Rural healthcare providers and the telecommunications companies that service them raised concerns in docket 17-310 about a draft report and order on promoting telehealth in rural America that the FCC has on its agenda for its Aug. 1 meeting (see 1907120003). Some are asking the agency to include recommended revisions before the commissioners vote, while others want to delay the vote altogether, until the September or October meeting, to give stakeholders more time to weigh in.
INDIANAPOLIS -- A now-combined state telecom commissioners' resolution asking the FCC to halt changes to the billion-dollar-a-year phone and broadband program for the poor passed its NARUC committee unanimously, in minutes. Such quick passage, while not atypical, shows lack of controversy among industry and state regulators for waiting on Lifeline revamps, attendees told us. There was no public discussion immediately before the vote and no one abstained, another sign stakeholders are on the same page, they noted.
Members of Congress continue introducing or working on bills targeting national security concerns with Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei, including a pending bill from House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Some on Capitol Hill said they're holding out hope that a conference committee to marry the disparate House and Senate versions of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act will agree to include a trio of House-passed amendments that target Huawei and ZTE. But they and others said legislative vehicles and these recent stand-alone bills should be considered as an alternative if the conference process fails to bear fruit.
INDIANAPOLIS -- There are alternatives to Congress and the FCC requiring carriers and others to remove from their networks equipment made by Chinese telecom gear makers, NARUC was told. Though some state commissioners later expressed skepticism, industry panelists (see 1:30 p.m. event listing) largely backed monitoring networks of U.S. companies for cyberattacks, including from Huawei or ZTE, and testing all equipment before installation for vulnerabilities. Stakeholders generally want testing and monitoring across the board, not limited to one company or manufacturers based in one country.
Members of Congress continue introducing or working on bills targeting national security concerns with Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei, including a pending bill from House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Some on Capitol Hill said they're holding out hope that a conference committee to marry the disparate House and Senate versions of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act will agree to include a trio of House-passed amendments that target Huawei and ZTE. But they and others said legislative vehicles and these recent stand-alone bills should be considered as an alternative if the conference process fails to bear fruit.
Members of Congress continue introducing or working on bills targeting national security concerns with Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei, including a pending bill from House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Some on Capitol Hill said they're holding out hope that a conference committee to marry the disparate House and Senate versions of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act will agree to include a trio of House-passed amendments that target Huawei and ZTE. But they and others said legislative vehicles and these recent stand-alone bills should be considered as an alternative if the conference process fails to bear fruit.
Educational groups asked the FCC to reject a petition from Texas carriers to initiate a rulemaking on E-rate to favor telecom companies that provided fiber to a school or library over an overbuilder during competitive bidding for the USF program (see 1907020016), in replies posted through Wednesday in docket 13-184. "Texas Carriers paint a very different picture than most rural carriers," said Funds for Learning. "Rather than working to earn business, they ask the FCC to regulate competition away." Texas education associations said the Texas carriers should participate in competitive bidding if they want future E-rate funding, "but the petitioners, instead of proposing bids, would rather propose unnecessary rules that allow them to remain on the sidelines without consequence." E-rate Partners said "the petition limits competitive bidding instead of encouraging it." Incompas said the proposals would significantly distort the competitive bidding process, cause higher prices and delay the application process for schools trying to upgrade their broadband services. Uniti Fiber said the "requested rule changes are unnecessary, do not offer solutions, and would harm the competitive market for E-rate services by installing a thicket of bureaucratic barriers to deploying broadband." Petitioners Central Texas Telephone Cooperative, Peoples Telephone Cooperative and Totelcom Communications said they "seek to eliminate waste, not competition," and characterizations of protectionism "are patently false, unsubstantiated and misunderstand many aspects of the Petitioners' proposal." The carriers encourage a mechanism "to consider and negotiate a reasonable rate to lease existing fiber to avoid duplicative costs and unnecessary overbuilding" in ways that would benefit both USF and schools. NTCA also asked for a rulemaking to reexamine E-rate rules adopted five years ago.
Educational groups asked the FCC to reject a petition from Texas carriers to initiate a rulemaking on E-rate to favor telecom companies that provided fiber to a school or library over an overbuilder during competitive bidding for the USF program (see 1907020016), in replies posted through Wednesday in docket 13-184. "Texas Carriers paint a very different picture than most rural carriers," said Funds for Learning. "Rather than working to earn business, they ask the FCC to regulate competition away." Texas education associations said the Texas carriers should participate in competitive bidding if they want future E-rate funding, "but the petitioners, instead of proposing bids, would rather propose unnecessary rules that allow them to remain on the sidelines without consequence." E-rate Partners said "the petition limits competitive bidding instead of encouraging it." Incompas said the proposals would significantly distort the competitive bidding process, cause higher prices and delay the application process for schools trying to upgrade their broadband services. Uniti Fiber said the "requested rule changes are unnecessary, do not offer solutions, and would harm the competitive market for E-rate services by installing a thicket of bureaucratic barriers to deploying broadband." Petitioners Central Texas Telephone Cooperative, Peoples Telephone Cooperative and Totelcom Communications said they "seek to eliminate waste, not competition," and characterizations of protectionism "are patently false, unsubstantiated and misunderstand many aspects of the Petitioners' proposal." The carriers encourage a mechanism "to consider and negotiate a reasonable rate to lease existing fiber to avoid duplicative costs and unnecessary overbuilding" in ways that would benefit both USF and schools. NTCA also asked for a rulemaking to reexamine E-rate rules adopted five years ago.
Kentucky Lifeline subscribers may be decreasing partly due to the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co.’s Lifeline national verifier rollout, said a group of RLECs and CLECs. They commented Wednesday in docket 2016-00059 at the Kentucky Public Service Commission about possible changes to state Lifeline support. Kentucky should expand state Lifeline support to include mobile service, revisiting a 2017 decision to limit it to landline carriers with declining enrollments, wireless companies said.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and other commissioners placed blame for recent hiccups in work to free up spectrum for commercial 5G use squarely on the Commerce Department and NOAA, during a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Pai used the panel to announce pending FCC action to improve the agency's broadband coverage data collection practices, which have come up repeatedly in Capitol Hill communications policy hearings (see 1905150061). Senators also used the panel to probe FCC actions on other communications policy items, including GOP commissioners' public support for T-Mobile's proposed buy of Sprint.