Month: June 2017

AT&T Plans to Release Pricing Information for FirstNet Soon

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AT&T, Inc., plans to release rates “fairly soon” for how much it would cost first responders to use the network that the company plans to build under its contract with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), an AT&T executive said today. Doug Clark, AT&T’s assistant vice president-state outreach and consultation, stressed during a webinar this afternoon organized by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors that AT&T’s rates would be “extremely competitive” with the market and that AT&T was offering services at no extra charge that public safety agencies can’t get elsewhere: priority access and, late in the fourth quarter of this year, preemption, on AT&T’s entire network.

Speakers on the webinar stressed the importance of local officials providing feedback to FirstNet single points of contacts (SPOCs) during the 47-day state plan review period that began with the delivery of the plans this week (TR Daily, June 19). Continue reading →

FirstNet: FCC Has No Authority over Network Policies

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The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) has stressed to the FCC that the Commission has no “oversight authority over FirstNet’s network policies.” In an ex parte filing in PS docket 16-269 reporting on meetings with FCC officials, FirstNet said that the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, which established FirstNet, “is clear that FirstNet, and solely FirstNet, has the authority to establish network policies for the NPSBN, including policies related to the technical and operational requirements of the network.   Any attempt by the Commission to seek comment on, and thus potentially alter, FirstNet’s network policies would constitute significant overreach by the FCC and would undermine Chairman [Ajit] Pai’s approach to ensuring that the Commission does not exceed the authority granted to it by Congress.  FirstNet has spent years consulting – and continues to consult through, for example, the upcoming State Plan review period – with all 56 states and territories and the Public Safety Advisory Committee in order to obtain feedback, guidance, information, recommendations, and subject matter expertise from a public safety perspective to ensure that user needs, requirements, and public safety operational capabilities are included in the network.

“It is highly inappropriate for the FCC to unilaterally decide to [undo] this work by seeking comment on FirstNet’s network policies,” FirstNet added. “Indeed, Congress made clear that its intent was for only one entity, FirstNet, to be held solely accountable to public safety for establishing the NPSBN’s network policies.  Any suggestion that the FCC was tasked with overseeing FirstNet’s establishment of network policies is entirely inconsistent with the Act and could jeopardize Congress’s vision for the deployment of a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network.” Continue reading →

Trump to Nominate Blackburn Staffer to DoC Role

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President Trump today announced his intent to nominate Michael Platt Jr., currently chief of staff for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), to be assistant secretary of Commerce for legislative and intergovernmental affairs. Mr. Platt previously worked at the Recording Industry Association of America and at TechNet, a national CEO-driven technology trade association.  Before that, he had Rep. Blackburn’s legislative director and her primary policy adviser, with a special focus on telecommunications, trade, and intellectual property.

Courtesy TRDaily

CTIA Asks FCC to Change PAL Framework for CBRS

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CTIA has asked the FCC to launch a rulemaking “to make common sense changes to the Priority Access License (‘PAL’) framework in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (‘CBRS’) established in the 3550-3700 MHz (‘3.5 GHz’) band,” which the group said would encourage investment in the band.

Specifically, CTIA said in its petition dated June 16 the FCC should “[c]hange the PAL term from three years to a standard, ten-year license term with an expectation of renewal to promote investment in the band; [m]odify PAL areas to consist of Partial Economic Areas (‘PEAs’) instead of census tracts to simplify the licensing scheme and reduce interference risks; and [m]odify the requirements for Spectrum Access System (SAS) Administrators’ treatment of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (‘CBSD’) registration information in order to reduce security risks to user identify information and to protect sensitive deployment information from disclosure to competitors.”

CTIA noted that then-Commissioner Ajit Pai, now Chairman of the agency, had expressed concern when the PAL framework was adopted that the three-tier spectrum access framework would not be investment- and deployment-friendly. “The targeted changes CTIA seeks are designed specifically to improve the incentives for investment in the PAL framework,” it said. Continue reading →

FirstNet, AT&T Deliver State Plans, Starting Clock on Review, Opt-in/Opt-out Decisions

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The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and AT&T, Inc., today delivered to states plans for AT&T to build and maintain their radio access networks (RANs) as part of a nationwide interoperable public safety communications network envisioned by 2012 federal legislation. The individual plans were made available on a restricted access basis through an online portal, and states will be notified when and if their plans are updated, as it is expected they will be, FirstNet and AT&T officials told reporters during a conference call today. They emphasized that delivery of the state plans comes three months ahead of schedule.

