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."
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “circulated to my colleagues an order that would assist carriers serving Tribal lands in deploying, upgrading, and maintaining modern high-speed networks" in early February (see 1702170066), he told a group of lawmakers led by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., in a March 7 letter the commission released last week: “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. The proposal I have put before my colleagues 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.” Pai also told the Universal Service Administrative Company “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,” Pai told lawmakers. Pai also wrote to Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye on the matter, he said.
The Navajo Nation has "grave concerns" about a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision "that would force over 1,000 low-income Navajo Nation residents to lose essential phone service" under the Lifeline USF subsidy program. USAC has directed Cellular One (Smith Bagley) to obtain documentation from about 3,000 customers to verify their identities, said a filing by Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye posted Wednesday in FCC docket 11-42. Most of the residents live in "unreachable areas" and have limited access to mail and electric service, and many are elderly and disabled. He said travel is particularly difficult in winter, and a local state of emergency was declared in recent days. "Yet USAC demands that all of these people travel these distances by February 18, 2017, in the middle of the long Navajo winter or lose their phones," he wrote. Cellular One is doing extensive outreach, but more than 1,000 customers remain and need more time, Begaye said, asking the FCC to direct USAC to resolve the issue without jeopardizing the safety of Navajo people.
Rural wireless carrier Smith Bagley raised concerns about a draft National Verifier Plan for the FCC Lifeline low-income telecom subsidy program released in early December (see 1612010043), said a filing Tuesday. The draft plan, by the Universal Service Administrative Co., “appears to require the applicant to interface directly with the National Verifier and the Lifeline Eligibility Database (LED) and then present the service provider with the unique application number assigned by the LED,” Smith Bagley told the FCC. That could be an issue in very remote areas, such as the Navajo Nation, Smith Bagley said. “Due to the lack of broadband access at those events [where the carrier seeks clients], sales agents relay the applicant’s information via telephone to employees who are able to perform the ... verification functions to enable the application process to proceed,” the carrier said. The carrier, doing business as Cellular One of North East Arizona, provides mobile communication services to customers in Northern Arizona and New Mexico. Smith Bagley reported on the meeting with the Wireline Bureau in docket 11-42.
Lack of affordability remains a major impediment to getting more people online nationwide, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in a speech at the #Solutions2020 Policy Forum she hosted at the Georgetown Law School Wednesday. Clyburn has been on a listening tour across the U.S. (see 1604140052) and used the forum to share some of her observations.
NTCA said the FCC should approve its petition for reconsideration of a USF overhaul for rate-of-return carriers, given the lack of any opposition to its requests and ITTA's support for some of them. The FCC should admit that its rules will preclude most rural telcos from offering standalone broadband at rates reasonably comparable to urban rates, and either revisit its rate-of-return budget or suspend a requirement that carriers certify they are providing standalone broadband at reasonably comparable rates, said NTCA in reply comments, one of several replies posted Thursday and Friday in docket 10-90. NTCA also said it asked the agency to address concerns its new budget controls and "haircuts" would create an unlawful regulatory "black hole" into which carrier costs disappeared and were never recovered. GVNW Consulting, which works with rural carriers, agreed with NTCA's "black hole" description and proposal to either revisit the budget or suspend the stand-alone broadband certification requirement. GVNW also backed various WTA requests, including for the FCC to alter the definition of a qualifying unsubsidized competitor (which prevents an RLEC from receiving funding) as one that can provide the same broadband speeds as the incumbent, and to give carriers more flexibility on meeting buildout requirements. Custer Telephone Cooperative and other RLECs said there was no opposition to their petition for reconsideration of the agency decision to reduce support and add broadband buildout requirements for rate-of-return carriers remaining on revised legacy support mechanisms while shifting support to carriers electing model-based support. The National Tribal Telecommunications Association agreed with NTCA and WTA concerns about the budget and the need to ensure reasonable comparability, which NTTA believes is particularly appropriate regarding tribal areas. NTTA believes its proposed tribal broadband factor would help rate-of-return carriers provide tribal service. Sacred Wind Communications, which serves the Navajo Nation, agreed with WTA that qualifying competitors should be held to the same broadband speed standards as incumbent rural carriers, and said there should be a streamlined extension process for meeting buildout duties.
