Reminder: Upcoming March 1 Deadlines

JSI reminds its clients of several important March 1, 2017, filing deadlines. These deadlines affect wireline, wireless and VoIP telephone providers and video/cable companies.

FCC Form 477
FCC Form 477, Local Telephone Competition and Broadband Reporting, for data as of December 31, 2016, must be submitted by March 1 via the FCC’s online filing system. Reporting is required for all:

  • Facilities-based providers of broadband connections to end-user locations;
  • Wired or fixed-wireless local exchange telephone service providers;
  • Interconnected VoIP service providers; and
  • Facilities-based providers of mobile telephony and mobile broadband service.

Note that the FCC has added a new cable modem technology code for fixed broadband deployment: Code 43 for cable modem DOCSIS 3.1. If your company has deployed DOCSIS 3.1 technology to any census blocks as of December 31, 2016, use technology Code 43 when reporting fixed deployment for those blocks.

Semi-Annual Copyright
Video/cable operators must submit their cable copyright statement of account forms and royalty payments for the second half of calendar year 2016 to the Library of Congress Copyright Office by March 1. All cable copyright royalty fees must be made via electronic funds transfer. Video/cable providers should note the following:

Semiannual gross receipts of $527,600 or more for the July 1-December 31, 2016, accounting period must be reported on the SA3 Long Form and require detailed reporting of distant signal carriage. If you have completed SA1-2 Short Form statements in the past and are approaching this threshold, you should review your channel lineup as the carriage of distant signals significantly affects your copyright royalty fee calculation. If you completed the SA3 Long Form in the past but have revised your channel lineup for broadcast stations, please make sure that these revisions are noted on the SA3 Long Form.

Geocoding Location Broadband Deployment Report
The new Geocoding Location Broadband Deployment Report must be submitted in the High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) Portal (some companies’ reports are due March 1, 2017, and others July 1, 2017, as follows):

  • Companies that selected the A-CAM must report all newly served or newly able to be served locations in funded census blocks built out in calendar year 2016. This includes fully funded and capped census blocks.
  • Legacy/CAF-BLS companies with less than 80% 10/1 deployment must report geocoded locations by March 1, 2017, of all newly served or newly able to be served locations in their entire service area built out from May 25, 2016, through December 31, 2016.
  • Legacy/CAF-BLS companies with 80% or greater 10/1 deployment are required to report location information to USAC by July 1, 2017, as part of the FCC Form 481 reporting. JSI will provide additional information as it is released by the FCC or USAC.

JSI is holding a webinar on these new reporting requirements this Thursday, February 2 at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central). More details about the webinar, “All About HUBB: Prepping for the First Geocoded Location Report,” and online registration are available on our website.

CPNI Annual Certification
CERTIFICATION IS NO LONGER REQUIRED

Please note that the rule requiring CPNI annual certification was eliminated when the CPNI Broadband Order became effective on January 3, 2017. The section containing the filing requirement (Section 64.2009), which included requirements for carriers to train personnel and to have a disciplinary process in place, was eliminated. Although this specific rule was eliminated, please note that other CPNI rules are in effect along with the potential fines if violated. Therefore, even though the annual certification is no longer required, companies should continue to train their staff and have a disciplinary process in place to ensure that the company stays in compliance. (See JSI’s January 13 e-Lert for more details.)