Universal Service Administrative Co. board member Daniel Domenech will resign effective Dec. 31, USAC told the FCC in a letter Friday. Domenech, who serves as the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators and represents schools and libraries eligible for USF support on the board, gave no reason for his decision in a resignation letter. USAC requested that the Wireline Bureau begin a nomination and selection process to fill the seat "in conjunction with the board members whose terms will expire on Dec. 31."
CTIA, USTelecom and the Competitive Carriers Association jointly asked that the FCC delay by three weeks the comment deadlines on a July Further NPRM on the broadband data collection process (see 2408150009). The groups asked that the initial comment deadline be delayed from Sept. 16 to Oct. 7 and the reply comment deadline moved from Oct. 15 to Nov. 5. “The FNPRM raises complex issues … that warrant a robust record from those directly impacted, including member companies of the Joint Petitioners,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-195. “Key subject matter experts at the member companies dedicated to BDC issues are currently preparing the next BDC filing” due on Sept. 3, the groups said: “The intervening Labor Day holiday further reduces the time available to respond to the multitude of system-specific questions asked in the FNPRM. A brief three-week extension is consistent with precedent, in the public interest, and warranted to afford the Joint Petitioners’ member companies sufficient time to develop a complete record.”
A West Virginia task force will consider pole attachment rules related to resolving disputes that delay broadband deployment, the state’s Public Service Commission ordered Friday. The state is considering a pre-complaint dispute resolution mechanism like that of the FCC rapid broadband assessment team, the PSC said in docket 24-0703-T-E-CTV-GI. The task force will also consider requiring utilities and pole owners to share pole inspection information with possible attachers and report periodically to the commission on rule compliance and processing applications. “The Task Force will consider issues and impediments that cause delays in processing requests for access to a utility’s poles, ducts, conduits, or rights-of-way, and recommendations to address those issues and/or impediments,” the order said. Also, the group will “consider processes for expediting pole attachment disputes that may delay broadband deployment projects.”
The FCC confirmed the Sept. 9 deadline for comments on a recent Wireless Bureau notice concerning the future of the 37 GHz band (see 2408090034) in a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The goal is “informing the forthcoming report mandated by the National Spectrum Strategy (NSS) Implementation Plan,” the notice said: “The NSS identified the Lower 37 GHz band for in-depth study to determine how a co-equal, shared-use framework which allows Federal and non-federal operations should be implemented.” The final report, with findings, is set for completion in November.
Poka Lambro Telecom will acquire TDS Broadband Service's telephone subscriber base, it told the FCC in a letter Friday (docket 00-257). The company said it will continue providing interconnected VoIP service to TDS customers. Poka Lambro noted that the FCC "has not determined" whether interconnected VoIP services are telecom services or "ruled that its carrier change rules apply to interconnected VoIP services." The anticipated date of transfer will be Oct. 1 "or as soon thereafter as the necessary arrangements are in place," Poka Lambro said.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Congress Friday to reach a legislative deal allowing dynamic spectrum sharing on DOD-controlled bands. Pompeo is a Rivada Networks board member (see 2305230040). Frequencies that have military incumbent systems, most notably the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, have been a stumbling block in lawmakers’ attempts to reach a consensus on a broad spectrum legislative package (see 2408150039). Proposals “for Congress to grant sole control over critical bands to private firms, pushing the Pentagon, and their missions, aside … would be a costly mistake that would put American national security at risk,” Pompeo said in a Fox News opinion piece. “Massive amounts of military equipment, from radar to weapons systems, have already been developed and optimized specifically for the spectrum bands in question, and changing that … would take decades to complete and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.” That “unnecessarily grants our adversaries a victory and makes us less safe.” It also “discourages competition and opens the door to companies like Huawei and ZTE, the Chinese Communist Party’s state-backed spyware peddlers, to gain an even bigger share of global wireless hardware manufacturing.” Congress “needs to step up and find a solution that meets the needs of both consumers and our military, and spectrum sharing could be just such a solution.” Pompeo cited the FCC’s three-tiered model for sharing spectrum on the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band and the more recent CBRS 2.0 framework (see 2406120027) as successful models. “Shared licensing democratizes spectrum access, making it accessible to a broad array of users,” which “is critical to unlocking America’s economic potential,” Pompeo said. “The Biden administration could have moved forward with this shared framework last year, but they missed their opportunity. Predictably, it has shown no desire to tackle this problem, as its National Spectrum Strategy simply calls for more studies. This is not leadership.”
AT&T will pay $950,000 and implement a three-year compliance plan to resolve an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation of an Aug. 22, 2023, 911 outage affecting parts of Illinois, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin, the FCC said Monday. The outage lasted an hour and 14 minutes and resulted in more than 400 failed 911 calls, the agency said. AT&T “violated FCC rules by failing to deliver 911 calls to, and failing to timely notify, 911 call centers in connection” to the outage, the FCC found. The FCC said the outage occurred during testing parts of the carrier’s 911 network. A contractor technician “inadvertently disabled a portion of the network, and AT&T’s system did not automatically adjust to accommodate the disabled portion of the network, resulting in the outage.” The testing wasn’t associated with planned maintenance and “did not undergo the stringent technical review that would have otherwise been conducted.” Service providers “have an obligation to transmit 911 calls and notify 911 call centers of outages in a timely manner,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: “Our rules are designed to protect the public and ensure that public safety officials can inform consumers of alternate ways to reach emergency services in the event of an outage.” AT&T understands “the importance of having critical access to 911,” a spokesperson said in an email: “We’ve resolved this matter and are committed to keeping our customers connected in times they need it most.”
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Federal lawmakers from both parties back reforming the Universal Service Fund (USF), but whether that happens likely will depend on the November elections, speakers said Monday at NATOA’s annual local government conference. Localities will increasingly face broadband-only providers wanting right of way (ROW) access, and those cable competitors raise questions of whether they too should pay franchise fees, said localities lawyer Brian Grogan of Moss & Barnett.
Shenandoah Telecom Vice President-Chief Accounting Officer Dennis Romps departs Sept. 6, with James Volk assuming his responsibilities while continuing as senior vice president-CFO … Public Knowledge announces Annual IP3 Award winners: FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, for President’s Award; Electronic Privacy Information Center’s Caitriona Fitzgerald, Information Policy Award; copyright lawyer Jonathan Band, Intellectual Property Award; and National Digital Inclusion Alliance’s Angela Seifer, IP Award.
SES' O3b is pushing its formula for evaluating earlier-round and later-round non-geostationary orbit satellite systems' compatibility. In a docket 21-456 filing Friday recapping a meeting with FCC Space Bureau staffers, O3b said SpaceX's NGSO coexistence proposal (see 2408150034) would harm established services and eliminate incentives for later-round systems to coordinate with earlier-round ones. O3b said its formula ensures the highest availability links are adequately protected while allowing later-round systems to impose relative increases in unavailability that are notably higher than what has been previously suggested.