State agencies and rural carriers urged the Utah Public Service Commission to give heightened scrutiny to a Lumen petition seeking statewide exemption from carrier of last resort (COLR) requirements for new customers. In prehearing briefs and written testimony filed last week in docket 23-049-01, they disputed how Lumen’s CenturyLink framed its arguments that relief won’t harm landline customers and that effective competition exists across the state. The PSC plans hearings Wednesday on the petition and has a March 17 deadline to reach a decision (see 2311290043).
Customs Duty
A Customs Duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs Duty Rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight.
EU privacy law will change to address the challenges of AI and other technologies, European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Wojciech Wiewiorowski told Communications Daily in a wide-ranging interview. He is urging governments not to wait for global privacy solutions to emerge before regulating AI but to use existing tools.
A new analysis submitted to the FCC by Dish Network found that providers can offer fixed-wireless service in the lower 12 GHz band without causing interference to satellite operations. Dish asked engineering company RKF to find “how many customers a fixed service operator could serve in a market while causing zero risk of interference into satellite customers,” Dish said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-443. “The answer is millions, even without taking into account vegetation, even with assuming near-free-space propagation, even without considering the dominant-path method or other techniques for nulling non-line-of-sight paths, and even without taking any of the measures that could avert interference on a case-by-case basis,” Dish said. It noted that the national spectrum strategy, released Monday (see 2311130048), cites the FCC’s look at sharing in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band. “DISH readily accepts that Fixed 5G will not be capable of serving all Americans in light of the need to avoid interference,” the filing said: “Given its 6.72 million [direct broadcast satellite] customer base, DISH takes seriously its duty to avoid interference to existing satellite customers’ services. The RKF study shows that DISH and other Fixed 5G licensees can fulfill that duty while still offering service to large swaths of the country.”
Industry groups sought clarification of a draft FCC order and Further NPRM that would address concerns about numbering resources for VoIP providers and general oversight of numbering access. Commissioners will consider the item during their open meeting Thursday (see 2308310059). The Voice on the Net Coalition urged the FCC to make targeted edits on certification requirements and compliance with state regulations.
Lumen wants to shed carrier of last resort (COLR) duties in Utah, in whole or at least in part, it said in a Wednesday petition at the Utah Public Service Commission (docket 23-049-01). Lumen isn't seeking relief from discontinuance rules to end services for existing customers, it said. "Rather, on a forward-looking basis, this petition seeks relief from the obligation to provide voice service to every new customer location regardless of the cost of service." Utah doesn't provide high-cost support to Lumen and the federal government stopped giving it federal USF support last year, the carrier noted. "With no supportive funding for the COLR obligations in CenturyLink’s service territory, either from the federal government or the State of Utah, the company should not be obligated to be a COLR.” If the PSC wants to keep COLR obligations in certain locations, it should let Lumen collect state USF support for those places, it said. Effective competition exists throughout the company's territory, claimed Lumen: Competitors can “provide functionally equivalent or suitable services.”
House Communications Subcommittee members made the future of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program a major focus of its Wednesday commission oversight hearing, as expected (see 2306200075), but the panel didn’t result in a clear sense of whether Commerce Committee GOP leaders will back additional funding for the initiative. Subpanel Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and others haven’t committed themselves as either for or against further ACP funding (see 2305100073). Democrats strongly defended the program and urged its extension.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announces retirements of Toni McGowan, Office of Managing Director deputy chief-performance evaluation and records management; Christina Clearwater, Wireless Bureau associate chief-competition and Infrastructure Division; and Joe Husnay, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau electronics engineer; she also announces as employees of the year Scott Noveck, Office of General Counsel, for his efforts to revoke authorization for China Telecom, and Sue Sterner, Office of Economics and Analytics, for her contributions to four agency auctions.
Colorado should extend the effective date for companies to comply with the latest revisions to the state's privacy law, and enforcers should consider mirroring data security regulations in other states, industry groups told Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) in recent comments.
The communications market doesn’t need affordability metrics, telecom industry groups told the California Public Utilities Commission in comments this week. The CPUC received feedback Wednesday on a 2020 affordability report released last month and possibly applying the agency’s metrics to communications (see 2210140036). In a separate docket, the state commission received mixed reviews on a proposed pilot program for stacking federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) funds on state LifeLine support (see 2210140068).
T-Mobile must pay a nearly $3.59 million penalty for misleading the California Public Utilities Commission about its CDMA transition, commissioners decided unanimously Thursday. The CPUC mostly rejected T-Mobile’s May appeal of two administrative law judges’ initial April decision, though it reduced the fine by about 33% from $5.33 million (see 2205260008 and 2204260061). The CPUC denied as moot the carrier’s June motion for alternative dispute resolution (see 2206090017).