Today:  FCC Chairman on Nomination for NTIA Administrator, FCC Minimum Local Rate Freeze in Rural Areas, FCC Report on AT&T Mobility 911 Outage

FCC Chairman On Nomination For NTIA Administrator

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai released the following statement on the announcement that President Trump intends to nominate David Redl to be NTIA Administrator.  “David Redl is a superb choice to lead NTIA.  His extensive experience as Chief Counsel of the House Energy & Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Communications & Technology makes him uniquely qualified to lead the agency charged with managing the spectrum held by the U.S. government.  “He is also a skillful expert in communications issues central to NTIA’s mission of ensuring that the Internet remains an engine for innovation and economic growth.  The FCC has long had a close partnership with NTIA, and I personally look forward to continuing that relationship with that agency under David’s leadership.”

FCC Minimum Local Rate Freeze In Rural Areas

The FCC voted to freeze the minimum rate for local voice services at $18 per month for customers of companies that receive support from the FCC’s universal service program.  The rate had been scheduled to increase to $20 on July 1 and to $22 on July 1, 2018.  The freeze will stay in effect until the FCC reviews its rate floor policy or no more than two years.  Through a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC will seek comment on whether the rate floor has met its intended purposes, whether changes should be made to the current rate floor methodology, or whether it (and its associated reporting requirements) should be eliminated entirely.  It will also seek comment on the costs and benefits of the rate floor.

FCC Report On AT&T Mobility 911 Outage

The FCC released its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau’s Report and Recommendations concerning the five-hour, March 8, 2017, outage affecting nearly all AT&T Mobility Voice over LTE (VoLTE) customers.  According to the report, approximately 12,600 unique users attempted to call 911 but were unable to reach emergency services through the traditional 911 network.  Thus, this was one of the largest 911 outages ever reported in NORS, as measured by the number of unique users affected.

The report concludes that the outage was caused by an error that likely could have been avoided had AT&T followed certain Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) network reliability best practices with respect to their critical 911 network assets.  The Bureau plans to: release a Public Notice reminding companies of these best practices and their importance; contact other major VoLTE providers to discuss their network practices, and offer its assistance to smaller VoLTE providers.  It will also convene a workshop and invite participation by consumer groups, public safety entities and service providers in the 911 ecosystem in order to discuss best practices and develop recommendations for improving situational awareness during 911 outages, including strengthening PSAP outage notifications and how to best communicate with consumers about alternative methods of accessing emergency services.

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The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily 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 a TMI Briefing.