Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

In an unusual move, the FCC said it will act at its agenda meeting March 10 on a “consent agenda” in which 14 items will be voted on at once rather than be presented individually. Also on the agenda are truth-in-billing and a 3600 MHz proceeding. The meeting is Chmn. Powell’s last in his post.

The FCC said it denied Sprint’s petition for reconsideration of the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement for the Collocation of Wireless Antennas. The agreement was signed by the FCC Wireless Bureau, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers on March, 2001. It exempted colocated antennas from the Sec. 106 review process of the National Historic Preservation Act, with certain exceptions. Sprint sought reconsideration of the agreement, arguing that construction of facilities for wireless communications wasn’t a federal undertaking subject to Sec. 106 of the NHPA. It said because the FCC didn’t issue licenses for individual wireless facilities under geographic area licenses, a carrier could site facilities throughout its licensed geographic area without prior Commission approval. It also argued that the Commission’s registering of a tower under Part 17 of the Commission’s rules was merely a ministerial act and didn’t create a federal undertaking under the NHPA. But the FCC said in the Wed. order: “Sprint’s petition for reconsideration raises the same arguments that the Commission recently rejected when it amended Section 1.1307(a)(4) and codified the Colocation Agreement.”

The FCC should set national standards to make sure the location of E-911 calls can be identified when callers are on multiline telephone systems (MLTS), several organizations told the FCC in comments filed Mon. Although Verizon disagreed and said a national standard would be too restrictive, many said the FCC shouldn’t wait any longer for states to act.

The FCC said it adopted additional mandatory requirements for eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation proceedings pursuant to Sec. 214(e)(6) of the Communications Act, consistent with the recommendations of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service submitted a year ago. ETC status allows a carrier to get high-cost universal support funding. The agency also encouraged, but didn’t require, states that exercise jurisdiction over ETC designations to adopt the requirements when deciding whether a common carriers should be designated an ETC. The rules are mandatory only in cases where the FCC makes the ETC designation. While the order applies to both wireline and wireless companies entering the high-cost, mostly rural markets, the majority of incoming ETCs have been wireless carriers.

Verizon Wireless urged the FCC to deny NASUCA’s petition seeking a ban on all line-item charges, surcharges or other fees on consumer bills, unless such charges are expressly mandated by the govt. Verizon said in an ex parte the petition should be denied because “it asks for a declaration that would conflict with established law.” It said some states were regulating billing “in ways that plainly exceed the boundaries of permissible state regulation” of CMRS under Sec. 332 of the Communications Act and Sec. 64.2400(c) of the Commission’s rules. “This is the right time, and the right opportunity, for the Commission to reaffirm that such regulations interfere with the fundamental federal regulatory scheme for CMRS,” it said.

Lack of funding and lack of awareness are the major obstacles to implementing the telecom service priority (TSP) program by the public safety, speakers said Thurs. during a TSP summit hosted by the FCC. The program has been in operation since 1988, when the FCC authorized telecom service providers to provide priority restoration of pre-designed circuits in times of emergency. But the panelists said that so far it has attracted less than 10% of PSAPs. For example, they said, there were still at least 20 states which local emergency centers had no TSP coverage. Okla. Corp. Commission Comr. Denise Bode estimated it would take $7.2 million to cover the uncovered circuits.

FCC Comr. Abernathy said the nation’s ability to identify threats to telecom infrastructures and maintain emergency communications when man-made or natural disasters strike have improved since the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, but more still needs to be done. “We have addressed critical areas over the last three-and-a- half years, but it’s not enough,” she said. Speaking on a utility infrastructure security panel at the NARUC winter meeting, Abernathy said the FCC’s focus before 9/11 was on coping with natural disasters. “After this event, we evaluated and found serious lacks” in emergency communications and service restoration. She said the FCC since then has strengthened industry partnerships to improve E-911 and emergency communications for public safety entities. She said the FCC and industry worked to create priority service restoration rules for both landline and wireless service so emergency personnel get top priority for available network capacity. And the FCC established a homeland security policy council under the FCC Chief of Staff to coordinate ongoing agency efforts. To address the kind of radio interoperability problems that emerged from 9/11, where radio sets of different agencies couldn’t communicate with each other, Abernathy said the FCC set aside 97 MHz across 10 different radio bands for public safety use, but only for agencies whose radios meet interoperability standards. She also noted that as of Jan. 1, all new public safety radio equipment sold in the U.S. must meet interoperability standards. “We have the bandwidth and we have the technology in place. We should be able to achieve dramatic improvements” in emergency communications, cautioning that emergency service organizations aren’t under direct control of the FCC. She said 9/11 also revealed infrastructure interdependency vulnerabilities because communication depends on uninterrupted electric power, while electric restoration depends on communications: “We in telecom are only one piece of the total infrastructure picture. We need to better understand infrastructure interdependencies so we can plan for their effects.” In response to a question, Abernathy noted that the national radio/TV emergency broadcast system was designed for Cold War threats to the entire nation, not localized emergencies in a single city, state or region. She said the FCC is looking into various approaches using commercial and govt. radio services to broadcast localized emergency information to only the affected area. Other panelists described how national homeland security infrastructure protection initiatives have evolved to include state and local efforts. They urged state regulators to establish and maintain contact with the federal homeland security coordinator for their state.

The Bells lined up against competitors on a Verizon petition seeking forbearance from Title II and Computer Inquiry rules as they apply to broadband service. The Bells said the broadband marketplace is highly competitive and the regulatory structures they face give cable providers in particular an unfair advantage. Competitors argued that Verizon wants to destroy competition. The 2 sides recently faced off in a similar battle over a BellSouth forbearance petition also before the Commission.

The FCC loosened rules governing Ancillary Terrestrial Components (ATC) of mobile satellite service (MSS) systems Thurs., taking reaffirmation of its initial 2003 decision a step further than some in the industry had anticipated. The reconsideration changed L-band interface rules to allow operators more flexibility to design and realize systems according to market needs, and denied requests to revisit its decision not to assign ATC authority by auction.

The FCC’s Wireless Broadband Access Task Force advised the FCC to raise the transmission power limits for wireless data providers in rural areas of the U.S. as part of a set of preliminary recommendations following a nearly year-long investigation. The group, formed last May, also said Thurs. that future FCC regulation should be based on a “pro-competitive, innovative” framework with limited barriers at the federal and state levels. It said the FCC should consider classifying wireless broadband as an “information service” and examining whether it constitutes an interstate service not subject to significant state regulation.