Local authorities feel underrepresented on the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee and fear they won’t be able to support industry-dominated BDAC's recommendations, local officials said in interviews this week. “The deck is stacked and it’s not in local government’s favor,” said local government attorney Ken Fellman, a member of the FCC Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC), which represents local, state and tribal interests but has no members on BDAC. Industry disagreed the BDAC is balanced against local voices.

Local authorities feel underrepresented on the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee and fear they won’t be able to support industry-dominated BDAC's recommendations, local officials said in interviews this week. “The deck is stacked and it’s not in local government’s favor,” said local government attorney Ken Fellman, a member of the FCC Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC), which represents local, state and tribal interests but has no members on BDAC. Industry disagreed the BDAC is balanced against local voices.

Addressing the estimated 4,300 twilight towers in the U.S. has proven elusive for the FCC and illustrates the difficulty of moving forward on infrastructure issues. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly discussed the towers in a Tuesday address to the Wireless Infrastructure Association (see 1705230016). Former FCC officials said the lack of progress wasn’t from lack of trying. Twilight towers, built between March 2001 and March 2005, never went through the FCC Section 106 historic preservation review process and as a result are unavailable for collocation.

The FCC should hike rural healthcare funding and spur high-speed deployment, some parties said regarding the agency's broadband healthcare solutions initiative. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, the American Hospital Association, Alaska groups and others urged the FCC to increase the USF healthcare connect fund's $400 million in annual support. Communications industry interests sought actions to remove barriers to broadband deployment and free up more spectrum. Almost 70 comments were filed in docket 16-46 by Thursday.

The FCC should hike rural healthcare funding and spur high-speed deployment, some parties said regarding the agency's broadband healthcare solutions initiative. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, the American Hospital Association, Alaska groups and others urged the FCC to increase the USF healthcare connect fund's $400 million in annual support. Communications industry interests sought actions to remove barriers to broadband deployment and free up more spectrum. Almost 70 comments were filed in docket 16-46 by Thursday.

Lawmakers recently introduced the following trade-related bills:

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) isn't worried that the state's largest city opposes a small-cells wireless infrastructure bill enacted last month, a Ducey spokesman emailed Friday. But the bill sponsor, state Rep. Jeff Weninger (R), said he was surprised and dismayed when the city disagreed with the state municipal league's support. Arizona and four other states have enacted small-cells bills, and other states have legislation in progress (see map). One big area of contention is capping fees a locality may charge either for permitting applications or collocation rent. In the five enacted small-cells bills, the maximum rate for application fees varied, our research found.

Comments on broadband healthcare solutions are due at the FCC May 24, replies June 8, said a commission public notice in docket 16-46 published in Wednesday's Federal Register after being issued last month (see 1704240068). The FCC seeks "information on a variety of regulatory, policy, and infrastructure issues related to the emerging broadband-enabled health and care ecosystem," said an FR summary of the item. The commission "seeks to ensure that consumers -- from major cities to rural and remote areas, Tribal lands, and underserved regions -- can access potentially lifesaving health technologies and services, like telehealth and telemedicine, which are enabled by broadband connectivity." A Connect2HealthFCC Task Force will use the information to make recommendations to the agency, the item said. Accompanying it was an FR summary of another FCC notice seeking comments by Tuesday, replies by May 26 on petitions for reconsideration of USF Mobility Fund rules filed by the Rural Wireless Association; CTIA; Blue Wireless; Panhandle Telephone Cooperative and Pine Belt Cellular; Blooston Rural Carriers; Rural Wireless Carriers; and T-Mobile.

Comments on broadband healthcare solutions are due at the FCC May 24, replies June 8, said a commission public notice in docket 16-46 published in Wednesday's Federal Register after being issued last month (see 1704240068). The FCC seeks "information on a variety of regulatory, policy, and infrastructure issues related to the emerging broadband-enabled health and care ecosystem," said an FR summary of the item. The commission "seeks to ensure that consumers -- from major cities to rural and remote areas, Tribal lands, and underserved regions -- can access potentially lifesaving health technologies and services, like telehealth and telemedicine, which are enabled by broadband connectivity." A Connect2HealthFCC Task Force will use the information to make recommendations to the agency, the item said. Accompanying it was an FR summary of another FCC notice seeking comments by Tuesday, replies by May 26 on petitions for reconsideration of USF Mobility Fund rules filed by the Rural Wireless Association; CTIA; Blue Wireless; Panhandle Telephone Cooperative and Pine Belt Cellular; Blooston Rural Carriers; Rural Wireless Carriers; and T-Mobile.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defended his recent record on tribal broadband matters to Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., who led a letter on the topic earlier this year. The commission incorporated the higher tribal land costs into the reserve prices of the Connect America Fund Phase II bidding process, Pai said in his April 28 reply, released Monday. “I am proud to have proposed to my colleagues, and for the FCC to have adopted, the Tribal Mobility Fund Phase II at the Commission's February 23 meeting,” Pai said, noting he requested the Office of Native Affairs and Policy coordinate with the Wireless and Wireline bureaus “to help direct that funding to reach Tribal members in remote areas that would otherwise be without access to next-generation services.” He cited a proposal he circulated in February: “The order recognizes that carriers serving Tribal lands incur costs that other rural carriers do not face, resulting in significantly higher operating expenses to serve very sparsely populated service areas." It "would allow carriers serving Tribal lands a greater ability to recover operating expenses, thus improving the financial viability of operating a broadband network serving Tribal lands,” he said. Pai directed the Universal Service Administrative Co. "to give additional time to Tribal families living in the remote reaches of the Navajo Nation to comply with a certification deadline for the Lifeline program."