank the remaining applicants and disburse the remaining funds. The commission kept in place eligibility requirements for providers from round one, and applicants needing to obtain approved eligibility determination must do so only for the "lead health care provider" listed on the application. If an applicant has multiple sites on their application, they must certify only that all sites listed are eligible. The order said its eligible services list is broad enough to provide "the flexibility needed to respond to rapidly evolving situations" and includes guidance on ineligible services.