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
FCC
HCLS
The FCC approved the National Exchange Carrier Association’s (NECA) proposed annual average schedule company high-cost loop support (HCLS) formula modifications for 2016. Consistent with prior years, NECA proposes calculating HCLS payments for 2016 for average schedule companies based on the relationship of company cost per loop (CPL) data of sample companies to values representing the number of loops per exchange. NECA’s proposed formula for 2016 projects $11.3 million in payments to carriers serving 194 average schedule study areas. NECA said that most of the increase was due to the rule change adopted by the FCC in 2014. The FCC found that NECA’s results and CPL were accurate and complete, and the proposed HCLS formula should reasonably approximate the CPL of the sample average schedule companies.
Cybersecurity Summit
The FCC announced that on December 7, 2015, it will be co-hosting a summit to explore cybersecurity issues facing the telecommunications sector and the public safety community. The other host will be the University of Colorado, Boulder’s Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program. The event will feature industry, public safety, academic, and government thought leaders in the field of cybersecurity in a series of moderated panels, considering technical, practical, and policy issues related to the cybersecurity threats facing our commercial and public safety networks.
IP Transition
The FCC is seeking comment on the information collection requirements associated with its new copper retirement rules. See our 8/6/15 Blog “FCC Adopts Rules for the IP Transition” TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 8/19/15. Comments should be submitted by December 28, 2015. The FCC estimates that that the total annual burden of the entire collection, as revised, is 575,840 hours. Comments may address: (1) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the FCC, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the FCC’s burden estimate; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and (5) ways to further reduce the information collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.
