The Regulatory Mix

The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.

 

TELECOM

FCC

          Circuit Status report

The FCC released its annual circuit status report for U.S. facilities-based international common carriers for 2013.  The report shows activated common carrier capacity for international telephone calls, private line services, and other services from the United States grew by 13% from 2012 to 2013.  The reported number of activated 64 kilobits per second (Kbps) equivalent circuits at the end of 2013 totaled 43.8 million circuits as compared to 38.6 million circuits in 2012.  The top 30 destinations accounted for 99.4% of the total U.S.-activated circuits at year-end 2013 with the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Germany, and Mexico as the top five destinations. 

 

          USAC Board

The FCC is seeking nominations by August 17, 2015, for the 12 Board member positions on the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC).  Among the positions are those representing CLECs (position currently held by Joseph Gillan); IXCs with annual operating revenues of $3 billion or less (position currently held by Rochelle D. Jones); CMRS providers (position currently held by Scott Bergmann); cable operators (position currently held by Jose Jimenez); BOCs (position currently held by Joel Lubin); and ILECs with less than $40 million in annual revenues (position currently held by Geoffrey A. Feiss).

 

          USAC  E-rate Productivity Center (EPC)

USAC announced that its EPC is now available.  EPC is the account and application management portal for the Schools and Libraries (E-rate) Program.  This system will eventually be the point of entry for all applicant, service provider, or consultant transactions.  EPC will be where program participants complete and certify program forms, obtain the status of applications, submit requests, receive timely reminders and notifications, respond to PIA review questions, and ask program-related questions.  Information about the program, including links to instructional videos, user guides, and a glossary of terms is available here.

 

California

PUC scheduled additional Public Participation Hearings on the proposed Frontier/Verizon transfer of assets and certifications.  Workshops will be held prior to each hearing.  The workshops will review the technical condition of the network in the areas adjacent to the hearing locations in order to inform the parties and PUC about the operational status of the facilities to be migrated from Verizon to Frontier and what steps may be necessary to satisfy the consumer benefit and public interest tests for approval of such transfers.  The next set of workshops/hearings will be held on August 20, Ridgecrest; August 21, Mammoth Lakes.  See the Regulatory Mix dated 7/8/15 and 6/23/15 for scoping information and additional Public Participation meeting dates.

 

ENERGY – Net Metering

Virginia

The regulations governing net energy metering establish the requirements for participation by an eligible customer-generator in net energy metering in Virginia.  The Net Energy Metering rules (Rules) include conditions for interconnection and metering, billing, and contract requirements between net metering customers, electric distribution companies, and energy service providers.  The State Corporation Commission has concluded that the Rules must be revised to reflect recent changes to Chapters 431 and 432 of the 2015 Acts of Assembly.  Proposed amendments to the Rules will:

  • increase the capacity limit for participation by nonresidential customers in the net energy metering program,
  • eliminate the authorization for electric utilities to allow a higher capacity limit for
  • nonresidential customers than that set forth in the statute,
  • require that new net metering facilities do not exceed the customer’s expected annual energy consumption based on the 12 months of billing history,
  • require any eligible customer-generator seeking to participate in net energy metering to notify its supplier and receive approval to interconnect prior to installation of an electrical generating facility, and
  • clarify requirements regarding the customer-generator’s obligation to bear the costs of equipment required for the interconnection to the supplier’s electric distribution system. 

Comments on the amendments are due by July 31, 2015. 

 

Net Metering Whitepaper

 

Inteserra Local Filing Tracker

 

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