The Vermont Public Service Board investigation of FairPoint Communications’ service quality is still in the fact-gathering stage and is unlikely to be affected by the recent end of a strike of more than 1,700 of the telco’s workers in northern New England, state officials said in interviews. The more than 1,700 FairPoint workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont who had been on strike since October returned to work Feb. 25 after the telco reached an agreement with local chapters of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (see 1502190035). The PSB began its investigation in December because of elevated numbers of consumer complaints, with the number of complaints spiking after the strike began. The investigation began after a Nov. 28 outage that led to multiple failures to connect 911 calls to state public safety answering points (see 1412050055).
Jimm Phillips
Jimm Phillips, Associate Editor, covers telecommunications policymaking in Congress for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2012 after stints at the Washington Post and the American Independent News Network. Phillips is a Maryland native who graduated from American University. You can follow him on Twitter: @JLPhillipsDC
Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s legislative proposal to substantially cut the state’s communications services taxes appeared to be well on the road to passage when the Florida Legislature convened Tuesday, with state observers telling us the proposal hasn’t encountered any opposition. The Republican governor proposed the tax cut, which would reduce revenue by $470 million, in late January (see 1501200064). Scott again pushed for the tax cut Tuesday during his state of the state address, saying the cut would save every Florida family around $43 per year if they spent a minimum of $100 per month on wireless and TV services. The tax cut is one of several communications and Internet-related bills the Florida Legislature will consider during this year’s session, which is to run through May 1.
Thursday's party-line FCC vote to grant petitions for pre-emption of restrictive municipal broadband laws in North Carolina and Tennessee is unlikely to soon spur a legislative backlash, industry observers said in interviews. A pair of Tennessee lawmakers who favored a pre-emption petition from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga said that they believe the commission’s vote could be helpful in their bid to modify their state's municipal broadband restrictions. The other pre-emption petition the FCC granted came from Wilson, North Carolina (see 1502260030).
The FCC’s expected vote Thursday to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service has the potential to unintentionally expand its regulatory authority on communications sector cybersecurity, ex-agency officials said in interviews. They conceded it’s unlikely the commission has any plans to exercise that authority in the near future given the strong likelihood of legal challenges to new net neutrality rules. Industry lawyers have said the FCC can claim authority on cybersecurity at least via Title I, and could stake a claim via Title II and Section 706 (see 1406240037). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has been championing improving cybersecurity risk management within the communications sector since last year via voluntary private sector-led work in the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council’s (CSRIC) Working Group 4 and the Technological Advisory Council (see 1406130056).
The Kentucky House passed HB-152 71-25 Tuesday to significantly reduce the Public Service Commission’s oversight of wireline service and completely end its jurisdiction over consumer wireless complaints and consumer broadband complaints. AT&T, Cincinnati Bell and Windstream no longer would be required to provide basic wireline phone service in most cities and major suburbs, including state capitol Frankfort and Lexington. The telcos instead could opt to provide basic service in those areas solely through wireless or VoIP, said the bill's text. Customers in rural areas can seek to retain wireline service, the bill said. HB-152, which requires state Senate approval via SB-3, would retain PSC jurisdiction over wholesale issues, carrier-to-carrier issues and anti-competitive telecom practices. State Rep. Rick Rand, a Democrat who sponsored HB-152, said in a speech prior to the vote that AT&T and other telcos are “asking us to allow them to move from old technology to new technology.” Rep. Chris Harris, a Democrat who voted against the bill, said during debate on the bill that he’s worried “that what we're doing here is leaving behind that section of the state … that our regulations were meant to protect -- poor, rural families who do not have lobbyists here to represent their interests.” Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, endorsed HB-152 in a statement as “an important piece of legislation that strikes a right balance between providing consumer protection and creating economic development opportunities that result from robust broadband accessibility in communities all across the commonwealth.”
Localized public safety answering points (PSAPs) have “an obvious leading part” in making the FCC’s 911 wireless location accuracy order and the industry-public safety road map work, FCC Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth said on Tuesday. PSAPs “are in the best position” to monitor the on-the-ground accuracy of 911 location technologies the carriers are testing as part of the order and road map, he said during a National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference. The 911 indoor location accuracy order the FCC adopted Jan. 29 was seen to have been influenced by the voluntary commitments included in the road map (see 1501290066).
State and local governments will be cut off from Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity grants and other DHS grants if Congress doesn’t pass funding for the department by the end of the week, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told state governors Sunday during a National Governors Association meeting. DHS funding has been in doubt since earlier in the month after House Republicans attached to a bill to fund the department for the rest of FY 2015 provisions that would scale back President Barack Obama’s immigration executive action (see 1502130015).
Spectrum allocations above 24 GHz that the FCC has identified for possible wireless use “present an important opportunity to open large contiguous blocks of spectrum,” but the commission also should continue to examine bands below 24 GHz since those are the bands where 5G services “are expected to emerge first,” AT&T said in a filing posted Friday. Most other industry stakeholders also encouraged the FCC in separate filings to proceed with caution on rulemakings for spectrum above 24 GHz. The FCC, in an Oct. 17 notice of inquiry, identified six sets of bands above 24 GHz for possible wireless use: the local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) bands, the 39 GHz band, the 37/42 GHz bands, the 57-64 GHz and 64-71 GHz bands, the 71-76 GHz bands, the 81-86 GHz bands and the 24/25 GHz bands. Reply comments on the NOI were due Feb. 17.
Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) Working Group 4 delivered its draft final report Friday to the full CSRIC membership on its recommendations for how the communications sector should adapt the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework for industry-specific uses. The report’s full contents will remain confidential while CSRIC reviews the report and provides feedback on possible revisions ahead of an expected March 18 vote on whether to adopt the report, Working Group 4 Co-Chair Robert Mayer said in an interview.
A Wednesday all-party meeting on the California Public Utilities Commission Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal review is likely to be crucial in determining the outcome of the CPUC review, industry lawyers and public interest advocates said in interviews. CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer released a draft decision on Comcast/TWC Feb. 13 that recommends the CPUC approve the deal with significant conditions (see 1502170059). The CPUC scheduled the meeting for 2 p.m. PST at its headquarters in San Francisco before Bemesderfer’s release of the draft decision.