Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek comment on the agency’s plan to encourage a swift transition from copper to IP-based networks. Public Knowledge opposes the agency’s action to abandon the responsibilities Congress charged it to perform, including ensuring that everyone has access to emergency services in their time of need.
The following can be attributed to Harold Feld, Senior Vice President of Public Knowledge:
“The FCC was created in 1934 to ensure communications service to all Americans. It is charged with ensuring that all Americans have access to 911. But this action invites comment on radical proposals that fly in the face of these core responsibilities.
“This item proposes to strip away the last protections for consumers with regard to the continued availability of basic voice service. The existing rules already make it simple for carriers to discontinue service. There is no evidence that any FCC requirements are delaying discontinuance of legacy services. What frustrates incumbents is ensuring that there are adequate replacements. But we must not “accelerate the transition” by cutting off rural America because legacy phone companies don’t want to keep serving them.
“Despite lip service to the need to keep all Americans connected, there is no proposed guarantee to ensure that all Americans will continue to have access to 911 – let alone basic phone service. The current regulations require carriers to show, at a minimum, that residents will have access to broadband service capable of reliably supporting voice. The item proposes to eliminate this requirement. Given the uncertainty surrounding the BEAD program, it is reckless to assume that all rural Americans will have access to broadband capable of supporting voice services. Yet the item proposes, in all seriousness, to forbear from all discontinuance regulations.
“Even more ridiculous is the 30-day comment period. This is a matter of tremendous technical complexity, and where the factual evidence lies in the least connected rural areas. But the item provides only the minimum period for comment following the publication in the Federal Register. In other words, this brief of a comment period actually limits the ability of those in rural areas to make their voices heard at the Commission on a matter that affects every community – and that’s simply unacceptable.”
“The upgrade of our national phone system cannot leave anyone behind. This cannot be an upgrade for some and a downgrade for the rest. We hope that when the FCC issues the final rule, it will remember that Congress created it explicitly to keep all Americans connected.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.