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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 26 / Wednesday, February 10, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Governmental Affairs Bureau at 202
4180530 voice, 2024180432 TTY.
The Wireline Competition Bureau adopted the Order on Reconsideration in conjunction with an Order and a Declaratory Ruling in WC Docket No.
1784.
This document does not contain new or modified information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 PRA, Public Law 10413. In addition, therefore, it does not contain any new or modified information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25
employees, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107198, see 44 U.S.C.
3506c4.
The Commission will not send a copy of this Order on Reconsideration to Congress and the Government Accountability Office pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, see 5 U.S.C.
801a1A, because the adopted rules are rules of particular applicability. This document denying the Order on Reconsideration applies to one petitioner, Public Knowledge.
Synopsis I. Introduction 1. Next-generation networks hold the promise of new and improved service offerings for American consumers, and encouraging the deployment of these facilities as broadly as possible has long been a priority of the Commission. The COVID19 pandemic has served to underscore the importance of ensuring that people throughout the country can reap the benefits of these nextgeneration networks, which provide increased access to economic opportunity, healthcare, education, civic engagement, and connections with family and friends. Removing unnecessary regulatory barriers faced by carriers seeking to transition legacy networks and services to modern broadband infrastructure is therefore a key component of the Commissions work to improve access to advanced communications services and to close the digital divide.
2. In the Order on Reconsideration, the Wireline Competition Bureau denies a petition by Public Knowledge Petitioner seeking reconsideration of the Wireline Infrastructure Second Report and Order Second Report and Order or Order, 83 FR 31659, July 9, 2018, and dismisses as moot its accompanying motion to have the Commission hold that Order in abeyance pending the outcome of an appeal.

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II. Background 3. Section 214a of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, requires that carriers seek Commission authorization before discontinuing, reducing, or impairing service to a community or part of a community. Unless otherwise noted, this item uses the term discontinue or discontinuance as a shorthand for the statutory language discontinue, reduce, or impair. The Commission will grant such authorization only if it determines that neither the present nor future public convenience and necessity will be adversely affected. This requirement is directed at preventing a loss or impairment of a service offering to a community or part of a community without adequate public interest safeguards. Reference to the Commission with respect to administering its section 214
discontinuance rules throughout this item includes actions taken by the Bureau pursuant to its delegated authority to accept, process, and act on section 214 applications.
4. The Commissions rules implementing section 214a provide that a carriers application seeking Commission discontinuance authority will be automatically granted after sixty or thirty days, depending on whether the carrier is considered dominant or nondominant, respectively, unless the Commission notifies the applicant otherwise. This automatic grant feature has become known as streamlined processing. The Commission may remove an application from streamlined processing based on the contents of the application itself, responsive or oppositional comments, or other issues associated with the application that warrant further scrutiny prior to acting.
The Commission will normally authorize the discontinuance, however, unless it is shown that customers would be unable to receive service or a reasonable substitute from another carrier or that the public convenience or necessity is otherwise adversely affected.
5. In evaluating whether a planned discontinuance of service will adversely affect the public convenience or necessity, the Commission traditionally employs a five-factor balancing test.
These five factors analyze: 1 The financial impact on the common carrier of continuing to provide the service; 2
the need for the service in general; 3
the need for the particular facilities in question; 4 increased charges for alternative services; and 5 the existence, availability, and adequacy of alternatives. While analysis of these five
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factors generally provides the basis for reviewing discontinuance applications, our public interest evaluation necessarily encompasses the broad aims of the Communications Act. In 2016, the Commission revised its streamlined discontinuance rules to create a process applicable specifically to technology transition discontinuance applications.
These applications seek to discontinue legacy time-division multiplexing TDM-based voice services in a community, replacing them instead with a voice service using a different, next-generation technology. In adopting a new process specifically for technology transition discontinuance applications, the Commission concluded that the existence, availability, and adequacy of alternatives has heightened importance in evaluating the impact on the public interest, as consumers in the affected community would typically need to transition to more modern voice service alternatives having different characteristics. As a result, carriers could get streamlined treatment of a technology transition discontinuance application only by complying with a set of requirements intended to focus heightened scrutiny on the replacement service to which end-user customers would have access. In order to get streamlined treatment via the adequate replacement test, a technology transition discontinuance applicant must certify or demonstrate that one or more replacement services in the area offers all of the following: 1 Substantially similar levels of network infrastructure and service quality as the applicant service; 2 compliance with existing Federal and/or industry standards required to ensure that critical applications such as 911, network security, and applications for individuals with disabilities remain available; and 3 interoperability and compatibility with an enumerated list of applications and functionalities determined to be key to consumers and competitors.
6. In furtherance of its commitment to encouraging a more rapid transition to next-generation voice technologies and services, the Commission further amended its technology transition discontinuance rules in 2018 to provide an additional, more streamlined option for carriers seeking to discontinue legacy voice services. This option encompassed appropriate limitations to protect consumers and the public interest, while enabling carriers to work more responsively to redirect resources to next-generation networks, ultimately benefitting the public. Via a
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