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
Connect America Fund
The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau is seeking comment on the default plant mix input values to be used in the Connect America Cost Model (CAM) for rate-of-return carriers. Currently, the model contains state-specific plant mix (aerial, buried, and conduit) input values broken out separately for urban, suburban, and rural areas, for feeder, distribution, and interoffice facilities. A table showing the default plant mix input values for each state in v1.0.1 of the A-CAM is attached to the Public Notice. Comments proposing corrections to the plant mix input values for individual study areas are due by August 28, 2015. If no study area specific plant mix values are submitted and accepted by the Bureau, the state-specific plant mix values will be used in the model. The Bureau has been actively working on refining the model for rate-of-return carriers since December 2014. See the Regulatory Mix dated 12/23/14.
Text-to-911 Registry
The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announced the latest update to its Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Text-to-911 Readiness and Certification Registry. It also announced that it was modifying its procedures for updating the Text-to-911 Registry. The Bureau will no longer announce updates to the Text-to-911 Registry by periodic Public Notice. However, it will continue to update the Text-to-911 Registry on a regular basis. The updated Registry will be available on-line and will indicate the date of the most recent update, which will serve as the date of notification to covered text providers for PSAPs listed in the update. The Bureau encourages covered text providers and other interested parties to inspect the Text-to-911 Registry regularly for updates. The Registry is available here. As a reminder, the Registry lists PSAPs that are ready to receive Text-to-911 messages. It also provides notice to CMRS and other providers of interconnected text messaging services of the date of PSAP readiness. Covered providers must begin routing 911 text messages to requesting PSAPs within six months of the notice date.
New York
The PSC scheduled additional public statement hearings on the Department of Public Service assessment report on the state of telecommunications in New York. (See 7/29/15 Press Release here.) As part of the Report, DPS staff filed a fact-based assessment of the current telecommunications landscape in New York, examining trends in voice, video and broadband services and reviewing different technologies such as copper, fiber, cable and wireless networks. Public hearings are scheduled for Lake Placid (8/4/15), Buffalo (8/5/15), Syracuse (8/6/15), Poughkeepsie (8/11/15), and Delmar (8/13/15). Hearings were already held in Long Island (7/8/15), NY City (7/15/15), Utica (7/28/15), and Binghamton (7/29/15). TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated 7/9/15.
ENERGY
Michigan
DTE Electric Company customers will see a refund during the September billing month as a result of the PSC’s approval of a request by the utility to set in place a securitization bond principal and interest credit and a securitization bond tax credit. Residential customers using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month will see a decrease of $4.10. DTE is authorized to implement a securitization bond principal and interest credit of 0.3183 cents per kilowatt-hour and securitization bond tax credit of 0.5014 cents per kilowatt-hour. In approving the refund, the PSC noted that the proposed adjustments are routine, the calculations are accurate, and the proposed adjustments conform to the approved methodology.
