Today:  FCC Telehealth Program, FCC One-Touch, Make-Ready, FCC 5G Spectrum Auction 

FCC Telehealth Program

At its Open Meeting yesterday , the FCC approved Commissioner Carr’s proposal to establish a new $100 million “Connected Care Pilot Program” to support telehealth for low-income Americans, especially those living in rural areas and veterans.  The Notice of Inquiry (NOI) seeks comment on:

• The goals of, and statutory authority for, the pilot program.
• The design of the pilot program, including the budget; the application process and types of telehealth pilot projects that should be funded; eligibility criteria for participating health care providers, broadband service providers, and low-income consumers; the broadband services and other communications services and equipment that should be supported; the amount of support and how it should be disbursed; and the duration of the program.
• How to measure the effectiveness of pilot projects in achieving the goals of the program.

In connection with the FCC’s action, Commissioner Carri issued a statement saying: “I am glad my colleagues on the Commission voted to approve my proposal to begin establishing the Connected Care Pilot Program.  The FCC has long supported broadband deployments to brick-and-mortar healthcare facilities, but advancements in technology mean we can now bring connected care everywhere. So we should explore how the FCC can support this new trend in telehealth, which can lower costs and improve health outcomes. Low-income Americans, particularly in rural areas, face obstacles to healthcare, and I’m glad the FCC is doing its part to help bridge this doctor divide. I look forward to working with doctors, providers, federal agencies, members of Congress, and all stakeholders as we work to get this program up and running.”

FCC One-Touch, Make-Ready

At its Open Meeting yesterday, the FCC voted to speed the process and reduce the costs of attaching new network facilities to utility poles by adopting a “one-touch, make-ready” (OTMR)process.  Under OTMR, the new attacher moves existing attachments and performs all other work required to make the pole ready for a new attachment.   OTMR speeds and reduces the cost of broadband deployment by allowing the party with the strongest incentive—the new attacher—to prepare the pole quickly, rather than spreading the work across multiple parties.  OTMR will not apply to more complicated attachments, or above the “communications space” of a pole, where safety and reliability risks are greater, but the Order improves current processes for attachments in these spaces. 

The Order will also makes clear that the FCC will preempt, on a case-by-case basis, state and local laws that inhibit the rebuilding or restoration of broadband infrastructure after a disaster. And in a Declaratory Ruling, the FCC made clear that blanket state and local moratoria on telecommunications services and facilities deployment are barred by the Communications Act because they, in the language of Section 253(a), “prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the ability of any entity to provide any interstate or intrastate telecommunications service.”

FCC 5G Spectrum Auction

The FCC released a Public Notice establishing the application and bidding procedures for the upcoming Spectrum Frontiers auctions of Upper Microwave Flexible Use Service licenses in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz) and 24 GHz (24.25-24.45, 24.75-25.25 GHz) bands.  The FCC will offer the 28 GHz and 24 GHz band licenses through two auctions with separate application and bidding processes for each auction.  However, the application windows will run concurrently. The bidding for the 28 GHz UMFUS licenses (Auction 101) will commence on November 14, 2018, and the bidding for the 24 GHz licenses (Auction 102) will commence after the bidding concludes in Auction 101. These two auctions will use different bidding formats to accommodate differences in the characteristics of the licenses in the two bands.  Auction 101 will use a standard simultaneous multiple round auction format; Auction 102 will employ a clock auction format.  The Public Notice also announced that certain auction rules, such as the prohibition on certain communications, will apply across both auctions and adopts bidding credit caps for the auctions of $25 million for small businesses and $10 million for rural service providers.

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 The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.

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