Today: FCC Waiver to Allow Deployment of C-V2X Technology, FCC Rural Health Care Program Additional Comment Period
FCC Waiver to Allow Deployment of Cellular Vehicle-To-Everything (C-V2X) Technology
The FCC is seeking comment on a Petition for Waiver filed by 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) asking the FCC to allow deployment of Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology within the upper 20 megahertz of the 5.850-5.925 GHz (5.9 GHz) band. (Current rules limit access to that band to one particular technology—Dedicated Short Range Communications operating in the Intelligent Transportation System radio service.) Comments are due January 11, 2019; reply comments are due January 28. 2019.
C-V2X is a modern, standards-based connected-vehicle communications technology. C-V2X enables direct, peer-to-peer mode communications between vehicles themselves (“V2V”), vehicles and vulnerable persons such as pedestrians and cyclists (“V2P”), and vehicles and transportation infrastructure (“V2I”), as well as communications between vehicles and mobile networks (“V2N”). These communications can help enable important improvements in safety, traffic efficiency, mobility, and energy efficiency on America’s roads.
5GAA states that grant of its waiver request would serve the public interest by expediting the availability of C-V2X technology that holds the potential to improve safety, traffic efficiency, mobility, and energy efficiency on America’s roads and would further, rather than undermine, the underlying objectives for allocating the 5.9 GHz band for ITS services. 5GAA states that it plans to file a complementary petition for rulemaking in the near future seeking to modify the Commission’s rules to permit C-V2X operations in the 5.9 GHz band.
FCC Rural Health Care Program Additional Comment Period
The FCC is seeking comment on additional issues related to the determination of the urban and rural rates used to calculate support in the Rural Health Care Program. Comments are due January 7, 2019; reply comments are due January 21, 2019. Under FCC rules, program support is based on the difference between rural rates charged for telecommunications services in the rural areas where the health care provider is located, and the urban rates charged for similar telecommunications services in the State. The FCC has an open proceeding to consider measures to increase transparency and predictability for participants in the Telecom Program by requiring urban and rural rates to be determined based on more detailed criteria and by providing participants more flexibility in justifying the rates used to determine program support. Since the close of the comment period, USAC has undertaken extensive reviews of applications for compliance with the FCC’s urban and rural rate rules and several carriers submitted requests for approval of cost-based rural rates to the Bureau. These reviews have provided additional experience from which participants can give more targeted feedback on the application of the rural rate rule and the FCC’s proposed changes. The additional comment period will enable parties to supplement previously filed comments.
____________________________
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.
