FCC March Open Meeting

The FCC announced the agenda for its March 15, 2019, Open Meeting.  The following items will be considered:

• 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, FCC E-Rate and RHC Fund Caps for FY 2019, Pennsylvania Policy Statement for Carriers Reporting No Intrastate Revenues

FCC E-Rate and RHC Fund Caps for FY 2019

The FCC announced the E-Rate and Rural Health Care (RHC) programs’ funding caps for funding year 2019.  The caps represent a 2.2% inflation-adjusted increase in each program cap from funding year 2018. The E-Rate program funding cap for funding year 2019 is $4,151,395,402.  The RHC Program funding cap for funding year 2019 is $593,782,000.

Pennsylvania Policy Statement for Carriers Reporting No Intrastate Revenues

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) published its policy statement regarding the reporting of intrastate revenues in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.  The PUC’s policy statement is intended to provide guidance regarding the reporting of gross intrastate operating revenues for assessment purposes by jurisdictional telecommunications public utilities in Pennsylvania that offer special access or other similar jurisdictionally-mixed telecommunications services but report zero gross intrastate revenues.  Comments are due April 16, 2019. Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 3/4/19.

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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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