ECFS Now Available for Non-Docketed Filings

New “Submit a Non-Docketed Filing” module allows some filers to eschew paper.

In a move presumably designed to make everybody’s lives easier, the Commission has expanded its Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) to accept a wide range of filings that previously could be filed only on paper. That’s good news. But before you take advantage of this new opportunity, be sure you’re familiar with the fine print.

Historically, ECFS has been available only for materials being submitted in docketed proceedings. Since many FCC activities don’t involve such proceedings, paper filings have continued to be the order of the day in many areas. (Two years ago the Media Bureau opened up its CDBS system for pleadings directed at particular applications, but that still left many filings plodding the paper trail.)

Now the Commission has included a new “module” (dubbed, not surprisingly, the “Submit a Non-Docketed Filing” module) in ECFS to accept, electronically, certain non-docketed submissions.

The new module is currently up and running and ready to receive your non-docketed filings, so feel free to use it for the any of the types of filings listed below starting now. Use of the module is voluntary for the time being – so if you want to burn through those last couple of toner cartridges and boxes of copy paper, feel free to stick with hard-copy filings – but note that electronic filing for items so identified in our list below will be mandatory in the near future. (The dates when voluntary turns to mandatory have been set for some types, but remain To Be Determined for others, as indicated below.)

Filings accepted by “Submit a Non-Docketed Filing” module in ECFS:

JSA Update: Compliance Deadline Extension Confirmed

By FHH Law on December 11, 2014 Posted in Deadlines, Media

As we reported just before Thanksgiving, Congress passed the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 (STELAR), which the President promptly signed just after Thanksgiving (also as we reported). STELAR is a law with lots of provisions affecting lots of different areas of the video universe, as Paul Feldman’s pre-Thanksgiving post revealed. Attentive readers may have noticed the following, tucked in toward the end of that post:

Delayed Application of JSA Attribution Rule. Also as we reported in April, the Commission has determined that certain TV joint sales agreements (JSAs) will now give rise to attributable interests under the multiple ownership rules. As a result, in many markets, longstanding arrangements that had been viewed as consistent with the multiple ownership rules will have to be modified or unwound in order to bring them into compliance. The FCC has given affected parties until June 19, 2016 to take care of that. STELAR extends that compliance deadline by six months. (While the FCC will presumably issue a notice specifying the new deadline, we calculate it to be December 19, 2016.)

Sure enough, as predicted, the Media Bureau has issued a notice confirming that the deadline for bringing JSA arrangements into compliance with the revised rules adopted by the Commission last spring has been extended for six months to December 19, 2016. Mark your calendars!

Update: Two Wireless Mic Proceedings, One Set of Comment Deadline Extensions

By FHH Law on December 10, 2014 Posted in Deadlines, Media, Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

A couple of months ago we reported on two proceedings, initiated simultaneously, looking into possible solutions to the problems that the upcoming repack of the spectrum will cause to wireless microphone users and manufacturers as well as various other users of the TV spectrum. While technically separate and distinct dockets, the two proceedings have obviously been linked from Day One. And now the FCC has announced, in a single consolidated order, that the comment deadlines for both proceedings have been extended. As a result, comments in either or both of the dockets may be filed by February 4, 2015; reply comments will be due by February 25. Use Proceeding Numbers 14-166 and 12-268 for the comments in the proceeding dealing primarily with wireless mics; use Proceeding Number 14-165 for the proceeding dealing more generally with unlicensed uses.

FAA to Ease (a little) Its System for Reporting Tower Light Outages

By Harry Cole on December 10, 2014 Posted in Cellular, Media, Telecommunications, Wireless

But the FCC isn’t planning to give tower owners much slack as a result.

If you’re responsible for a tower subject to lighting requirements imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration, your life may be getting a bit easier early next year. According to an advisory issued by the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, the FAA is modifying its notification process to allow folks reporting lighting outages to specify, in their initial notices, the amount of time they expect to need to get the outage fixed.

We all know that the FAA imposes lighting requirements on certain tower structures, and the FCC adds extra muscle to those requirements when it comes to FCC regulatees responsible for such structures. Under the Commission’s rules, folks with a tower subject to FAA lighting requirements must monitor the tower lights at least once every day, either by directly eyeballing the tower or by observing “an automatic properly maintained indicator designed to register any failure of such lights”.

And when there’s an outage, things are supposed to happen.

The FCC requires that a record be made of the nature of the outage, the date and time the outage was noticed, the date and the outage is corrected (and the nature of the corrections) … and the date and time the FAA is notified.

Wait – notify the FAA?

Rural Call Completion Update: Further Tweaks to Take Effect in January

By FHH Law on December 10, 2014 Posted in Cellular, Telecommunications, Wireless

Last month we reported on the FCC’s disposition of a number of petitions for reconsideration in the rural call completion proceeding. In taking care of those petitions, the Commission tweaked its rules a bit, mainly in response to suggestions from USTelecom and ITTA. That action has now been published in the Federal Register, which means that those tweaks will become effective as of January 9, 2015. Note, however, that the “information collections” that the FCC has adopted in this proceeding – including both those adopted in the Report and Order a year ago and the changes in the recent order on reconsideration – apparently have still not received the big thumbs up from OMB (as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act). As a result, we still don’t know when the record retention and quarterly rural call completion statistics reporting requirements will take effect.

