A Small Number, A Big Difference

The last Federal Communications Commission meeting of 2019, on December 12, features more than one item that could receive top billing in an ordinary month. The FCC will consider:

1. A proposal to move forward with the necessary steps to establish 988 as a national 3-digit number to access suicide prevention and mental health services.
2. A proposal to provide dedicated spectrum for both advanced automotive safety technology and unlicensed uses like Wi-Fi.
3. A proposal to remove the existing non-federal secondary radiolocation and amateur allocations in the 3.3-3.55 GHz band and relocate those services to the 3.1-3.3 GHz portion of the band or other frequencies.
4. A Declaratory Ruling interpreting what is known as the VoIP symmetry rule, determining that LECs may assess end-office switched access charges if, and only if, the local carrier or its VoIP partner provides a physical connection to the last-mile facilities used to serve an end-user.
5. A proposal to change the cable TV notice deadline from 30 days in advance to "as soon as possible" in cases in which carriage negotiations fail during the last 30 days of a contract.
6. A proposal to change FCC licensing process for noncommercial educational full-service FM and full-power television (NCE) and low-power FM (LPFM) broadcast stations. The proposed changes build upon lessons learned from the most recent NCE and LPFM filing windows and are designed to improve our comparative selection and licensing procedures, expedite the initiation of new service to the public, eliminate unnecessary applicant burdens, and reduce the number of appeals of our NCE comparative licensing decisions.