FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has told Congress that the FCC has begun an "internal assessment" of Russian ownership of U.S. telecommunications interests.

That came in written testimony for Thursday's FCC oversight hearing in the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

She said that was just one of the actions the FCC had taken in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

She also noted that the FCC is requiring new on-air disclosures of foreign-backed broadcasts, though ramping up that effort pre-dates the invasion by quite a bit and was tied to concerns about state-sponsored disinformation campaigns like those that could have impacted U.S. elections.

She also pointed out that the FCC had joined the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Shields Up program to heighten cybersecurity awareness and response in the increased threat of malicious cyber activity stemming from the Russian sanctions. ■

The Senate Commerce Committee is marking up a bill this week (Nov. 18) that would expand the number of broadband suppliers eligible for $1 billion in funding to rip and replace suspect tech, like that of Huawei and ZTE.

The bill, S. 4472, the Ensuring Network Security Act, amends that rip and replace program, the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019, by upping the threshold for companies eligible for the money from those with 2 million or fewer subs to those with 10 million or fewer, and by expanding eligibility to eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs).

Related: FCC Says Huawei, ZTE Rip and Replace Will Cost $1.8B

The bill also expands the fund to include non-commercial educational institutions with their own facilities-based broadband services.

The ETCs and the noncoms will only get the money after all the applicants with 2 million or fewer subs have gotten their money.

Related: Secure Networks Act Passes Senate

Back in September, the price for extracting from U.S. networks equipment and software from Chinese vendors deemed security threats by the Trump Administration would come in at around $1.8 billion, according to figures released by the FCC. The agency also said that most of that money, $1.6 billion of it, could be eligible for reimbursement to U.S. network operators from the federal government. 

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.) said the FCC's recent Sec. 706 report on the deployment of advanced telecommunications shows improvement, but it is clear the FCC needs better data. 

The report, released last week, concluded that the digital divide is continuing to close and advanced telecommunications continues to be deployed to all Americans on a reasonable and timely basis.  

The commission vote to issue the report was 3-2, with the Democrats dissenting.  

Capito, co-chair of the Senate Broadband Caucus, was not a dissenter, but she said the FCC needs to improve its data maps, something the FCC is trying to do. 

She said that overall the report shows progress in better connecting communities, but she cited the flawed data, saying more granular data is "essential," particularly in the age of COVID-19. She said she appreciated the FCC's recognition that it needs that more granular data.  

"The report is a positive news that the digital divide continues to close and that we continue to make progress," she said, adding: "[W]ith nearly 30% of rural communities still lacking access to 25/3 Mbps service, I remain deeply committed to expanding broadband connectivity across our state, especially as telecommunication capability is vital during these trying times." 

Capito co-sponsored the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act, which was signed into law in March. 

The bill requires the FCC to issue new rules "to require the collection and dissemination of granular broadband availability data and to establish a process to verify the accuracy of such data, and more."  

Shorter appointment windows and technicians that are on time resonate best with customers and helped drive satisfaction levels, according to a telecommunications services study by JD Power.

“The more flexible telecom companies can be with offering service windows that work with their customers’ schedules and the more precise they are at hitting those target times, the higher levels of customer satisfaction they can realize,” said Peter Cunningham, Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Practice Lead at J.D. Power in a statement. “Though this may seem like common sense, there are huge performance gaps among the different providers. Those that are getting it right have developed strong skill sets in both managing customer expectations and delivering on them.”

Among telecom providers, Dish Network scored the highest in the study with a score of 885. Charter Communications finished second with 860, followed by AT&T/DIRECTV (859) and Verizon (856). The industry average score was 853.

The 2018 U.S. Telecom In-Home Service Technician Study was fielded in December 2017-January 2018, collecting 3,744 responses. To be eligible to participate, respondents needed to have an in-home telecom service technician visit in the past six months.

According to the study, satisfaction ratings were 49 points higher for customer with service appointment windows of one hour or less than those with a two-hour window. The gap jumped to 104 points when customers were given a four-hour window, JD Power said.

Punctuality was important as well. Overall satisfaction for customers whose tech showed up on time was 871. That score dropped to 819 when techs arrived early and to 683 when they showed up late. The survey found that although service providers have placed a huge emphasis on timeliness, 12% of techs arrived outside of their service window (7% were late and 5% were early). And among the techs that were late, 20% were at least two days late.

