The Regulatory Mix - Tuesday, November 29, 2016

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 Agenda For December Meeting

The FCC announced the tentative agenda for its December 15, 2016, Open Meeting. The items are as follows:

• Transition from TTY to Real-Time Text Technology: A Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to help achieve the transition from TTY technology to a reliable and interoperable means of providing real-time text communication over wireless Internet protocol-enabled networks and services.
• Improving the Nation’s Public Alert and Warning Systems: A Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to enhance the Emergency Alert System (EAS) as a tool for community emergency preparedness. The Report and Order improves alerting organization at the state and local levels, builds stronger community-based alerting exercise programs, and protects the EAS against accidental misuse and malicious intrusion. The Further Notice seeks comment on proposals to leverage technological advances to improve alerting and additional measures to preserve EAS security.

In addition, the tentative agenda lists several items that are on circulation that may be considered, unless voted on circulation prior to the December Open Meeting. These include an Order on Improving the Resiliency of the Nation's Mobile Wireless Communications Networks, and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning Non-geostationary, Fixed-Satellite Service Systems.

FCC Proposed $100,000 Forfeiture

The FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability For Forfeiture and Admonishment to World Discount Telecommunications Co., Inc. (WDT) for an apparent violation of the FCC’s universal service reporting obligations and for transferring, without prior FCC approval, certain assets, including its customer base. In proposing the $100,000 penalty, the FCC also considered the company’s past conduct in charging excessive USF fees to its international long distance customers. It admonishes WDT for its violations of the rule prohibiting excessive universal service surcharges that occurred outside the one-year statute of limitations. Specifically, the FCC found that WDT apparently billed customers for excessive and unlawful USF surcharges for international service for four years despite having no USF contribution obligation on those revenues as a result of the FCC’s Limited International Revenue Exemption (LIRE).

The $100,000 forfeiture was calculated as follows: $50,000 for failure to timely file an Annual USF Worksheet (499A) and $20,000 for the two unauthorized asset transfers (an upward adjustment from the standard forfeiture of $8,000 per unauthorized transfer.) The $70,000 total forfeiture was then upwardly adjusted again by $30,000 due to the improper collection of USF charges over a long period of time (which violations were outside the statute of limitations and for which forfeiture could not be assessed.) The FCC said that “[i]n no event should contributors impose USF costs on customers when they have no USF contribution obligation associated with the service being provided.”