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.

FTC Hart-Scott-Rodino Rules

The Federal Trade Commission approved amendments to its Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Premerger Notification Rules that allow HSR filings to be submitted on DVD and streamline the instructions to the Premerger Notification Form.  Currently, all HSR filings are submitted in paper form.  By allowing HSR filings to be submitted on DVD, the amendments eliminate the expensive and time-consuming printing and duplication of electronically maintained documents that are submitted to the antitrust agencies.  The amendments also update the instructions that apply to the HSR Form. Some updates relate to DVD filing but most aim to make the instructions more straightforward and easier to understand.  Enacted in 1976, the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act requires that the parties to certain proposed transactions submit HSR filings to the FTC and Department of Justice. These filings comprise an HSR Form, which contains information about each company’s business, and relevant business documents as required by the instructions.

FCC Form 395

The FCC announced that that FCC Form 395 Common Carrier Annual Employment Report, including resubmissions, must now filed via the Commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS).  The only exception is for confidential filings, which must be made in accordance with the FCC’s established rules for making confidential filings.

FCC Rural Health Care

The FCC announced the filing window period schedule for funding requests for its Rural Health Care (RHC) Program, which facilitates healthcare delivery in rural America.

The following funding windows were adopted for the remainder of Funding Year 2016 and for Funding Year 2017.

TMI Fall 2016 Telecom Regulatory Seminar & Workshop October 18 & 19 in Maitland, FL.