Alert for Telecommunications Administration and Regulation

Mayors demand broadband fees from cable operators

Yesterday at the 92nd^and The annual U.S. Conference of Mayors is calling on the FCC to allow municipalities to collect fees from cable operators that use municipal property to provide internet service to the public. Currently, cable operators are exempt from generally applicable right-of-way fees for their broadband and other non-cable services. The U.S. Conference of Mayors is calling for an amendment to 47 U.S.C. Section 542 to clarify that no provision of the Cable Act limits or overrides state or local fees or taxes on cable operators and the non-cable services they provide. Earlier this month, the City of Portland submitted comments to the commission urging the FCC to repeal its Mixed Use Rule, which prohibits local licensing boards from regulating services other than the cable services provided by a cable operator.

DIRS reports on wildfires in New Mexico

The FCC continues to publish reports on the status of communications services in the geographic areas affected by the New Mexico wildfires. The reports are prepared using data collected by the Disaster Information Reporting System (“DIRS”). DIRS is a web-based system through which the Commission collects information on the operational status and recovery of communications providers during major disasters and subsequent recovery efforts. When DIRS is activated, the FCC typically publishes communications status reports online on a daily basis.

Kentucky and Maine receive BEAD funding

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has approved Kentucky and Maine’s first applications for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (“BEAD”) program. Kentucky and Maine join 15 jurisdictions that have fully approved their first applications to access the $42.5 billion in BEAD funds. Kentucky received access to over $1 billion and Maine received over $271 million to deploy or upgrade high-speed internet networks to ensure access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet service.

800 MHz exemption approved

The FCC has granted American Electric Power Service Corporation’s (“AEP”) request for an exemption from paragraph 90.621(b), which requires a 70-mile separation between stations in the 806/851-824/869 band. AEP requested to operate temporary low-power 800 MHz repeaters using mobile talkaround technology in remote areas outside the range of its existing 800 MHz network. The FCC concluded that, given the facts of the case, applying the separation requirement would be contrary to the public interest.

Thomas B. Magee, Tracy P. Marshall, Sean A. Stokes, and Wesley K. Wright contributed to this article.