The FCC hasn’t even held the January Open Meeting yet, but is already out with a preliminary agenda for the February Open Meeting. And as is often the case with FCC Open Meetings in recent times, broadcasters need not interrupt their regularly scheduled programming to pay any attention.
The meeting will be held during the second full week of February. The agenda includes items on robocalls, cellular licensing and VoIP outage reporting, none of which are of particular interest to broadcasters.
From the FCC, here are the full agenda plank descriptions:
* Robocalls Report and Order: The Commission will consider a Report and Order that protects consumers from unwanted autodialed or prerecorded calls (“robocalls”) by adopting rules that ensure consumers have given prior express consent before receiving robocalls, can easily opt out of further robocalls, and will experience “abandoned” telemarketing calls only in strictly limited instances.
* Streamlining Cellular Service Licensing Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order: As part of its ongoing efforts to remove outdated regulations and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens, the Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order proposing a staged approach to revising the licensing model for the Cellular Service from a site-based to a geographically-based approach. The proposal will offer greater flexibility and reduce regulatory requirements, while enabling greater rural deployment. The item also includes several other proposals to streamline the Cellular Service rules, including interim restrictions and procedures for cellular service applications.
* Extending Outage Reporting Obligations to Interconnected VoIP Services Report and Order: Furthering the Commission’s commitment to public safety, the Commission will consider a Report and Order to extend outage reporting under Part IV of the rules to interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers. Extended reporting will enable the Commission to fulfill statutory E9-1-1 obligations and help protect the growing number of Americans who rely on VoIP telephone service.
