Today:  FCC Revises Rural Call Completion Rules, FCC Considers Prohibiting Use of USF Money to Purchase Equipment and Services form Companies Posing National Security Risk, FCC Proposes Rules for Rural Telephone Company BDS, Kentucky Enacts Call Blocking/Spoofing Law 

FCC Revises Rural Call Completion Rules

At its April Open Meeting the FCC voted to eliminate the quarterly rural call completion reporting requirement for covered providers.  Instead, providers will be required to monitor the performance of their intermediate providers and take steps to correct performance problems, including removing the intermediate provider from a particular route after sustained inadequate performance.  The document also seeks comment on rules to implement the Improving Call Quality and Reliability Act (RCC Act) which gives the FCC new authority to regulate intermediate providers. The RCC Act requires that intermediate providers register with the FCC, and bars covered providers from using non-registered intermediate providers. It also requires the FCC to establish service quality standards for intermediate providers. Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 3/6/18 and watch for a Briefing with further details.

FCC Considers Prohibiting Use of USF Money to Purchase Equipment and Services From Companies Posing National Security Risk

The FCC also voted to seek comment on a proposal to prohibit use of USF funds on the purchase of equipment or services from any company that poses a national security threat to the integrity of U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain.  The proposal is intended to ensure that USF funds are not used in a way that undermines or poses a threat to our national security.  Areas for comment include:

• How best to implement the proposed prohibition on the use of USF support going forward;
• The types of equipment and services should be covered by the proposed rule;
• How the FCC should identify, and how USF recipients can learn, which suppliers are covered by the proposed rule;
• The costs and benefits of the proposed rule; and
• How to enforce the proposed rule.

FCC Proposes Rules for Rural Telephone Company BDS

The FCC also voted to issue a Notice proposing to revise its business data services (BDS) for certain small rural carriers, known as Alternative Connect America Model, or A-CAM, carriers.  It proposes to allow such carriers to voluntarily migrate their lower speed TDM services from rate-of-return regulation to price-cap regulation, which would encourage more efficient operation and allow carriers to avoid expending resources on regulatory compliance.  A-CAM carriers that made the election would no longer need to conduct consuming cost studies for their lower speed TDM BDS.  The Notice also seeks comment on the elimination of ex ante pricing regulation for packet-based and higher speed TDM BDS as well as the development of a competitive market test in A-CAM areas to determine where competition is available and whether there should be further relief from pricing rules in areas deemed competitive.  The Notice also proposes allowing other rate-of-return carriers receiving fixed support to opt into this same regulatory paradigm. 

Kentucky Enacts Call Blocking/Spoofing Law

Kentucky has expanded the scope of its telephone solicitation law to include telephone solicitations made through use of interconnected VoIP services.  In addition, the law was amended to make it illegal to knowingly cause a caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID with the intent of defrauding or causing harm to another person or obtaining anything of value.  The prohibition applies to calls made using telecommunications services as well as interconnected VoIP services.  The law provides for minimum fines of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for any subsequent offense. Finally, the guilty party would have to pay restitution of any financial benefit they received through the prohibited conduct.

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 The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’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 an Inteserra Briefing.