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 NDBEDP Certification
The FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau selected the Perkins School for the Blind (Perkins) for certification to participate in the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP) for the state of Ohio, effective January 1, 2017. In November 2016, the Ohio Deaf-Blind Outreach Program notified the FCC that it would relinquish its certification to participate in the NDBEDP effective December 31, 2016. Thereafter, Bureau invited applications for certification to participate in the NDBEDP for the state of Ohio. Perkins already operates NDBEDP programs in 20 other states. Click here for more details.
FCC Forfeiture Penalties
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau released an Order amending the FCC’s rules to adjust its forfeiture penalties for inflation. For common carriers, the penalties will increase to $192,459/violation or each day of a continuing violation up to $1,924,589 for any single act or failure to act. The new penalty levels apply to penalties assessed after the effective date of the increase, including penalties whose associated violation predated such increase. The increase was authorized by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 which required that, starting in 2017, agencies adjust their civil monetary penalties annually and publish the annual adjustment by January 15 of each year.
Connecticut Broadband Internet Services
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority announced that it will hold a technical meeting on January 19, 2017, in order to define the scope of its investigation into facilitating the use of the municipal gain for broadband internet services. TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 8/5/16.
Pennsylvania Overlay Area Code Assigned
Neustar, Inc., announced that 445 will be the new overlay area code assigned to the existing 215/267 area code. TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 12/28/16. In November 2016, Neustar assigned an additional overlay area code, 223, to the existing 717 area code. TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 11/11/16.
CRTC Schedules NG9-1-1 Hearing
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has scheduled a hearing on January 16, 2017 to discuss establishment of a regulatory framework for next-generation 9-1-1 in Canada (CRTC 23016-116).