Update: Comment Deadlines Extended in 24 GHz Proceeding

By FHH Law on December 9, 2014 Posted in Cellular, Deadlines, Wireless

Back in October we reported on a Notice of Inquiry seeking comments on the possible use of frequencies above 24 GHz for mobile services. According to a notice in the Federal Register, the deadlines for those comments have been extended. Comments are now due by January 15, 2015, and replies are due by February 17.

STELAR – It’s the Law!

By FHH Law on December 5, 2014 Posted in Cable, Media

Five more years of DBS, coming up!

We recently reported on the passage of the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014, affectionately referred to by the cognoscenti as “STELAR”. As expected, it didn’t take long for the President to sign off on it. According to the White House website, STELAR was signed into law on December 4.

The IP Transition: FCC Asks Practical Questions About Copper Retirement

By FHH Law on December 5, 2014 Posted in Cellular, Internet, Telecommunications, Wireless

NPRM seeks to address effects of discontinuance of copper-based services on consumers, competition.

As many readers doubtless know (and as we have previously reported), the IP transition is underway: telecom carriers are shifting away from time division multiplex (TDM) technology using traditional copper wires; instead, they are embracing Internet protocol (IP) technology using optical fiber and coaxial cable facilities. This shift will implicate a wide range of regulatory considerations which the FCC is already looking into. It will also affect consumers and competitive telecommunications providers who are used to the TDM/copper wire way of life.

In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Declaratory Order (NPRM/DO), the Commission has requested comments on three particular ways in which the transition will affect consumers and competitive providers.

Back-up Power. The legacy copper network is powered from the telephone company central office, where back-up generators are usually available when commercial power fails. Because consumers don’t need to provide their own electricity to power their landline phones, the phones usually work during a power outage as long as the phone wires on the street haven’t been knocked down. But when phone service is Internet-based and provided by cable or fiber, power does not come from the central office – meaning that, if a household relying on IP/non-copper telephone service loses power, its phones go dead unless some back-up power system is in place in the consumer’s home or office.

Comment Sought on Possible Expansion of Hearing Aid Compatibility Requirements

By FHH Law on December 5, 2014 Posted in Cellular, Telecommunications, Wireless

Out for comment: Shift to function-based, rather than technology-based, regulatory approach, and mandatory 100% HAC compliance

The Wireless Telecommunications and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureaus are looking to refresh the record in a couple of old, but ongoing, rulemaking dockets dealing with hearing aid compatibility (HAC) regulations. In particular, the Bureaus have asked for input on two questions: (1) should HAC rules apply to devices based on how those devices are used – for voice calling – rather than on the type of technology they use; and (2) should the rules require HAC compliance by 100% of covered handsets instead of just a percentage?

HAC regulations require telephone handsets – both wireline and wireless – to be usable by persons who wear hearing aids. Wireless handsets must not interfere with the operation of hearing aids (such as by causing a “buzz” in the ear of the wearer); and the earpieces of both wired and wireless handsets are required to generate a magnetic field that links to the “telecoil” feature of hearing aids, allowing the sound to be reproduced directly by the hearing aid. Wireless handsets are labeled with “M” (for “microphone”) and “T” (for “telecoil”) ratings, reflecting how well they perform with hearing aids. All wireless handset manufacturers and wireless service providers must offer a certain minimum number of HAC models, and the FCC has imposed very large forfeitures for non-compliance.

FCC Invites Comments About Not-Yet-Available Spectrum Auction Form

By Harry Cole on December 4, 2014 Posted in Deadlines, Media

Can we all agree that responding to the invitation to comment on Form 2100, Schedule 381 would be easier if the form were available for review?

[Update: Form 2100, Schedule 381 has since been made available for review. See our follow-up post, which includes a link to the draft form.]

Like the first sparse snowflakes heralding a major blizzard long predicted but slow to arrive, an announcement in the Federal Register confirms that the spectrum auction is indeed approaching. The public notice invites comment on a new “information collection” – dubbed Form 2100, Schedule 381 – which all full-power and Class A television licensees will have to complete and submit prior to the incentive auction.

The form – formal name: “Certification of TV Broadcast Licensee Technical Information in Advance of Incentive Auction” – will require each licensee to certify that (a) it has reviewed the “technical data on file with the Commission related to its current license authorization” and (b) those data are “correct with respect to actual operations”. Basically, the Commission wants to be sure that the technical profile of the television industry as reflected in the FCC’s database is accurate, since that profile will be used both to identify the facilities to be sold in the reverse auction and to form the starting point for the spectrum repacking effort which is the ultimate goal of the auction. Licensees will also have to provide “basic data” concerning gear currently used by their stations; this information will be used to “facilitate the channel reassignment process following the completion of the incentive auction”.

The fact that the Commission is designing a form along these lines is not surprising – careful readers of the 400+ page behemoth incentive auction Report and Order will doubtless recall footnote 615 (nestled comfortably on page 86), which expressly flagged the FCC’s intent along these lines. But what is surprising is the fact that, while the Federal Register notice asks the public to comment on the proposed “information collection”, the form itself does not appear to be currently available. The Federal Register notice includes no copy of the proposed form, and a request emailed to the Commission has thus far elicited no response.

In other words, at this point it looks like Form 2100, Schedule 381 is the regulatory equivalent of vaporware.