Customs Duty

The Alabama Public Service Commission lacks authority​ to revise price caps on inmate calling service single-call usage fees, Global Tel*Link commented last week in docket 15957. The PSC may vote Sept. 12 on ICS rule changes including revising the price cap so users pay for actual minutes used, rather than a $6 flat fee based on an average 12-minute call duration (see 1708150047). “The Commission’s authority over ICS providers is limited to their utility ‘rates and charges’ and their ‘public duties,’" GTL said. “Neither the ancillary service fee caps nor the single payment call rule relate to charges for ‘utility’ services. These charges relate to financial services or billing and collection arrangements by which ICS customers will choose to pay or be billed for services.” The PSC has no jurisdiction over financial services or billing and collecting, the company said.

Chairman Ajit Pai will continue his push on rural broadband deployment at commissioners' Aug. 3 meeting in what he called "Rural Broadband Month at the FCC." He circulated draft items, including a public notice initiating the pre-auction process for the Connect America Fund Phase II auction and addressing the challenge process for the Mobility Fund II (MF-II) auction. Commissioners also would consider changes to Form 477, which collects broadband data and a notice of inquiry on midband spectrum. The CAF Phase II draft public notice would propose procedures for implementing a reverse auction of about $2 billion in broadband subsidies.

NTCA took issue with FCC rural call completion proposals in a draft Further NPRM on the agenda for Thursday's commissioners' meeting. The rural telco group suggested the commission modify its 2013 reporting and record-keeping requirements for larger local, long-distance, wireless and VoIP providers, not eliminate them, as proposed in the draft (see 1706230040). But CTIA said the FCC should immediately waive the rules -- to reduce "unnecessary" burdens they impose on covered providers -- until a final order takes effect. NCTA (the cable group) asked the agency to ensure covered providers aren't held liable for good-faith efforts to implement new rules on carrier monitoring and accountability. Some parties had discussions with agency officials before lobbying restrictions took effect.

Cellphone cases that include space to store credit cards or IDs are classifiable as containers and subject to a 20 percent duty rate, Customs and Border Patrol ruled. Unlike the standard cellphone cases that don't have storage space, inclusion of a slot for cards is a meaningful difference, CBP found. Classification of cellphone cases faced litigation, most recently with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirming an overturned CBP classification of OtterBox standard cellphone cases as “similar containers.” CBP's ruling last week responded to a request from Pelican Products.

The FCC ATSC 3.0 rulemaking saw more replies underscoring the sometimes contentious nature of what broadcasters hope is a switch to the next-generation standard. Earlier replies in docket 16-142 (see 1706080067) and initial comments (see 1705100072) also showed some differences among broadcasters, MVPDs and consumer electronics interests. Whether to mandate 3.0 tuners is one such issue, with CTA replying to stress the importance of not imposing tuner mandates. It was the first time in the 14-month-long proceeding that CTA commented on its own rather than jointly with NAB and the other groups that petitioned to authorize 3.0 as a voluntary, market-driven service (see 1604130065).

A plastic-covered paperboard album set to hold CDs and DVDs is classifiable as a duty-free album for collectibles, not as a storage container or box file, Customs and Border Protection said in a recent tariff classification ruling: The album set, imported by Target, is a composite good made up of three album binders and a slipcase, each made of paperboard coated in polyvinyl chloride.

FARMINGTON, Pa. -- Cable and telco officials and critics disputed privacy and net neutrality at an FCBA seminar Saturday. There were sharp differences over the FCC 2015 open internet and Title II broadband reclassification order and its 2016 broadband privacy order, and over recent Republican moves and proposals to roll them back. There was some agreement that common ground could be found on open internet rules, that much of the fight is over FCC authority under the Communications Act, and that a legislative fix is needed but difficult.

The FCC asked a court to continue to hold two cases in abeyance -- on technology transitions and a business data service (BDS) tariff order -- while the agency considers related regulatory issues. The commission noted it adopted two items April 20 that were relevant to USTelecom's challenge to FCC 2014 and 2015 orders on industry tech transition rules and backup power duties, in an agency status report (in Pacer) Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1414. It said one item was a rulemaking notice and request for comment on eliminating a "functional test" for implementing Communications Act Section 214 discontinuance requirements and on reversing a decision to apply Section 214 to wholesale services when their discontinuance causes carrier-customers to discontinue retail service to end users (see 1704200046). It said the other was an order completing a BDS rulemaking, which included a rule, when it becomes effective, to terminate an interim wholesale access rule challenged in the USTelecom case (see 1704200020). In light of those actions, the FCC said the court should continue to hold the case in abeyance until the agency completes its new rulemaking. The FCC also noted the April 20 BDS order in updating a separate case in which AT&T is challenging a 2016 BDS tariff investigation order. Although the recent BDS order adopted rules going forward, "it did not directly address the lawfulness of the tariffs at issue in this litigation, said a commission status report (in Pacer) on AT&T v. FCC, No. 16-1166. The agency said the parties "must now evaluate how best to proceed" and it asked the court to keep the case in abeyance for the time being.

An FCC draft rulemaking would seek to roll back ILEC technology transition duties in retiring copper networks and simplify the process for discontinuing telecom services under Section 214 of the Communications Act. The draft NPRM, which would also tee up potential actions to facilitate pole attachments, proposes "to remove regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment at the federal, state, and local level; suggests changes to speed the transition from copper networks and legacy services to next-generation networks and services; and proposes to reform Commission regulations that increase costs and slow broadband deployment."

The International Trade Commission should highlight foreign countries' data localization laws as a top barrier to digital trade in a forthcoming report, telecom and tech officials said Tuesday during an ITC hearing. The commission began an investigation in February at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's request into developments in the digital trade market and how laws in the U.S. and “key foreign markets” are affecting digital trade. The ITC is examining laws in the EU, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Russia. The commission is expected to release the first of three reports on the investigation by Aug. 29, with the other two reports to be released in 2018 and 2019.