Representatives of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority met with Edward Smith, an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, and urged the commission to approve a waiver request by Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) and its subsidiary SAL Spectrum so SAL can benefit from rural bidding credits in the TV incentive auction (see 1606030018). The authority said it has a partnership with ATN and the waiver would help it offer wireless service throughout the Navajo Nation. The authority filed on the meeting in docket 12-268.
TracFone and others urged the FCC to undo its planned phaseout of Lifeline support for stand-alone voice service, as parties commented on petitions for reconsideration of the agency order extending the low-income subsidies to broadband and revising program administration (see 1603310056). Consumer advocates and some Lifeline providers opposed various recon requests by telco and cable trade groups (see 1606240077). NCTA and USTelecom opposed a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission petition to clarify the state role on FCC-designated Lifeline broadband providers (see 1607200057), while Sprint supported clarification. Comments were due Friday, and some were posted Monday in docket 11-42.
The FCC released its annual Report to Congress on State Collection and Distribution of 911 and Enhanced 911 Fees and Charges for public comment in docket 09-14, said a Friday public notice from the commission. The report covers the collection and distribution of 911 and E-911 fees and charges for the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2014, and was submitted to Congress Dec. 31, 2015, the notice said. Eight states reported diverting or transferring 911/E-911 fees for purposes other than 911/E-911, the report said. Of those, five -- California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Virginia and West Virginia -- used a portion of their 911/E-911 funds to support other public safety or emergency response-related programs, it said. Three -- Illinois, New York and Rhode Island -- diverted a portion of their 911/E9-11 funds for either nonpublic safety, or unspecified, uses, it said. The total amount of 911/E-911 funds diverted by all reporting jurisdictions in calendar year 2014 was $223.42 million or about 8.8 percent of total 911/E-911 fees collected, the survey said. Fourteen states reported collecting 911/E-911 fees at the state level, nine reported collecting fees at the local level and 24 states collected fees at both the state and local level, it said. Fees and charges collected on a per-state basis ranged from a low of $8.16 million by Delaware to a high of $213.98 million by Illinois, the report said. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia reported spending 911/E-911 funds on next-generation 911 (NG-911) programs in calendar year 2014, it said. The total amount of reported NG-911 expenditures from the fees was $227.57 million or about 9 percent of total 911/E-911 fees collected, it said. Forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Navajo Nation and three Bureau of Indian Affairs offices responded to the report year’s data request, the report said. Comments are due Feb. 8, replies March 9.
Newly appointed members of FCC Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture: Bernard Aboba, Microsoft; Bradley Blanken, Competitive Carriers Association; Mary Boyd, Intrado; Tom Breen, AT&T; Robert Brown, National Public Safety Telecommunications Council; Alicia Burns, Frontier Communications; Mario DeRango, Motorola; Tracy Felty, Saline County, Illinois; Laurie Flaherty, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Mark Fletcher, Avaya; James Goerke, Texas 911 Alliance; Jeanna Green, Sprint; Larry Hatch, Oregon APCO/NENA; Joseph Heaps, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice; David Holl, National Association of State 911 Administrators (Pennsylvania); Michael Kennedy, Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Rebecca Ladew, Speech Communications Assistance by Telephone; Chris Littlewood, Center for Public Safety Innovation; Anthony Montani, Verizon; Mehrdad Negahban, beamSmart; Sean Petty, Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCERT); Richard Ray, National Association for the Deaf; Steve Souder, Department of Public Safety Communications, Fairfax County, Virginia; Brian Tagaban, Navajo Nation; Jeff Wittek, Airbus Defense and Space (Cassidian Communications) ... Audio Precision President Dave Schmoldt adds CEO responsibilities, replacing Bruce Hofer, who will remain chairman and principal hardware engineer ... Internet marketing agency Netmark.com promotes Chief Operating Officer John Broadbent to CEO, replacing Josh Dalton, who will stay on with the company for several months in “an administrative role."