Today: Colorado Grants 511 Application to Department of Transportation, FCC December Open Meeting, FCC Mobility Fund Phase II Challenge 

Colorado Grants 511 Application to Department of Transportation

The PUC in Colorado has granted a petition filed by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT)  for the re-assignment of calls dialing the 5-1-1 abbreviated dialing code to one toll free number and dropping the local number and the second toll-free number.   All affected telecommunications service providers must comply with the necessary translations and/or facilities work as soon as possible but no later than December 30, 2018 unless a waiver is sought and granted pursuant to 4 CCR 723-1-1003. 

FCC December Open Meeting

The FCC announced the final agenda for its December 12, 2018, Open Meeting.  The following items will be considered:

• Spectrum Frontiers: A Fourth Report and Order that would adopt service rule changes for the Upper 37 GHz (37.6-38.6 GHz), 39 GHz (38.6-40 GHz), and 47 GHz (47.2-48.2 GHz) bands, and would provide for an incentive auction mechanism that would offer contiguous blocks of spectrum in the Upper 37 GHz and 39 GHz bands and additional spectrum in the 47 GHz band.
• Connect America Fund:  A Report and Order, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and Order on Reconsideration. The Report and Order would offer additional funding to carriers that currently receive model-based universal service support in exchange for deploying broadband at increased speeds, provide an opportunity for legacy carriers to transition to model-based support, and authorize additional support for carriers remaining on the legacy rate-of-return support mechanism in exchange of targeting higher broadband speeds. The FNPRM would seek comment on implementing an auction mechanism for support in legacy areas that are overlapped or almost entirely overlapped by an unsubsidized competitor, and on addressing budgetary impacts as carriers transition to broadband-only lines. The Order on Reconsideration would deny three petitions for reconsideration.
• Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls:  A Second Report and Order that would create a comprehensive database to enable callers to verify whether a telephone number has been permanently disconnected, and is therefore eligible for reassignment, before calling that number, thereby helping to protect consumers with reassigned numbers from receiving unwanted robocalls.
• Regulatory Status of Wireless Messaging Service:  A Declaratory Ruling that would classify two forms of wireless messaging, Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), as information services under the Communications Act, and help prevent consumers from receiving spam robotexts.
• Communications Marketplace Report:  A Report that would consolidate several previously separate FCC reports into a single report on the state of the broader communications market in the United States. It would assess the state of all forms of competition in the communications marketplace and the state of deployment of communications capabilities, describe the actions taken by the Commission in the previous two years to address challenges and opportunities in the communications marketplace, and discuss the FCC’s agenda for continuing to address those challenges and opportunities over the next two years.

The FCC will also consider two broadcast items.

FCC Mobility Fund Phase II Challenge

The FCC released an update about the Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) challenge process.  The window to file challenges closed at 12:00 AM EST on November 27, 2018. By the close of the challenge window, challengers submitted data for 20,809,503 speed test results across 37 states and certified challenges to 129,537 square kilometer grid cells.  Dates for the challenge process response window will be announced in a later public notice.

A total of 106 entities had access to the Universal Service Administrator Company (USAC) MF-II Challenge Process Portal at the close of the window. Of these entities, 38 are mobile service providers required to file Form 477 data; 19 are state government entities; 27 are local  government entities; 16 are Tribal government entities; and six are other entities that have filed petitions requesting, and have each been granted, a waiver to participate.  A total of 21 entities submitted and certified valid challenges.

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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.