Today's Regulatory Mix:  FCC Announces New USAC Board Members, US Congress Hearing on EU US Privacy Shield

FCC Announces New USAC Board Members

The FCC announced the appointment of s six members to the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC).  Each appointee was nominated in response to a Public Notice issued earlier this year soliciting nominations for the Board positions listed below. The three-year term for these positions begins on January 1, 2021.

Chairman Pai appointed the following individuals to the USAC Board of Directors:

• Representative for incumbent local exchange carriers (non-Bell Operating Companies) with $40 million or less in annual revenues: Geoffrey A. Feiss, General Manager, Montana Telecommunications Association;
• Representative for competitive local exchange carriers: Joseph Gillan, Consultant, Gillan Associates;
• Representative for low-income consumers: Ellis Jacobs, Senior Attorney, Advocates forBasic Legal Equality, Inc.;
• Representative for interexchange carriers with annual operating revenues of $3 billion or less: Michael Skrivan, Vice President Regulatory, Consolidated Communications;
• Representative for schools that are eligible to receive discounts pursuant to section 54.501 of the FCC’s rules: Joan H. Wade, Ed.D., Executive Director, Association of Educational Service Agencies; and
• Representative for rural health care providers that are eligible to receive supported services pursuant to section 54.601 of the Commission’s rules: Katharine Hsu Wibberly, Ph.D., Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center.

The USAC Board of Directors will hold its next meetings on January 21, 25, and 26, 2021.  The quarterly meetings are open to the public.

US Congress Hearing on EU US Privacy Shield

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, announced the Committee will convene a hearing titled, “The Invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield and the Future of Transatlantic Data Flows,” at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 9. The hearing will explore policy issues that led to the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, one of the key mechanisms for allowing the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States. The hearing will also examine the impact of the ECJ’s decision on U.S. businesses engaging in transatlantic digital commerce and what steps the U.S. Government is taking to develop a successor data transfer framework with the Europeans.

The tentative witness list is as follows:

• The Honorable Noah Phillips, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
• Ms. Victoria Espinel, President and Chief Executive Officer, BSA – The Software Alliance
• Mr. James Sullivan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce
• Mr. Peter Swire, Elizabeth and Tommy Holder Chair of Law and Ethics, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, and Research Director, Cross-Border Data Forum

Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC).  The reminder also underscores several lessons learned from major communications network outages that occurred this year. 

The best practices highlighted in the Public Notice include: (1) ensuring sufficient circuit diversity; (2) ensuring alternative routing of 911 calls; (3) validating network changes in a test environment prior to actual application in the field; (4) using virtual interfaces; (5) using network management controls; and (6) making spare equipment available.

Kansas Extends Lifeline Waivers

The Kansas Corporation Commission has extended, until Feb. 28, 2021, its waiver of the Kansas Lifeline Service Program (KLSP) recertification and de-enrollment requirements to coincide with actions taken by the FCC.   Specifically, the KCC waived (1) the KLSP’s re-certification and de-enrollment rules; and (2) the requirement for consumers seeking to qualify for the Lifeline program based on income to present documentation covering three consecutive months.   Instead, customers may to submit an official document, including notice of unemployment benefits, to confirm their current income to demonstrate their eligibility for KLSP.

____________________________

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.