Customers also complained of issues not being fixed the first time around – 26% said their service problems were not corrected on the first visit. Overall satisfaction scores are 112 points higher when the issues are fixed the first time. And providers should take note: JD Power found that customers who have to endure multiple service visits to fix an issue are more than twice as likely to say they “definitely will” or “probably will” switch providers than those whose issues are fixed during the first technician visit.

Customers also like to be in the loop during service calls – those who were contacted prior to the arrival of the tech were 138 points higher than those that weren’t contacted. Convenience also goes a long way. Satisfaction was much higher among customers who used a digital channel—such as website unassisted (834)—to schedule an appointment than among those who used a phone (761).

Since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, pundits have been predicting what his win will mean for everything from tax reform to immigration policies. While uncertainty is still the name of the game, recent announcements about the president-elect’s transition team and members of his cabinet have provided some hints as to how his policy agenda may unfold.

One area where we have heard very little from Trump — minus one or two tweets over the past few years — is the telecommunications industry and the agenda pursued by the Obama administration and Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler. Many of the Wheeler FCC’s key rules were passed on party-line, 3-2 votes with strong GOP opposition. The assumption is that with a Republican president and a GOP-led FCC, many of those rules and policies will be reversed. The announcement that Jeffrey Eisenach, Roslyn Layton and Mark Jamison — all vocal critics of current FCC policies — would lead the Trump FCC transition team has done little to dispel this assumption.

While a change in policies at the FCC appears to be in the cards, how that gets carried out is a little more complicated. Two of Wheeler’s landmark rules at the FCC — the network-neutrality rule and the recently passed broadband privacy rule — would be a target of a GOP-led FCC, but would require a formal rulemaking process to “reverse.” This means going through the Administrative Procedures Act process of a notice of proposed rulemaking, a public comment period and an FCC vote to approve any changes.  

A GOP-led FCC would have the votes to change the rules, but the rulemaking process would be played out in the public with strong opposition from those that originally supported them. This politically charged rulemaking environment may draw attention away from the Trump administration’s higher-priority issues.  

Another less drastic — and less political — mechanism a GOP-led FCC could use to lighten the impact of the rules is to take a more laissez-faire approach to enforcement. The net-neutrality rule has been in effect for nearly two years and was recently upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. While the FCC has sent letters of inquiry to several companies about whether their practices might violate Net Neutrality, no significant enforcement actions have been brought. A GOP-led FCC could take an even more hands-off approach to enforcement of the rule.

The broadband privacy rule has a staggered effective date over the next 18 months, with initial elements going into effect in six months. It has been criticized as creating an unlevel playing field between entities subject to the FCC rule and those subject to the Federal Trade Commission’s more-lenient rule.  Once again, a GOP-led FCC could take a lax enforcement approach to the rule, but the rule is in the books and the FCC would have to enforce any clear violations. Amending the rule to address the discrepancy between the FCC and FTC approaches can only be accomplished through the rulemaking process noted above.

A legislative solution is another much-discussed option to roll back the impact of the net neutrality and privacy rules. Over the past several years, there have been several proposals from the GOP to put some type of net-neutrality requirement into law, but at the same time remove the FCC’s ability to regulate broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. All of those proposals were pulled under the threat of an Obama veto.  

With a Republican in the White House, the GOP may decide to press ahead again with a legislative solution which would address both net neutrality and privacy. Both rules are based on the FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers, subject to regulation under Title II.  Without the Title II reclassification, both rules would be without statutory authority. New legislation undoing reclassification would potentially remove the legal underpinning of both rules and the FCC’s Title II oversight of broadband. This would also put the FTC back in the role of the primary privacy supervisor for broadband providers, once again leveling the privacy playing field.

Could such legislation pass? This does not appear to be a high priority for the GOP or the Trump administration, which are are focused on tax reform, trade policy, immigration and health care as priority areas early in the president’s first term. The GOP also does not have the 60 votes needed in the Senate to break a filibuster, so it might be difficult to pass legislation unless there is some Democratic support, which may arrive if there is a view that a compromise is the only way to maintain Net Neutrality. The other strategy for the GOP may be to wait until after 2018, when 10 Senate Democrats are up for re-election. The GOP could potentially have a filibuster-breaking majority after 2018, when they could push through the legislation they want.  

It seems clear that change is coming for how the telecommunications industry will be regulated. As with every change of party in the White House, the Trump administration will want to put its imprint on the industry. It is just not clear at this point on what that mark will be or how long it will take.  

David Sapin is technology, media and telecommunications risk and regulatory leader at PwC.