Wheeler Aide Sohn Highlights Competition Agenda, Seeks Incompas, Public Input

SAN FRANCISCO – The FCC has “a lot more competition policy to go” and needs the support of Incompas and its members, as well as their customers' stories, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler at the Comptel Plus meeting Tuesday. “We're going to rely on you,” Sohn said, providing an overview of the Wheeler agenda on the incentive auction, special access, IP technology transition, broadband deployment, Lifeline, USF and video reform. “Keep telling those stories and we'll get more and more people on the side of competition and bigger, faster broadband,” she said.

The incentive auction planned to begin March 29 is “job one” in spectrum, Sohn said. “If anyone knows Tom Wheeler, it will happen on that day without a doubt,” she said. “We're moving” on auction preparations, she said, noting two orders were put out last week on application procedures and broadcaster bids. Sohn said Congress gave the commission various mandates in designing the auction: to make spectrum available for both licensed and unlicensed use, to promote wireless competition and to raise government revenue, including, if necessary, for the FirstNet public-safety network (which the AWS-3 auction already accomplished). She said Wheeler and his auction advisers had worked hard to balance the interests among stakeholders. “Everybody's a little unhappy and that's probably a good thing because it means the goals are going to be met,” she said.

The FCC continues to work on the IP transition and is gearing up to act on special-access disputes over Bell rates and practices in the business service market, Sohn said. She noted the FCC issued two IP transition orders and a Further NPRM seeking comment on what criteria it should use in reviewing whether incumbent telco IP replacement services are adequate. On special access, she said the commission was eager to receive comments on industry data that would guide its broad rulemaking, and she lauded the Wireline Bureau for issuing a “good, balanced” order Friday opening an investigation into Bell/ILEC special-access terms and conditions (see 1510160060). “We'll see if they are anticompetitive and if we need to act,” she said.

Sohn urged Incompas to continue working with coalitions and engage customers in proceedings, in response to a question from Incompas President Chip Pickering about what the group could do (Incompas is the new name for Comptel, [see 1510190061]). “If these battles are portrayed as just between the very large and the merely large, you're not going to win that debate,” she said. Convincing business customers to speak out and relate what they experience to what consumers experience “is huge,” she said. Public input was key in turning around the net neutrality proceeding and pushing the White House and FCC toward Title II broadband reclassification under the Communications Act. “Nobody thought we could do it” she said. “You've got to reach out to the public. … When the public's actively engaged, you can win.” She noted the biggest complaints Wheeler hears from consumers is they don't have enough choice for broadband or pay-TV video service.

Asked about last-mile competition, Sohn said the FCC was charged with removing barriers to deployment, and would continue to “knock down” barriers, whether at the federal, state or local level. That's why it's acting to facilitate pole attachments and pre-empted Tennessee and North Carolina laws that restricted community broadband efforts, she said. She was “heartened” by the efforts of two Republican lawmakers in the Tennessee legislature to push a bill to give muni-broadband initiatives the freedom to expand (see 1510160057). She said she urged other local authorities to think of themselves more as potential broadband providers rather than just as regulators, a message that received a mixed reaction.

Sohn said FCC officials are passionate about extending Lifeline support to broadband for low-income users. “We can't wait” for more reforms before acting, and besides, she said, the FCC had already done much to address waste, fraud and abuse. “Poor people can't wait to have the essential input of broadband all of us take for granted,” she said. She noted the FCC was seeking guidance on minimum broadband standards. “We don't want poor people to be in the slow lane,” she said, though some commenters in docket 11-42 have said the FCC's current $9.25 monthly subsidy is insufficient to do the job. She also noted the FCC was interested in shifting customer Lifeline eligibility verification from carriers to a national verifier that could consult with state authorities overseeing existing assistance programs.

Next year is shaping up as “very big” for FCC video action, Sohn said. Implementing a new law, she noted, the commission has issued an NPRM on what it means for broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors to engage in “good faith” retransmission-consent negotiations under a “totality of the circumstances” standard. The agency asked whether certain specific actions were per se violations of good faith, such as cutting off access to online content, allowing TV networks to negotiate for stations, and engaging in bundling practices that require distributors to carry extra cable channels in order to retransmit broadcast signals, she said. The agency also plans a notice of inquiry on other video programming practices, such as “most favored nation” clauses, she said