FCC December Open Meeting 

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced the tentative agenda for the FCC’s December 12, 2019, Open Meeting.  It includes the following items: 

• VoIP Symmetry – An Order on Remand and Declaratory Ruling that would promote continued investment in IP-based networks by clarifying that a local exchange carrier partnering with a VoIP provider may assess end office switched access charges only if the carrier or its VoIP partner provides a physical connection to the last-mile facilities used to serve the end user. 988: Suicide Prevention Hotline Number – A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose to designate 988 as the 3-digit number for a national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline. 
• 5.9 GHz Band Spectrum Use – A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would take a fresh and comprehensive look at the rules for the 5.9 GHz band and propose, among other things, to make the lower 45 MHz of the band available for unlicensed operations and to permit Cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X) operations in the upper 20 megahertz of the band.  
• Facilitating Shared Use in the 3.1-3.55 GHz Band – A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek comment on removing the existing non-federal allocations in the 3.3-3.55 GHz band as a step towards potential future shared use between federal incumbents and commercial users.  
• Cable Service Change Notifications – A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek comment on modernizing requirements for notices cable operators must provide consumers and local franchise authorities.  
• Noncommercial & Low Power FM Station Licensing –A Report and Order that would revise the Commission’s Noncommercial Educational Broadcast Station and Low Power FM Station comparative processing and licensing rules.  

The FCC will also consider three (unspecified) enforcement items. 

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The Regulatory Mix Today: FCC December Open Meeting , FCC’s Pai on Robocalling 

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FCC’s Pai on Robocalling 

In a speech at the Robocall Symposium Of The New England States, FCC Chairman Pai reviewed the steps the FCC has taken to address the issue of robocalls, including allowing companies to establish call blocking services as a default setting, promoting better caller ID authentication (through expanding the reach of the FCC’s rules to include communications originating overseas and text messages) as well as its efforts to encourage the promotion of SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication. Concerning the industry’s voluntary implementation of SHAKEN/STIR by the end of 2019, Pai said: “I’ve generally been pleased by the progress reports on SHAKEN/STIR implementation. I’m grateful for the efforts carriers have made to date, and I saw that just this morning, T-Mobile, Comcast, and Inteliquent announced the completion of the first end-to-end SHAKEN/STIR call verification. But the reality is we are only seven weeks away from the end-of-the-year deadline, and we are not yet seeing sufficient implementation by all major voice providers. To any carriers out there who might not be treating this deadline with the urgency it deserves, I am putting them on notice now: at my direction, Commission staff is actively working on developing regulations to make this happen. If industry doesn’t get the job done on time, I will not hesitate to call an FCC vote on these new rules.” 

He also noted that the FCC has taken aggressive enforcement action against bad actors, with fines totaling over $200 million.  He also discussed the recently announced agreement on bi-partisan anti-robocalling legislation saying: “[w]ith a bipartisan, bicameral coalition like this, I believe that a law can and will be passed and signed by the President—even in this challenging 

political environment.” 

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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.