California PUC Announces Public Forums on Proposed Sprint/T-Mobile Merger

The California PUC (CPUC) announced it will hold three public forums for customers of Sprint and T-Mobile to give their perspective and input to the CPUC regarding the proposed merger by the telecommunications companies, as follows:

• January 15, 2019, 6 p.m.: Fresno City Hall Council Chambers, 2600 Fresno St., Fresno, CA 93721
• January 16, 2019, 7 p.m.: Junipero Serra State Building, Carmel Room (Auditorium), 320 W. 4 th St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
• January 17, 2019, 6 p.m.: County Operations Center, Hearing Room, 5520 Overland Ave., San Diego, CA 92123

The CPUC welcomes attendance and comment on the proposed merger at these public forums (called Public Participation Hearings), as public comments will help the CPUC reach an informed decision.  While a quorum of Commissioners and/or their staff may attend, no official action will be taken on these applications at the public forums.

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The Regulatory Mix Today:  California PUC Announces Public Forums on Sprint/T-Mobile Merger, FirstNet Encourages Innovation for First Responders at CES 2019, CRS Report on Broadband Assistance Programs

FirstNet Encourages Innovation for First Responders at CES 2019

FirstNet issued a press release touting its more than 5,250 public safety agencies using 425,000+ connections.  Speaking at CES 2019 and CES Government 2019 this week, the First Responder Network Authority highlighted how the network is enhancing the delivery of public safety services today and encouraged innovators to bring technology to bear for America’s first responders.

“Across the country – in every state, county, city, or township – emergency managers, police, fire, EMS and dispatchers work tirelessly to help ensure that families and businesses can get back to life and prosperity as quickly as possible after disaster strikes,” said Edward Parkinson, Acting CEO, FirstNet Authority. “They will tell you, as they have told us, the ability to communicate with each other and the public is at the heart of enabling community resiliency.”

With FirstNet available today and expanding, Parkinson called on government officials and technology innovators to harness and create technology to help public safety keep communities safe and recover quickly after disasters.

CRS Report on Broadband Assistance Programs

An updated report by the Congressional Research Service looks at federal assistance programs aimed at increasing broadband deployment and eliminating the digital divide.  This includes the FCC’s universal service program and the Rural Utilities Service grant and loan programs.   The report concludes that: “[t]o the extent that Congress may consider various options for encouraging broadband deployment and adoption, a key issue is how to strike a balance between providing federal assistance for unserved and underserved areas where the private sector may not be providing acceptable levels of broadband service, while at the same time minimizing any deleterious effects that government intervention in the marketplace may have on competition and private sector investment.

The 116th Congress may address the digital divide issue by considering various approaches to providing support for infrastructure deployment, including support for rural broadband. In addition to loans, loan guarantees, and grants for broadband infrastructure deployment, a wide array of policy instruments are available to policymakers, including universal service reform, tax incentives to encourage private sector deployment, broadband bonds, demand-side incentives (such as assistance to low-income families for purchasing computers), reducing regulatory barriers to broadband deployment, and spectrum policy to spur rollout of wireless broadband services. In assessing federal incentives for broadband deployment, Congress may consider the appropriate mix of broadband deployment incentives to create jobs in the short and long term, the extent to which incentives should target next-generation broadband technologies, and the extent to which unserved and underserved areas with existing broadband providers should receive federal assistance.

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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.