The Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau are extending from Friday until Sept. 11 the completion date of phase 5 of the post-incentive auction repacking because of Hurricane Dorian, said a public notice Tuesday. The extension is to “assure that viewers will not be required to rescan their TVs during this period and risk missing important emergency news and information,” said the PN. “This extension will permit each station to determine the appropriate transition timing for its station and its viewers based on the developing conditions in its market.” Stations in areas not affected by the storm are encouraged to continue transitions on the original schedule, the PN said. “We will continue to work with individual stations, including those impacted by Hurricane Dorian, on a case-by-case basis." The FCC has been “working throughout the weekend” on preparations for Hurricane Dorian, said Chairman Ajit Pai Monday. It's working with other agencies, communications providers and power companies to encourage coordinated service restoration efforts “making sure they implement lessons learned from Hurricane Michael,” Pai said. After that storm, Pai urged action on wireless resiliency and service losses due to utility work (see 1905210035). Commission staffers were deployed to survey RF spectrum in areas projected to be hit by Dorian, to help identify impacts and outages, Pai said. The agency activated the disaster information reporting system for several Florida counties and has staff on hand 24 hours a day to assist first responders and communications providers, Pai said. An agency webpage acts as a hub for Dorian-related information. Storm damage to 34 Florida counties was described as “minimal” in a Tuesday morning DIRS report. No public safety answering points were reported down or rerouted, and 0.2 percent of cell sites were out of service in the affected area. The report listed 6,884 cable and wireline subscribers as out of service, and no broadcast stations were reported off-air.
AT&T, not the Commerce Department, will operate FirstNet, and will collect, maintain and transmit personal identifying information over it, so Commerce has no legal obligation to prepare a privacy impact assessment (PIA) and couldn't meaningfully do one. So said AT&T in a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals amicus brief Thursday (docket 18-2819, in Pacer) backing Commerce. The appeal involves a lower court's dismissal of a Freedom of Information Act suit accusing the agency of improperly denying documents about the FirstNet contract awarded to the carrier (see 1809260014). AT&T said it has no legal obligation to prepare a PIA because it's not an agency nor a party in the case. It said 2002 E-Government Act Section 208, requiring PIAs for new data collection, applies only to agencies and no court has read it as applying to a private entity's collection and dissemination of personal information. The 2nd Circuit Thursday also granted an appellant-plaintiff motion to file a late opposition to AT&T's motion to file the amicus brief. Oral argument is this week.
Ban any exclusive agreement between landlords and ISPs, forcing landlords to let multiple service providers access buildings, urged Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute in a docket 17-142 posting Friday. Comments on an NPRM on improved broadband access to multiple-tenant buildings, adopted at the FCC's July meeting (see 1907100020), were due. PK and OTI said the FCC limited its own authority by classifying broadband as an information service, since its authority specific to MVPDs only goes so far and not all broadband providers are MVPDs. They urged the agency adopt a Telecom Act Section 706 classification to give it clear authority to promote multi-tenant access. Or use ancillary authority. Small indie ISPs are the only real competition to the big entrenched cable ISPs and telcos, and whatever steps the FCC takes here, at the least don't harm ability of those indies to access multi-tenant properties, the Multifamily Broadband Council said. It said prohibiting or limiting arrangements where a provider has exclusive right to use in-building wiring would essentially allow mandatory sharing of in-use wiring, inconsistent with other commission findings. The Safer Buildings Coalition urged seeking comment on how the NPRM could affect public safety in-building and rooftop systems and contracts. The Wireless ISP Association, in comments to be posted, said revenue-sharing arrangements between service providers and landlords hurt if not eliminate competition and broadband deployment and should be prohibited. It said public disclosure of revenue sharing agreements isn't a viable alternative since there's no consumer benefit to such disclosures. Bar exclusive wiring and marketing agreements that make competitive entry more expensive, WISPA asked. Exclusive rooftop access agreements are anticompetitive and deter broadband deployment to multi-tenant units, it said. It said some state and local mandatory access regulations and policies aren't technology neutral.
