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 Wireless Fine

The FCC entered into a Consent Decree with Siemens Corporation and Siemens Medical Solutions over their failure to disclose two corporate felony convictions on numerous FCC wireless license applications. As part of the settlement, the companies will pay a $175,000 fine. The FCC emphasized that it must be able to rely on the completeness and accuracy of its regulatees’ submissions and said: “[e]ven large organizations whose primary lines of business are not subject to the Commission’s jurisdiction must file complete and accurate wireless license applications. The Companies had a statutory and regulatory obligation to disclose the felony convictions on their wireless license applications when they were filed with the Commission. The Companies’ failure to disclose these convictions is particularly troubling because the underlying acts included misdeeds involving foreign telecommunications regulators.” In addition to the fine, the companies will adopt a compliance plan that includes procedures to monitor compliance with FCC rules governing the making of truthful and accurate statements to the FCC, designate a senior manager as a compliance officer, develop a comprehensive training program, and file ongoing compliance reports.

FCC CAF Funding

In September 2016, CenturyLink notified the FCC that it intends to modify its Connect America Phase I Round 2 (Phase I) incremental broadband deployment plans. CenturyLink submitted a list of 9,703 census blocks in AL, AR, AZ, CO, FL, IA, ID, IN, KS, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI and WY that it had not previously identified with its initial election where it now intends to serve locations using Phase I incremental support. The FCC announced that existing providers have until November 7, 2016, to notify CenturyLink that they currently offer Internet service at speeds of 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream or higher in the newly identified census blocks. A machine readable list of the census blocks Frontier intends to serve is available at here.