INCOMPAS News -- April 29, 2024

Vol. 20, No. 18

April 29, 2024

FCC Restores Net Neutrality

The FCC last Thursday voted to restore a national standard to ensure the internet is fast, open and fair on a 3-2 vote. The decision to reclassify broadband service as a Title II telecommunications service allows the FCC to protect consumers, defend national security and advance public safety. Through its actions, the FCC creates a national standard by which it can ensure that broadband internet service is treated as an essential service.

Thursday’s vote also makes clear that the FCC will exercise its authority over broadband in a narrowly tailored fashion— without rate regulation, tariffing, or unbundling—to foster continued innovation and investment.

With the vote, the FCC restores fundamental authority to provide effective oversight over broadband service providers, giving the FCC essential tools to:

Protect the Open Internet – Internet service providers will again be prohibited from blocking, throttling, or engaging in paid prioritization of lawful content, restoring the rules that were upheld by the D.C. Circuit in 2016.
Safeguard National Security – The FCC will have the ability to revoke the authorizations of foreign-owned entities who pose a threat to national security to operate broadband networks in the U.S. The FCC has previously exercised this authority under section 214 of the Communications Act to revoke the operating authorities of four Chinese state-owned carriers to provide voice services in the U.S. Any provider without section 214 authorization for voice services must now also cease any fixed or mobile broadband service operations in the United States.
Monitor Internet Service Outages – When workers cannot telework, students cannot study or businesses cannot market their products because their internet service is out, the FCC can now play an active role.

For further information on Net Neutrality, including the history of this proceeding starting in 2004 when the then Chairman of the agency challenged the broadband industry to preserve “Internet Freedoms” followed by more than a decade of work to secure these protections, visit www.fcc.gov/net-neutrality.

“Net neutrality policy is competition policy. It ensures that consumers can access the content, applications, and services of their choice and enables better services, innovation, and connectivity. INCOMPAS has long supported an open internet," said INCOMPAS CEO Chip Pickering.

"A federal framework to ensure an open internet throughout the U.S. will advance our economic interests as a nation," he added. "While we support the overarching principles of this order, we remain deeply concerned about the Commission's decision to forbear on Section 254(d) of the Act, which would help sustain the Universal Service Fund. The USF is in dire need of reforms and this move throws the fund into legal jeopardy and puts it on uncertain footing."

May 15 NTIA Webinar: Stories from Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program

The NTIA will host a webinar on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 3 p.m. ET on the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program, which provides funding for the expansion and extension of middle mile infrastructure across U.S. states and territories.

In total, the program allocated $980 million to fund projects for the construction, improvement, or acquisition of middle mile infrastructure covering more than 370 counties across 40 states and Puerto Rico in Summer 2023. The ultimate purpose of this funding is to expand and strengthen U.S. high-speed Internet networks by reducing the cost of connecting areas that are unserved or underserved to the Internet backbone.

This webinar will feature Middle Mile grantees discussing their creative projects to fill the gaps in our nation’s middle mile infrastructure and advance our national goals of increasing connectivity, affordability and equity.

The SIP School Offers Training Discount to INCOMPAS Members

The SIP School is happy to provide INCOMPAS members with a fantastic discount on all of our world-leading training and certification programs.

For anyone working with VoIP and SIP communications, there is no other place to learn so much on these topics and have the opportunity to get certified to show off your new skills.

Having trained more than 32,000 students with 12,000 of them qualified in our flagship SSCA^®SIP ‘Elite’ program, no other training company comes even close to The SIP School. To get you started, you can use the INCOMPAS-only discount code Incompas20 to get 20% off any product found on our website.

NTIA State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program NOFO Now Live

The NTIA announced the availability and individual state allocations of $811 million in funding to states, territories and native entities.

The State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program (SDECG) allows states and territories to apply for funding to begin implementation of their previously submitted Digital Equity Plans under the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program. The overall purpose of the SDECG program is to create the conditions where individuals and communities have the information technology capacity that is needed for full participation in the society and U.S. economy.

