Agencies and Commissions June 29, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (the Commission or FCC) addresses the current funding shortfall in the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program, including by raising the annual Program funding cap and applying it to the current funding year to fully fund eligible funding requests for funding year (FY) 2017, adjusting the funding cap to reflect inflation, and establishing a process to carry-forward unused funds from past funding years for use in future funding years.

This notice lists the minor modifications approved for a previously approved project by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission during the period set forth in DATES.

In this document, the Commission seeks to update its leased access rules as part of its Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative. First, the Commission tentatively concludes that it should vacate its 2008 Leased Access Order, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has stayed for a decade in conjunction with several judicial appeals of the order. Second, the Commission seeks input on the state of the leased access marketplace generally and invites comment on ways to modernize its existing leased access rules.

Notice is hereby given that a complaint was filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission on May 24, 2018, under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, on behalf of Bose Corporation of Framingham, Massachusetts. A supplemental exhibit was filed on June 8, 2018. The complaint alleges violations of section 337 based upon the importation into the United States, the sale for importation, and the sale within the United States after importation of certain earpiece devices and components thereof by reason of infringement of U.S. Patent No. 9,036,852 (``the '852 patent''); U.S. Patent No. 9,036,853 (``the '853 patent''); U.S. Patent No. 9,042,590 (``the '590 patent''); U.S. Patent No. 8,311,253 (``the '253 patent''); U.S. Patent No. 8,249,287 (``the '287 patent''); and U.S. Patent No. 9,398,364 (``the '364 patent''). The complaint further alleges that an industry in the United States exists as required by the applicable Federal Statute. The complainant requests that the Commission institute an investigation and, after the investigation, issue a general or limited exclusion order, or in the alternative a limited exclusion order, and cease and desist orders.

In this document, the Commission proposed to adopt rules to curb the financial incentive to engage in access stimulation by giving access-stimulating LECs two choices for receiving calls. The access- stimulating LEC can choose either: To be financially responsible for the delivery of calls to its network, in which case intermediate access providers would charge the access-stimulating LEC for the delivery of calls; or to accept direct connections from long distance carriers seeking to terminate telephone calls to the LEC or from intermediate access providers of the long distance carriers' choosing, which would allow the long distance carriers to bypass intermediate access providers chosen by the access-stimulating LEC. This document seeks comment on several alternatives, including requiring LECs engaged in access stimulation to immediately transition their terminating access charges to bill-and-keep. This document also seeks comment on the effect the proposed rules will have on specific arbitrage schemes described in the record. Finally, it seeks comment on how to curb other arbitrage schemes.