Today's Regulatory Mix: USDA Announces Funding for Oklahoma Broadband, FCC Eliminates Three Legacy TRS Rules, FCC Issues Ruling On Inmate Calling Service (ICS) Rates

USDA Announces Funding for Oklahoma Broadband

The USDA announced it is investing more than $29 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in Oklahoma.  Specifically:

• Pioneer Telephone Cooperative will use a $24.2 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network to connect 4,480 people, 595 farms, 44 businesses and two fire stations to high-speed broadband internet in Blaine, Dewey, Ellis and Kingfisher counties. 
• Cimarron Telephone Company will use a $5.4 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network to connect 746 people, 107 farms and three businesses to high-speed broadband internet in Pawnee and Osage counties.

FCC Eliminates Three Legacy TRS Rules

The FCC eliminated three outdated telecommunications relay services (TRS) rules. Due to changes in technology and voice communications services, the FCC determined that the rules are no longer needed.  The changes will become effective 30 days after the Order is published in the Federal Register. 

The affected rules are:

• the “equal access” rule requiring that TRS users be allowed to choose a carrier for long distance TRS calls
• the billing options rule, which required that TRS providers offer the same billing options (e.g., collect and credit card billing) traditionally offered for wireline voice services; and
• the requirement that public notices of applications for certification of state TRS programs be published in the Federal Register

The FCC reasoned that voice customers now routinely receive telephone service at a bundled or flat rate, with no separate time- or distance-sensitive fees for long distance calls or rely on mobile phones.  Thus, requiring TRS providers to offer users the ability to select a long-distance carrier is no longer necessary to ensure that TRS is functionally equivalent to voice services. Moreover, repealing the equal access rule will allow TRS providers to modernize their facilities and discontinue what can be a confusing and time-consuming call setup process for consumers.

For similar reasons, the FCC deemed that alternative billing options (e.g., collect and credit card billing) are no longer necessary for TRS, especially because virtually all TRS calls are free to the user.  Eliminating this rule will also relieve TRS providers from any need to maintain obsolete features of circuit-switched networks at a time when they and others within the communications industry are transitioning to IP-based platforms. 

The FCC removed the requirement that public notices of applications for certification of state TRS programs be published in the Federal Register since they will still be available on the FCC’s website and in its electronic

document management system (EDOCS).

FCC Issues Ruling On Inmate Calling Service (ICS) Rates

At its Open Meeting this morning the FCC voted to issue a Report and Order responding to the DC Circuit’s ruling on various appeals of the FCC’s rules for ICS ancillary service charges. The court directed the FCC to consider whether these charges can be segregated into interstate and intrastate components for the purpose of excluding the intrastate components from the reach of the FCC’s rules. The FCC’s Order found that, as a practical matter, these charges cannot be segregated between interstate and intrastate calls except in a limited number of cases. As a result, ICS providers are generally subject to the FCC’s rules when it comes to ancillary service charges. This means that ICS providers generally cannot charge incarcerated individuals and their families ancillary service charges other than the types allowed by the FCC’s rules and providers generally cannot charge ancillary service fees above the FCC’s applicable fee caps.

The Item includes an accompanying Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in which the FCC is proposing to adopt new rate caps for interstate ICS calls based on extensive analysis of the most recent cost data submitted by ICS providers.  Specifically, the FCC is proposing to reduce its interstate rate caps—currently $0.21 per minute for debit and prepaid calls and $0.25 per minute for collect calls—to $0.14 per minute for debit, prepaid, and collect calls from prisons, and $0.16 per minute for debit, prepaid, and collect calls from jails. The notice also proposes to adopt rate caps for international ICS calls for the first time.

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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.