FCC Eyes Nov. 17 Votes on BDS, Mobility Fund, Roaming, Video Description Items

The FCC plans to vote on a business data service order and Further NPRM Nov. 17 at its next monthly meeting, according to a tentative agenda issued Thursday, as was expected (see 1610190046). The tentative agenda also includes an order on a mobility fund phase II order to promote broadband, an NPRM seeking comment on proposal to set a unified roaming standard and classify Voice Over LTE, and an order to increase the amount of video description required of video providers.

The BDS item "would allow for light-touch regulation of packet-based" services and "retain and update price cap regulation for lower-bandwidth TDM-based" services to "ensure that lack of competition does not unfairly harm commercial customers or the consumers who rely upon these services," said the tentative agenda. In a blog post Thursday, Chairman Tom Wheeler said the order and Further NPRM would "encourage innovation and investment in Business Data Services, which are used for wireless backhaul, while ensuring that lack of competition in some places cannot be used to hold back wireless coverage." Wheeler announced his proposals in a "fact sheet" Oct. 7 after circulating a draft item (see 1610070052).

Incompas and others urged the FCC to tee up the BDS item for the November meeting. BDS is "critical to the economy," and customers need "affordable access" to the service, they said. "After the largest data collection in FCC rulemaking history, you are poised with the proposed Order to bring needed reform to business data service customers," said Incompas CEO Chip Pickering and others in a letter Thursday to Wheeler in docket 16-143. "We support this action and we will continue to work with you and all the Commissioners to bring this proceeding to a successful outcome." The letter was also signed by the CEOs or other executives of the Competitive Carriers Association, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Public Knowledge, New America's Open Technology Institute, Engine, Sprint, Level 3, US Cellular and BT Americas.

Another letter urged the FCC to spur more BDS competition and affordable choices, said a filing that included a letter signed by 101 people who said they worked in the broadband industry. An AT&T filing agreed light-touch regulation of Ethernet was appropriate but called Wheeler's previous proposal "startlingly overbroad as it relates to legacy TDM services." DOD, which said it's one of the largest BDS users, sent a filing with confidentiality form signatures from four officials and consultants seeking access to sensitive business information in the proceeding.

Wheeler's blog post also said he's proposing a new, recurring mobility fund that will provide more than $470 million in annual support to extend 4G LTE coverage. He promised the FCC would consider a new mobility fund, a priority of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, during September remarks at the Competitive Carriers Association annual show (see 1609200058).

The commission recently released “the most detailed analysis ever of wireless coverage in rural areas as a roadmap to how best to allocate funds to the areas of greatest need,” Wheeler said. “This analysis found that significant LTE coverage gaps still exist throughout America.” Excluding Alaska, 11 percent of U.S. road miles have no 4G LTE coverage, including subsidized coverage, he said. “And 1.4 million Americans currently have no access to LTE coverage at all.”

The agency also will address roaming rules, which Wheeler also mentioned at CCA. The FCC has two roaming frameworks -- a “just and reasonable” standard for voice and a “commercially reasonable” standard for data roaming, Wheeler said. The proposal would adopt a “just and reasonable” standard for both voice and data, he said. Wheeler also said he will propose as part of that item that voice over LTE fall under the same standard. “Our aim is to provide consumers with seamless access to service in all areas of the country, regardless of provider and regardless of how a particular voice call is delivered,” Wheeler said.

“Predictable Mobility Fund II support and reasonable data roaming rules are vital to competitive carriers’ ability to serve consumers," Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry said in a news release. On the roaming item, "It only makes sense to align data and voice standards as we move to an all IP world," he said.

Nov. 17, commissioners also plan to vote on an order on increasing video description requirements for companies that provide video. An NPRM proposed increasing the amounts of video description required and the number of entities covered by the rules. The NPRM also included an industry-opposed “no backsliding” rule that would have applied video description rules to any company that at any point after the rule's approval fell within the top tier of video providers even if the company's size and market share later shrank (see 1607270060).