The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
FCC
The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau will host two educational workshops on the environmental compliance and historic preservation review process required for the construction of wireless communications facilities. The first workshop, on May 19, 2014, will include information relevant to the construction of all new communications towers and to the collocation of communications gear on towers and other structures. The second workshop, on May 20, 2014, will address the FCC’s environmental compliance and historic preservation review process for Positive Train Control infrastructure being installed by the Nation’s railroads. Both workshops will be webcast and are open to the public. Preregistration is required for the webcast and encouraged for in-person attendance. Interested parties can pre-register by their name, company affiliation, and dates of attendance in an email to Cecilia Sulhoff Cecilia.sulhoff@fcc.gov.
Minnesota
In January 2014, the PUC issued a Notice of Commission Investigation and Solicitation of Comments. (TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated January 28, 2014.) The Department of Commerce (DOC) has filed Reply Comments noting that all parties agree that calls failing to complete to rural areas of Minnesota are a significant problem. The DOC said that the PUC should not wait for the FCC to take action and made several recommendations including that the PUC:
- Require all originating IXCs to file monthly call completion reports.
- Require IXCs to supply the list of intermediate providers they route intrastate calls to.
- Encourage IXCs to not include confidentiality provisions in call routing/termination contracts to avoid any delay in producing information deemed necessary by regulatory authorities.
- Stress that the removal or altering of call signaling information to commit fraud will not be tolerated.
- Require IXCs to proactively ensure that any intermediate providers do not cause call failures to occur.
However, the PUC should not make a determination on whether intermediate providers are subject to PUC jurisdiction at this time.
TMI’s Spring 2014 Telecom Regulatory Seminar and Workshop – April 24 & 25