CA Bill Sets Timelines for Utilities to Approve Broadband Projects

The California Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy has passed a bill that establishes timelines for electric utilities to approve and energize a broadband project and grants the broadband project automatic approval should the utility not take action within the timeline.

AB 2221 requires electric utilities to publish all rules and standards necessitated in project applications and to only subject applications to those rules and standards that were published 12 months before the date of the application’s submission to an electric utility for review.

According to the bill, an electric utility would be required to

Issue a written notice of incompleteness, which specifies every item and any information missing from the application, within 10 days from the application’s date of submittal, if needed
Approve or deny a complete application within 45 days of receiving the application
Provide a cost estimate for any utility work necessary to accommodate the broadband project within 14 days of the approval
Provide energization within 30 days of receiving notice of the applicant’s completion of all required work for the broadband project.

Assembly member Juan Carrillo (D., District 39), author of AB 2221, said that electric utilities do not have required timeframes for broadband application approvals and typically take between seven and 12 months to process the initial power design application then another seven to 12 months to connect power to the broadband project.

NTIA Approves Internet for All BEAD Proposals in KS, NV and WV

The NTIA has approved Kansas, Nevada and West Virginia’s Initial Proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative.

Kansas, Nevada and West Virginia are among the first states to reach this important milestone joining Louisiana, which will enable them to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program—a major step towards closing the digital divide and meeting the President’s goal of connecting everyone in America with affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.

NTIA’s action makes available:

Kansas: $451.7 million
Nevada: $416.6 million
West Virginia: $1.2 billion

All states submitted their Initial Proposals by December 27, 2023. NTIA provides weekly updates on the status of all 56 states and territories’ Initial Proposal on the Bead Initial Proposal Progress Dashboard page.

NTIA will continue to announce approval of initial proposals on a rolling basis.

CO Approves Bill to Continue Supporting High-Cost Fund

The Colorado State Legislature has approved a bill to continue the high-cost support mechanism indefinitely and continue funding for rural telecommunications providers from the high-cost support mechanism indefinitely.

HB 1234 would implement the recommendations of the state Department of Regulatory Agencies in its sunset review and report on the high-cost support mechanism. The high-cost support mechanism is currently slated to sunset on September 1.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Chris Hansen (D., District 31) and others.

MO Bill Provides Tax Deduction for Broadband Grant Advances

The Missouri Senate Committee on Emerging Issues last week passed a bill that would modify provisions relating to an income tax deduction for broadband Internet expansion grants. Currently, a taxpayer may deduct from state income tax 100% of any federal grant money received for the purpose of providing or expanding access to broadband Internet to areas of the state that lack access.

HB 2142 expands the deduction to include state or local grant money and limits the deduction only to money distributed for this express purpose.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Ben Baker (R., District 160).

Senate Commerce to Mark Up Spectrum and Telecom Legislation

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is scheduled to mark up a measure on Wednesday, May 1, at 10 a.m. ET that would extend the FCC’s spectrum auction authority to 2029 and provide funding for “Rip and Replace” efforts, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and next-generation 911 deployment (NG-911).

The Spectrum and National Security Act of 2024, which has been offered by committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and is still in a discussion draft, would restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through September 30, 2029. It also would provide up to the $3.08 billion shortfall in rip and replace funding and $7 billion for ACP, which is scheduled to close down with in May. The FCC would be given the authority to borrow the funding from the Treasury for rip and replace and ACP, paying it back from auction proceeds. The ACP funding would provide a short-term fix “as we work on long-term broadband affordability solutions,” according to a summary of the draft legislation. The measure also would establish a spectrum pipeline and work to improve spectrum governance. On those and other fronts, there are a number of similarities between the draft and the national spectrum strategy and its implementation plan drafted by the NTIA.

The committee also plans to consider:

S. 275, Rural Broadband Protection Act of 2023
S. 690, Network Equipment Transparency Act
S. 1291, Protecting Kids on Social Media Act

The hearing will stream live on the Committee website .

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