Earlier this month, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had the chance to join a tower crew atop a 2,000 foot broadcast tower in North Carolina. “Spending time with America’s talented tower workers always helps to bring fresh perspective to the work it takes to build our country’s communications infrastructure,” he said. “It’s also a reminder that our telecom networks and technologies are constantly evolving and changing. And it is those principles of modernizing, iterating, and building that will guide our May agenda.”
To keep up with what Carr calls “an evolving threat landscape,” the Commission will at its May 20 open meeting to propose establishing more specific “Know Your Upstream Provider” requirements “that aim to hold providers to a higher accountability measure or to eliminate them from the voice ecosystem if they continue to facilitate illegal robocalls.”
He comments, “While our STIR/SHAKEN call verification framework remains central to call blocking, tracebacks, and other mitigation measures, KYUP takes these efforts further by making sure customers in the call path are meaningfully vetted. The item also aims to improve the standard for number attestations and to close loopholes in STIR/SHAKEN implementation.”
Next up, Carr says the Commission will vote on an order and further notice to modernize the processes supporting the Broadband Data Collection and National Broadband Map. The proposed item aims to streamline processes and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens and costs while also improving the accuracy of the data collected. “Continuing to streamline and improve the data collection and map will enable federal agencies, state, local, and Tribal governments, and other interested stakeholders to carefully and timely target resources where support is needed most,” Carr said.
For broadcasters, the one item on the agenda likely of most interest is the advancement of an order to modernize the Disaster Information Reporting System, where outage information is reported during emergencies. “During emergencies, providers should be focused on restoring service, not navigating outdated reporting requirements,” Carr said. “The new rules would streamline reporting requirements and augment providers’ ability to submit geospatial data about outages, improving both efficiency and situational awareness.”
Finally, the Commission will vote to launch a High-Cost Modernization initiative “that explores how the agency’s legacy high-cost programs can be refreshed to reflect today’s marketplace.” As sunset dates for some of the programs approach, this proposed item “would encourage a conversation on approaches to updating a subset of legacy support mechanisms to align them with the modern communications landscape,” Carr said.
In closing, Carr noted, “The communications sector never stands still, and neither should our rules. This month’s agenda reflects our commitment to keeping pace with innovation and ensuring that our policies support the networks of today and tomorrow. Our focus remains clear: modernize, iterate, and build.”
