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.

FCC

          Open Internet

The FCC has begun the last phase of the Paperwork Reduction Act review of the enhanced transparency rule disclosures required by its Open Internet/Net Neutrality rules.  Comments on the proposed collection are due by September 12, 2016.  The FCC estimates there will be 3,188 respondents and that the time per response will be an average of 31.2 hours.  TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 4/5/16.

           TCPA

The FCC released a Report and Order implementing a statutory requirement that it exempt robocalls to wireless phones made solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) prior express consent requirements.  Among other things, the FCC capped the number of permitted calls at no more than three within a thirty-day period.  The cap applies in the aggregate to all calls from a caller to a debtor, regardless of the number of debts of each type the servicer or collector holds for the debtor. The cap is also cumulative for debt servicing calls and debt collection calls.  Covered calls may be made by the owner of the debt or its contractor to: (1) the wireless telephone number the debtor provided at the time the debt was incurred; (2) a phone number subsequently provided by the debtor to the owner of the debt or its contractor; and (3) a wireless telephone number the owner of the debt or its contractor has obtained from an independent source, provided that the number actually is the debtor’s telephone number.  Consumers have a right to stop the autodialed, artificial-voice, and prerecorded voice servicing and collection calls regarding a federal debt to wireless numbers at any point the consumer wishes.  Callers must immediately honor this request.

Kentucky

The PSC established a new procedural schedule in its proceeding considering whether it should issue a declaratory order regarding the interconnection rights of carriers providing voice services using an IP format.  The new schedule calls for intervenor testimony to be filed by October 26, 2016, rebuttal testimony to be filed by December 7, 2016, initial briefs to be filed by December 28, 2016, and a public hearing on January 31, 2017.  The proceeding was initiated in 2015 when the Competitive Carriers of the South asked the PSC to declare that (1) the interconnection regimes under both federal and state law apply on a technology-neutral basis; and (2) telecom carriers may request the PSC prescribe the rates, terms, and conditions of a proposed interconnection with an ILEC.  TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 9/22/15.

TMI's Fall Telecom Regulatory Seminar & Workshop in Maitland, FL October 18 - 19, 2016. New information available here.