FCC June Open Meeting Tentative Agenda

The FCC announced the tentative Agenda for its June 6, 2019, Open Meeting.  The following three items are on the tentative agenda:

• Clarification of the Commission’s Call-Blocking Rules:  A Declaratory Ruling and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking clarifying that voice service providers may block illegal and unwanted calls as the default before they reach consumers’ phones, and proposes a safe harbor for providers that block calls that fail call authentication while ensuring that emergency and other critical calls reach consumers.
• Leased Commercial Access:  A Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would vacate its 2008 Leased Access Order, modernize the existing leased access rules to reflect changes in the video programming market, and propose to simplify the leased access rate formula.
• Amendment of the Commission’s Rules to Promote Aviation Safety: A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose to modernize the Commission’s rules to improve aviation safety, support the deployment of more advanced avionics technology, and increase the efficient use of limited spectrum resources.

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The Regulatory Mix Today: FCC June Open Meeting Tentative Agenda, New Podcast from Commissioner Rosenworcel, FCC Rural Health Care Funding

The Regulatory Mix will not be published on Friday, May 24, 2019 or Monday, May 27, 2019 in observance of Memorial Day.

The Mix will be back on Tuesday, May 28th.

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New Podcast from Commissioner Rosenworcel

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel announced the release of the most recent episode of her podcast Broadband Conversations.  For this episode, Commissioner Rosenworcel spoke with Shireen Santosham, Chief Innovation Officer for the City of San Jose, California.  As one of the chief architects of San Jose’s plan to become one of the most innovative cities in American by 2020, Santosham was recently named one of Government Technology’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers.  Rosenworcel said: “It’s hard to listen to Shireen’s story and not be inspired. Throughout her life she has worked to make the improbable possible. I’m thrilled that listeners will be able to hear her discuss her parents’ upbringing, her childhood, career, and her long-held commitment to digital equity. Working with the City of San Jose, Shireen is helping connect thousands of residents who lack internet access but live in the heart of Silicon Valley. We need more doers, drivers, and dreamers like Shireen and I hope this episode inspires all of us to do more in our communities.”

FCC Rural Health Care Funding

The FCC directed the Universal Service Administration Company (USAC) to process requests for multi-year rural health care (RHC) funding commitment as single year funding requests to ensure that all funding year 2018 requests are fully funded.  The FCC said that for FY 2018, multi-year and upfront payment funding requests sought support exceeding the $150 million funding cap for those payments.  Under FCC rules, USAC would have been required to prorate requested support received.  To avoid significant pro-rata reductions in support for multi-year and upfront payment requests and to ensure that all eligible funding requests seeking support for services to be delivered in FY 2018 are fully funded, the FCC decided to suspend its rule allowing for multi-year commitments in the Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF Program) for FY 2018 and directed USAC to process these requests as single-year funding requests.  This action will ensure that rural health care providers can continue to obtain critical communications-based technologies for the delivery of health care services to their communities.

“Funding for the RHC Program for FY 2018 is capped at $581 million.   Within that cap, a maximum of $150 million may be committed for HCF Program funding for requests seeking support for non-recurring upfront payments and multi-year commitments,” the FCC said. 

Gross demand during the funding year 2018 filing window was approximately $648 million, with about $237 million of that total seeking support for up-front payments and multi-year commitments, according to the order.  Without today’s action, imposition of the pro rata funding rule would mean that “applicants would lose about 37% of the expected program support for these upfront and multi-year requests over the next three years.”

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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.