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 Briefing.
TELECOM
US Congress
US Senate
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation announced it will convene a hearing on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 entitled, “Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission.” As part of the Committee’s oversight responsibilities, the hearing will have a broad scope covering every aspect of the agency and major policy issues before the Commission. “From video policy to spectrum, the FCC’s decisions have an enormous effect on the future of our technology economy,” said Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.). “This hearing presents an opportunity for committee members to raise issues with the agency’s top decision makers and evaluate the need for legislative initiatives.” All five FCC Commissioners are scheduled to testify. Witness testimony, opening statements, and a live video of the hearing will be available at www.commerce.senate.gov.
US House of Representatives
The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has scheduled a markup for February 11, 2016, to consider three bills that will protect consumers and small businesses. The legislation is as follows:
- H.R. 1301, the Amateur Radio Act, authored by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), instructs the Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules to protect the rights of amateur radio operators to use amateur radio equipment.
- H.R. 2666, the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act, also authored by Rep. Kinzinger, would prevent the FCC from regulating the rates charged for broadband Internet.
- H.R. ___, the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, authored by subcommittee Chairman Walden, would make permanent the FCC’s temporary exemption from the enhanced disclosure rules for small businesses required by the commission’s Open Internet Order.
The subcommittee will convene on February 10, 2016 for opening statements only.
FCC
The FCC issued a Public Notice reminding nationwide wireless service providers of obligation to release information regarding consumer signal boosters. The filing must be made by March 9, 2016 and indicate the providers’ status regarding consent for each Consumer Signal Booster that has received FCC certification. For each such Consumer Signal Booster, wireless providers should publicly indicate whether they: (1) consent to use of the device; (2) do not consent to use of the device; or (3) are still considering whether or not they will consent to the use of the device. The Notice contains filing instructions.
