Today's Regulatory Mix:  FCC Announces Tentative March 2020 Meeting Agenda, Kansas Adopts KUSF Administrative Penalties for Changing Report Elections, Michigan Enacts Bill Amending Lifeline Law

FCC Announces Tentative March Open Meeting Agenda 

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai released the tentative agenda for the FCC’s March 31, 2020, Open Meeting.  The following items will be considered:

• Mandating STIR/SHAKEN to Combat Spoofed Robocalls – A Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would (1) adopt rules requiring originating and terminating voice service providers to implement the STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication framework in the Internet Protocol portions of their networks; and (2) propose additional measures to combat illegal spoofing, including measures to implement portions of the TRACED Act.  
• Detariffing Telephone Access Charges and Simplifying Consumer Bills – A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose to (1) eliminate ex ante pricing regulation and require detariffing of various end-user charges associated with interstate access service, and (2) prohibit carriers from separately listing these charges (specifically, the Subscriber Line Charge, Access Recovery Charge, Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge, Line Port Charge, and Special Access Surcharge) on customers’ telephone bills. 
• Defining Significantly Viewed Local TV Stations – A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek comment on whether to update the methodology for determining whether a television broadcast station is “significantly viewed” in a community outside of its local market.  
• Revising Program Carriage Rules and Part 76 Review Procedures – A Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek comment on whether to modify the Commission’s rules governing the resolution of program carriage disputes between video programming vendors and multichannel video programming distributors.  
• Amending Distributed Transmission System Rules to Facilitate Next Generation TV –A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek comment on whether to modify the Commission’s rules governing the use of distributed transmission systems by broadcast television stations.  

Kansas Adopts KUSF Administrative Penalties for Changing Report Elections

The State Corporation Commission of Kansas (Commission) has adopted new criteria for a carrier seeking to change its annual Kansas Universal Service Fund (KUSF) reporting election, KUSF administrative penalties (in addition to those imposed by the KUSF Administrator (GVNW)), and KUSF penalty guidelines for non-compliance with KUSF obligations.  Among other things: (1) providers will only be allowed to change their reporting elections on a prospective basis and must be in compliance with all KUSF obligations, including payment of outstanding penalties; (2) the Commission will levy KUSF administrative penalties on a case-by-case basis, based on GVNW and staff recommendations; and (3) the Commission adopted KUSF penalty guidelines under which monthly fines will range from $100 to $5,000 and will be adjusted based on a set of specific factors.   Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 3/11/20.

Michigan Enacts Bill Amending Lifeline Law

The Governor of Michigan has signed a bill into law that amends the state’s existing lifeline law.  Among other things, the changes were made to align Michigan’s lifeline program with federal criteria and allows for service providers to opt out of providing lifeline starting in 2022.  The amended law retains the existing eligibility criteria for lifeline service through December 31, 2019.  Starting January 1, 2020, the criteria to qualify for the program is the same as the federal lifeline program.  Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 3/10/20.

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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.