On Monday, August 3rd, the White House withdrew its (re)nomination of FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly for another term. This unusual White House action has sparked discussion about the process and rationale for the withdrawal.
FCC Composition. The full slate of FCC leadership includes five Commissioners. The Chair and two Commissioners are of
If you missed the first two blog posts about the FCC’s most recent 5G Declaratory Ruling, please check out Part 1 and Part 2. This third and final entry focuses on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking portion of the Commission’s release.
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
In addition to the pro-industry decisions set forth
If you missed the background, please check out Part 1 of this series of blog posts on the FCC’s most recent 5G Declaratory Ruling. This entry focuses on the key issues addressed by the Commission’s Ruling.
Commencement of Shot Clock
Current rules provide for a 60-day shot clock for local authorities to review requests
The FCC has made another ruling that will expedite the wireless industry’s deployment of 5G infrastructure. In September 2018, the Commission released its order on “small cells” allowing for the proliferation of 5G transmitters on lights, poles, and other structures located in municipal rights-of-way (“ROWs”) across the country (for more on that, see our previous
As policymakers work to help Americans cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, some of these efforts are rightfully directed at broadband funding. Congress and the Agencies continue to build on the programs described in our blog post, “The Increasing Importance of Broadband and Federal Funding in Uniting the Country,” with a focus on distance
About a year ago, the FCC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to subdivide the 900 MHz band into a broadband segment and two narrowband segments. The broadband segment would be 3 MHz x 3 MHz from 897.5-900.5 MHz/936.5-939.5 MHZ. The two narrowband segments would consist of 1 ½ MHz x 1 ½
Earlier this week, the FCC Fined CenturyLink $400,000 and West Safety Communications $175,000 for a multi-state 911 outage that occurred in August 2018. To resolve the dispute, both companies also entered into a Compliance Plan.
The outage stemmed from an inadvertent switch configuration change, which disrupted the delivery of 911 calls in nine states. The
At its Open Meeting last week, the FCC approved a Declaratory Ruling that prevents state, local, and Tribal 911 entities from collecting higher 911 fees from VoIP subscribers than what these groups collect from subscribers of traditional telecommunications services. The FCC is promoting fee parity among services that provide end-users with the same 911 calling
Earlier this month, the FCC released a Report and Order that implements the direct dialing and notification requirements of Kari’s Law and adopted rules requiring a dispatchable location to be conveyed with 911 calls from certain Multi-Line Telephone Systems (MLTS), pursuant to RAY BAUM’s Act.
These rules will take effect over the next few
Earlier this week, FCC announced the agenda for the Agency’s July 10th Open Meeting. Chairman Ajit Pai also published a blog post detailing some of these items. This includes an announcement that Chairman Pai had circulated a draft Report and Order for consideration at the meeting next month.
The Report and Order is