The FCC deactivated the disaster information reporting system for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Thursday. But a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest said “there is a strong possibility that DIRS will be reactivated for Hurricane Dorian if current projections concerning the path and intensity of this storm are correct.” DIRS was deactivated at the request of the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the PN said. “Communications providers do not need to provide any additional reporting in DIRS in connection with this portion of Hurricane Dorian.” Friday, the Wireline Bureau granted temporary waiver of the phone aging rule for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Until May 29, providers in those areas can temporarily disconnect customers’ phone service at their request and reinstate them when service is reconnected. It applies to other areas that are declared to be states of emergency because of Dorian. To facilitate access to telecom after the hurricane, the bureau encouraged service providers to “port telephone numbers geographically outside a rate center to the extent it is technically feasible." The White House Friday authorized a declaration of emergency for Florida in connection with the storm.
The Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee’s Sept. 19 meeting will hear status reports and updates from its three working groups: Disaster Response and Recovery, Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities, and Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Job Skills and Training Opportunities, says an FCC notice for Friday’s Federal Register. BDAC meets at 9:30 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room.
The C-band clearing plan of America's Communications Association, Competitive Carriers Association and Charter Communications would spend "billions of dollars" on 120,000 new route miles of fiber to be deployed where there's no fiber or no redundant fiber, representatives of those three told FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith, per a docket 18-122 posting Thursday. Paying for that fibering with C-band auction proceeds is an economically viable solution to providing high-speed broadband to underserved locations including rural areas, they said.
Damage to communications in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands “appears to be minimal,” said the FCC’s Thursday communications status report on Hurricane Dorian as of 11:30 a.m. EDT. “Typically, the worst effects of a hurricane are not felt until one or two days after the hurricane passes through.” No public safety answering points were reported down or rerouted, and 1 percent of cellsites were out of service in the affected area. Some 6,167 cable and wireline subscribers were listed as out of service in Puerto Rico, and 419 in the U.S. Virgin Islands. No broadcasters were reported off-air. The White House approved a declaration of emergency for the U.S. Virgin Islands, said a news release Wednesday evening. President Donald Trump OK'd one for Puerto Rico Wednesday as well. And the FCC activated the disaster information reporting system for both territories (see 1908280012).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appointed Indiana University business professor Jeffrey Prince Wednesday as chief economist. Prince will succeed Babette Boliek Tuesday, when she returns as Pepperdine University law school professor and associate dean-faculty research. Pai appointed Boliek last year (see 1807300044). The role typically lasts for one year. Prince co-directs Kelley's Institute for Business Analytics. He has written about “dynamic demand for computers, Internet adoption and usage, the inception of online/offline product competition, and telecom bundling,” the FCC said. Prince's “wealth of experience and research on the telecommunications market and Internet adoption will be of great value to the Office of Economics and Analytics and the entire” FCC, Pai said.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals let challengers to FCC telecom discontinuance rules "supplement their argument that The Utility Reform Network ('TURN') has standing" in the case, by Sept. 6. "The panel will not consider any supplemental submission regarding the standing of any of the other petitioning organizations," said an order (in Pacer) Wednesday from the three judges who heard oral argument the previous day (see 1908270026). The jurists limited the supplement to 10 pages, in Greenlining Institute v. FCC. TURN was another petitioner in the case, 17-73283. TURN declined to comment, as did the FCC. Public Knowledge is "pleased that the court has provided us with the opportunity to resolve any lingering issues over standing," emailed Senior Vice President Harold Feld, who argued for petitioners in Seattle. USTelecom, which also got time at oral argument, didn't comment.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau activated the disaster information reporting system for all of Puerto Rico in response to Tropical Storm Dorian, said a public notice Tuesday. “Tropical storm conditions including heavy rain, gusty winds and high surf are expected in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday where warnings have been posted,” said a warning on the National Weather Service homepage Wednesday. “After passing north of Dominican Republic Thursday, Dorian may reach Hurricane strength on its way toward the Bahamas and possibly Florida.” DIRS reports are requested from all communications providers that serve Puerto Rico starting Thursday, the PN said. The White House approved a declaration of emergency in Puerto Rico Tuesday. The Public Safety Bureau also issued a PN on how communications providers in areas affected by Dorian can contact FCC bureaus and submit special temporary authority requests. The FCC activated DIRS for the entire U.S.Virgin Islands Wednesday.