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
The House of Representatives approved legislation to increase transparency, efficiency, and accountability at the Federal Communications Commission. H.R. 2583, the FCC Process Reform Act of 2015, authored by Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), passed the House by a voice vote. The bill would require the FCC to make certain changes to its rules within one year, with the goal of improving agency processes and making the commission more transparent, efficient, and accountable. – Among other things, the bill would require the FCC to open a rulemaking and ultimately adopt rules that: (1) set minimum comment periods for rulemaking proceedings; (2) allow time for public comment by eliminating the practice of placing large amounts of information into the record on the last day of the public comment period; (3) increase public transparency of items before the Commissioners; (4) require publication of the text of proposed rules; and, (5) set timelines for FCC action on certain types of proceedings. The bill also requires the FCC to conduct a second proceeding seeking to reform additional issues such as commission review and voting procedures and whether it is feasible to publish final text of items to be adopted before the commission votes on them. – The bill also requires publication of certain documents on the FCC website, mandates creation of a searchable online database for consumer complaints and allows more than two commissioners to meet privately when certain safeguards for transparency are met.
FCC
The FCC announced that the next meeting of the Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (TFOPA) will be held on December 10, 2015, from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. The TFOPA is a federal advisory committee that will provide recommendations to the FCC regarding actions that Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) can take to optimize their security, operations, and funding as they migrate to Next Generation 911 (NG911). The Task Force will hear presentations and consider a vote on the recommendations and reports of Working Group 1— Cybersecurity: Optimal Approach for PSAPs and Working Group 2—Optimal Approach to NG911 Architecture Implementation by PSAPs. The meeting can be viewed live at www.fcc.gov/live.
MEXICO 911
It is reported that President Enrique Pena Nieto will establish 911 as the single emergency number throughout the country. The President asked for the help of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT).
