Politics

FCC Form 477

The FCC is requiring WISPs to file data on their number of subscribers twice each year.

by Kristopher Twomey of The Law Office of Kristopher E. Twomey, P.C. [March 6, 2006]

[Ed. note: Form 477 is available in Micsoft Excel and .pdf format. However, the drop down boxes only work in the Excel format, so you will need a copy of Microsoft Excel to fill out the form properly.

The form is due at the FCC twice each year, on March 1 and September 1. The form submitted on March 1 should contain ISP data as of December 31 of the previous year, and the form submitted on September 1 should contain ISP data as of June 30 of the same year.

Although there is no penalty to any WISP for not filing, the data will be used by the FCC to determine the size (i.e., the importance) of the WISP industry, including its role in rural areas, where the FCC is trying to accelerate the deployment of broadband.

The following is the text that Kris Twomey posted to both our ISP-Wireless list and the WISPA FCC list.]

Yes, WISPs must fill out Form 477. Here is the link to the instructions for the form: http://www.fcc.gov/Forms/Form477/477instr.pdf

In that form, the relevant part is below. And as an aside, sheesh, everybody should try to be a little nicer to each other. And that's coming from a lawyer even...

Quoting from the form itself:

Facilities-based Providers of Broadband Connections to End User Locations:

Entities that are facilities-based providers of broadband connections—which, for purposes of this information collection, are wired "lines" or wireless "channels" that enable the end user to receive information from and/or send information to the Internet at information transfer rates exceeding 200 kbps in at least one direction—must complete and file the applicable portions of this form for each state in which the entity provides one or more such connections to end user locations.

For the purposes of Form 477, an entity is a "facilities-based" provider of broadband connections to end user locations if it owns the portion of the physical facility that terminates at the end user location, if it obtains unbundled network elements (UNEs), special access lines, or other leased facilities that terminate at the end user location and provisions/equips them as broadband, or if it provisions/equips a broadband wireless channel to the end user location over licensed or unlicensed spectrum. Such entities include incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers (LECs), cable system operators, fixed wireless service providers (including "wireless ISPs"), terrestrial and satellite mobile wireless service providers, MMDS providers, electric utilities, municipalities, and other entities.

(Such entities do not include equipment suppliers unless the equipment supplier uses the equipment to provision a broadband connection that it offers to the public for sale. Such entities also do not include providers of fixed wireless services (e.g., "Wi-Fi" and other wireless Ethernet or wireless local area network applications) that only enable local distribution and sharing of a premises broadband facility.)

For such entities, the applicable portions of the form are: 1) the Cover Page; 2) Part I; 3) Part IV (if necessary); and the relevant portion(s) of Part V.

Twomey remarks:

The whole point of Form 477 is to help the FCC get a statistical sense of the market, which includes WISPs. Besides, FCC employees have directly told all of us that WISPs are supposed to fill out 477.

Quoting from the FCC Form 477 FAQ:

8. Are Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) exempt?

No. Entities that provide broadband connections to end user locations by using spectrum on an unlicensed basis for the "last hop" to the end user location must report information about those connections. Typically, this is done by completing the questions for broadband category 7 ("terrestrial fixed wireless") in Part I of the form and also filling in column (f) in Part V of the form.

(If broadband connections are reported in another technology category, such as "terrestrial mobile wireless," please put a brief explanatory note into Part IV of the form.)

A WISP should consider the user data rate (as opposed to the over-the-air raw data rate, for example) when determining whether connections are broadband for purposes of Form 477.

(A broadband connection enables the end user to receive information from and/or send information to the Internet at information transfer rates exceeding 200 kbps in at least one direction. See also FAQ #5 [which defines the terms "broadband" and "facilities-based entity" for the purposes of Form 477.)

A WISP should not report subscribers to its broadband Internet-access service when that service is delivered over a broadband connection to the end user location that the WISP, or the WISP's customer, has obtained from an unaffiliated entity such as a municipality, public utility district, or DSL service provider ("DSL wholesaler.") The underlying, facilities-based providers of wired broadband connections to end user locations are responsible for reporting them, and any particular broadband connection should be reported only once in this data collection. See also FAQ #10 [in which the FCC explains it's only interested in facilities-based providers].

Part II and Part III of Form 477—which are the parts of the form where information about local telephone service is collected—may not apply to particular WISPs:

• Only WISPs that are authorized (by the WISP's state telecommunications regulator) to operate as a CLEC need to consider Part II of the form, and they should also see FAQ #13 [explaining why it is not collecting data on VoIP at this time].

• Only WISPs that offer mobile telephone service as commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) providers need to consider Part III of the form. Note that CMRS providers typically hold or operate spectrum licenses for cellular, PCS, or SMR services.

—End