They did not provide details on pricing, but Chris Sambar, AT&T’s senior vice president for FirstNet matters, predicted that “states will find the pricing very compelling” and that they “will be paying very close to if not less than what they’re paying now, but will have [at that price] access to priority on our network,” which currently they would have to pay extra to obtain.

AT&T expects to deliver preemption on its network to public safety communications in states that opt-in by year-end, Mr. Sambar said, calling the feature a “tremendous value proposition to first-responders.” FirstNet awarded a 25-year contract to AT&T to build and maintain a nationwide public safety broadband network earlier this year (TR Daily, March 30). Continue reading →

FCC Agrees to Limit Interoperability Review of Alternative State Plans

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In a report and order it adopted June 22, (TR Daily, June 22), the FCC agreed with its proposal in a notice of proposed rulemaking and the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) that it should limit its review of alternative state plans under one prong of its review to radio access network (RAN) requirements stipulated by its Technical Advisory Board for First Responder Interoperability, rather than also including some or all of 55 other considerations, as some parties had advocated. “For the reasons stated in the NPRM, and as recommended by FirstNet in its June 16 ex parte, we will limit our review under the first prong to the ‘SHALL’ criteria originally proposed. In particular, we reject the suggestions of DVA [Consulting LLC] and Illinois to expand the scope of the Commission’s review under the first prong,” the FCC said in the order, which was released late yesterday afternoon in PS docket 16-269. Continue reading →

Inmate Advocates Urge FCC to Reject Securus Transaction

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A coalition of advocates for inmates has asked the FCC to deny the joint application of Securus Investment Holdings LLC and SCRS Acquisition Corp. for approval of the sale of prison payphone provider Securus Technologies from ABRY Partners to Platinum Equity, citing the failure of ABRY and Securus to abide by previous commitments not to change inmate calling rates. In their petition to deny filed in Wireline Competition docket 17-126, the inmate advocates called the proposed transaction “a microcosm for everything that is wrong with the prison-industrial complex and the growing trend of local, state and federal governments privatizing services they once provided, without any consideration of the impact on their citizens.”

They added, “In order to obtain monopoly control to provide inmate calling services at a correctional facility, private companies like Securus voluntarily agree to split the revenue they earn with the government agency. This revenue-sharing scheme has led to Securus and other companies voluntarily agreeing to remit to the correctional authority up to 98% of the revenue earned in order to be selected as the sole source of telephone, video visitation, email, education and commissary services for inmates and their families at that correctional institution.” Continue reading →

Wright Petitioners Say Contraband Cellphone Order Ignored Cost Data

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A group of inmate family members and others who communicate with inmates has asked the FCC to reconsider its recent contraband cellphone order that they say failed to consider the entire record in the proceeding and to acknowledge opposing legal or policy arguments. In its petition for reconsideration filed today in General docket 13-111, the group, known as the Wright Petitioners after the now deceased lead-petitioner on a request filed nearly 15 years ago for relief from excessive inmate calling charges, said that “the Report and Order included a cost-benefit analysis that stated the record in the proceeding did not contain any ‘detailed or concrete cost estimates.’ However, the Wright Petitioners had, in fact, supplied ‘detailed’ and ‘concrete cost data,’ and even took the additional step of reminding the Commission that this information existed, and was available for its review, when it met with Commission staff after the draft Report and Order was released.”

The FCC contraband cellphone order adopted earlier this year was aimed at assisting correctional facilities in deploying equipment that targets contraband wireless devices increasingly used by inmates for criminal activities, including operating drug operations and ordering the murders of people outside of prisons and jails (TR Daily, March 23). The order will make it easier for such facilities to obtain FCC authorization to operate contraband interdiction systems (CIS) and will require wireless carriers to cooperate with CIS operators and correctional facilities “in a timely manner.” Continue reading →

FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief

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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai today announced that he plans to appoint Rosemary Harold as chief of the Enforcement Bureau. Michael Carowitz who has been acting chief since Mr. Pai became chairman, has been named deputy bureau chief. Ms. Harold is a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP.

“Prior to joining the firm in 2011, Ms. Harold was a legal advisor to then-FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell for media and broadband issues and deputy chief of the FCC’s Media Bureau,” a news release noted. “She began her career as a journalist, working as a reporter and bureau chief for the Miami Herald and an editor at C-SPAN.”

Courtesy TRDaily