FCC March Open Meeting Agenda 

The FCC announced the tentative agenda for its March 15, 2019, Open Meeting. 

The following items are on the tentative agenda:

• Rural Call Completion: A Fourth Report and Order to implement the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2017 by establishing service quality standards for intermediate providers.
• Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements:  A Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes a vertical, or z-axis, location accuracy metric in connection with wireless E911 calls.
• Spectrum Horizons:  A First Report and Order that would adopt rules to make available 21.2 GHz of spectrum above 95 GHz for unlicensed operations and create a new class of experimental licenses for the 95 GHz to 3 THz spectrum range.
• Expanding Broadband to the 900 MHz Band:  A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose to reconfigure the 900 MHz band to create a broadband segment to facilitate technologies and services for a wide variety of businesses, including critical infrastructure, as well as seek comment on various transition mechanisms to achieve this goal.
• LPTV, TV Translator, and FM Broadcast Station Reimbursement:  A Report and Order that implements Congress’s directive in the Reimbursement Expansion Act that the Commission reimburse certain low power television, television translator, and FM broadcast stations for costs incurred as a result of the Commission’s broadcast television spectrum incentive auction.
• Reauthorizing Television Satellite Stations: A Report and Order that streamlines the reauthorization process for television satellite stations when they are assigned or transferred.
• Partitioning, Disaggregation, and Leasing of Spectrum:  A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would explore how potential changes to our partitioning, disaggregation, and leasing rules might better close the digital divide and increase spectrum access by small and rural carriers, fulfilling the Commission’s requirement under the MOBILE NOW Act.

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The Regulatory Mix Today: FCC March Open Meeting Agenda, FCC Rural Health Care Program Guidance, FTC Agenda for Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection; Broadband Markets

FCC Rural Health Care Program Guidance

The FCC released a Public Notice providing guidance regarding the rules for determining rural rates in the FCC’s Rural Health Care (RHC) program.  The Notice announces that the 2019 application filing window opened on February 1, 2019 and will run through May 31, 2019 and explains the three methods services providers and heal care providers can use to determine a rural rate.  Among other things, the Notice lays out the data points that must be included in a cost study supporting a request for approval of a cost-based rural rate.  The Notice also provides reminders and tips relating to the program’s application process and is intended to help applicants and service providers prepare their applications so as to expedite application review and the issuance of funding decisions by the program administrator, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). 

FTC Agenda for Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection; Broadband Markets

The FTC has announced the agenda for its tenth session of its Hearings Initiative.  The session, focused on competition and consumer protection issues in broadband markets, will take place on March 20, 2019 at the Constitution Center Auditorium at 400 7th St., SW, Washington D.C. The hearing originally was scheduled for January 16, 2019, but was postponed due to the government shutdown.

The hearing will examine developments in U.S. broadband markets, technology, and law since the FTC staff’s 2007Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy report and the FTC staff’s 1996 Competition Policy in the New High-Tech, Global Marketplace report. Participants in the hearing will discuss: (i) the evolution of broadband networking and broadband markets since the 2007 Broadband Report; (ii) the identification and evaluation of advertising claims by internet service providers with respect to the delivery speed of content; and (iii) the identification and evaluation of conduct by broadband market participants that may be exclusionary or anti-competitive.

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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.

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