Daily Digest 11/17/2017 (What Did the FCC Do?)

The Federal Communications Commission enacted reforms that will better enable providers to invest in next-generation networks. The FCC is also seeking comment on additional reforms, including how the FCC can expedite rebuilding and repairing broadband infrastructure after natural disasters.

One set of changes approved govern access to utility poles and conduits, which can be a costly and time-consuming barrier to broadband deployment. Changes include rules that:

• Reduce costs faced by broadband providers by barring pole owners from charging for certain costs they have already recovered from others (called make-ready fees).
• Speed resolution of pole attachment disputes by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau through use of a 180-day “shot clock.”
• Allow local providers equal access to each other’s poles.

Another set of reforms revise rules that needlessly delay or even stop companies from replacing copper with fiber and that delay discontinuance of technologies from the 1970s in favor of services using Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. The reforms will:

• Allow providers to notify customers, including federal agencies, earlier of upcoming network changes and copper retirements.
• Reduce consumer confusion and carrier burden caused by duplicative Commissionmandated copper retirement notices.
• Speed the timeframe for upgrading copper to fiber.
• Expedite applications filed by carriers seeking to: (1) stop taking new customers for lowspeed voice and data services; (2) discontinue previously “grandfathered” low-speed data services; and (3) discontinue low-speed services for which there are no customers.
• Eliminate section 214(a) discontinuance requirements for solely wholesale services. 
• Reverse a 2014 interpretation that diverted investment from next-generation networks by requiring carriers to receive FCC approval before upgrading legacy services.

The Federal Communications Commission took additional steps today to make available spectrum above 24 GHz to help ensure American leadership in wireless broadband, which represents a critical component of economic growth, job creation, public safety, and global competitiveness. 

Specifically, the FCC now:

• Makes available an additional 1700 megahertz of millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum for terrestrial 5G wireless use;
• Maintains the unlicensed use of the 64-71 GHz band, and modifies Part 15 rules to allow unlicensed operation on board most aircraft during flight in the 57-71 GHz band;
• Maintains spectrum in the 48.2-50.2 GHz and 40-42 GHz bands for satellite use;
• Adjusts the earth station siting rules in core terrestrial wireless bands to provide incentives to site satellite earth stations in less populated areas while continuing to limit the potential for interference of satellite operations to mobile wireless use in these bands; and
• Declines to cap the amount of spectrum in the 24 GHz and 47 GHz bands that a bidder can acquire in an auction, and incorporates these two bands into the previously-adopted mmW spectrum threshold for reviewing proposed secondary market transactions.

In addition, the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking:

• Proposes to allow more flexible FSS (fixed-satellite service) use of the 24.75-25.25 GHz band;
• Seeks comment on another option for terrestrial mmW licensees to meet performance obligations, which could accommodate IoT deployments and other innovative services; and
• Proposes to eliminate the cap on the amount of spectrum in the 28, 37, and 39 GHz bands that a bidder can acquire in an auction.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on whether to eliminate Form 325, which collects information about cable system operations, or, in the alternative, on ways to modernize and streamline the form to reflect technological and industry changes since the form was last updated in 1999. Form 325 must be filed annually by all cable systems with 20,000 or more subscribers and by a sample of small cable systems with fewer than 20,000 subscribers. The Notice asks whether the costs of the Form 325 data collection now exceed the benefits of the information collected and whether there are less burdensome ways for the Commission to obtain this data. This is the third rulemaking that the FCC has begun as part of its Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative launched in May 2017. The goal of the initiative is to reduce unnecessary regulation that can impede competition and innovation in media markets.

The Federal Communications Commission is planning a vote in December to kill Obama-era rules demanding fair treatment of web traffic and may decide to vacate the regulations altogether, according to people familiar with the plans. FCC Chairman Pai may call for vacating the rules except for portions that mandate internet service providers inform customers about their practices -- one of the more severe options that would please broadband providers. They argue the FCC’s rules aren’t needed and discourage investment, in part because they subject companies to complex and unpredictable regulations. Chairman Pai could also choose not to find authority in the FCC’s powers to promote broadband. That would leave the rules without an apparent legal footing, leading in turn to a conclusion the agency lacks authority even to issue revised, less-stringent regulations.

Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) has called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to investigate Russian state-sponsored media outlets RT and Sputnik. She points out that the US intelligence community has concluded both meddled in the elections and also that this is her third letter she has sent to the chairman seeking an investigation. She says Pai's responses to the previous two were to dismiss her concerns while failing to fully address them. She wants the FCC to look into the following: "Were RT and Sputnik transmitting over US airwave licensee stations and were those broadcast stations in compliance with FCC foreign sponsorship disclosure rules at that time? For what percentage of airtime were the broadcasters transmitting broadcast from RT and Sputnik, respectively?

Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s new antitrust chief, made clear he doesn’t favor approving mergers based on corporate commitments to refrain from particular conduct, another potentially ominous sign for AT&T-Time Warner. The issue has proved a key one in discussions between the companies and the Justice Department. The AT&T-Time Warner transaction is a vertical merger that combines complementary companies instead of direct competitors. In the past, the Justice Department has shown a willingness to approve such deals, even if they raised competition concerns, so long as the merging parties agreed to so-called behavioral remedies. Speaking at an American Bar Association conference, Makan Delrahim said there was bipartisan agreement that behavioral conditions have often proved to be inadequate.

Google became the world’s go-to source of information by ranking billions of links from millions of sources. Now, for many queries, the company is presenting itself as the authority on truth by promoting a single search result as the answer. The promoted answers, called featured snippets, are outlined in boxes above other results and presented in larger type, often with images. Google’s voice assistant sometimes reads them aloud. They give Google’s secret algorithms even greater power to shape public opinion, given that surveys show people consider search engines their most-trusted source of information, over traditional media or social media.Google typically lists the source below the answer—or credits the source first when reading an answer aloud—but not always.