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.
FCC
The FCC announced the agenda for its September 30, 2014, Open Meeting. It includes: (1) a Report and Order that would eliminate the FCC’s sports blackout rules, which can prevent consumers from watching their teams’ games on local television; (2) a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to streamline and update Part 25 of the FCC’s rules, which governs licensing and operation of space stations and earth stations for the provision of satellite communication services; (3) a Declaratory Ruling that clarifies that the FCC intends to make all reasonable efforts to preserve both the “coverage area” and “population served” of eligible broadcast television stations in the repacking process associated with the Incentive Auction; (4) a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise rules for unlicensed operations in the TV bands and new 600 MHz Band, including fixed and personal/portable white space devices and unlicensed microphones; and (5) a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to address the needs of wireless microphone users.
District of Columbia
The PSC has scheduled a technical conference in its investigation into the continued use of Verizon’s copper infrastructure to be held on October 14, 2014. TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated 7/10/14. At the conference, Verizon will make a technical presentation to discuss the operation and attributes, including the network architectures, elements, and call flows, of copper lines connected to Time Division Multiplex (TDM)-based circuit switched equipment, fiber lines connected to TDM-based circuit switched equipment, and fiber lines connected to IP softswitch equipment. Verizon will file a report summarizing its presentation and copies of the materials presented during the technical conference within ten days of the technical conference.
