FCC Filings #96-28

Before the Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554

In the Matter of	)
	)	CC Docket No. 96-28
Amendment of Subpart D of Part 68 of the FCC's Rules	)	RM - 8621
and Regulations	)
	)
	)

COMMENTS

The Telecommunications Industry Association ("TIA") User Premises Equipment Division ("UPED") hereby submits these Comments in response to the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the matter of Amendment of Part 68 of the Commission’s Rules ("NPRM"), released February 29, 1996, FCC 96-39. This NPRM is in response to the TIA Petition for Rulemaking ("Petition") to amend Subpart D of Part 68, 47 CFR ��68.300 - 68.318, and portions of 47 CFR �68.2 in order to harmonize Subpart D with the corresponding Sections of the Canadian certification regulations CS-03.

TIA UPED is pleased with the FCC's action to propose the changes requested in the TIA Petition. As the Commission noted in the NPRM, this is one step in the harmonization of technical requirements in North America. Additional steps must follow and a method to keep technical regulations harmonized must be implemented or all of the technical work will have been wasted if over time the technical regulations fall out of harmonization.

The NPRM was reviewed by the technical experts that were responsible for the preparation of the technical content of TIA's Petition at the recent Part 68 industry meeting in Fort Myers, Florida. During the course of that review, it was noticed that a number of errata-like items that appear to be oversights from the Petition attachments to the Commission’s actual proposal had occurred in Appendix B of the NPRM. Those items are covered in Annex A to these Comments.

Grandfathering provisions must be in the final Rules.

In TIA’s Petition, the issue of grandfathering of equipment registered to the current rules is discussed in the Petition at p. __and in Appendix A at p. __. In the Appendix, suggested rule language is provided to allow sales and connections of equipment registered to the current rules even after the new rules are effective. Since this TIA Petition is a harmonization-only effort, it does not substantively change the harm-to-the- network criteria in a significant way that would require manufacturers to possibly redesign, re-test; and re-register current equipment. In the final Appendix B of the NPRM, there is no proposed rule addressing the issue of grandfathering current registrations, although the subject matter is discussed in the text of the NPRM at p. ___. This may have been because in TIA’s Petition, the proposed additional rule language on grandfathering which appeared in TIA's Appendix A was not included in TIA's Appendix B. However, it is felt that grandfathering is a significant issue to the industry and must be included in any final rules.

A method to keep the FCC's rules in harmony with other harmonized technical requirements must be developed.

A TIA noted in its Petition, years of technical work went into the harmonization effort included with the Petition. Almost another year passed while the FCC considered the merits of TIA's Petition before issuing the NPRM. Additional time will pass before a final order is released in this proceeding. The recent Report and Order on Integrated Services Digital Networks ("ISDN") modifications to Part 68 demonstrates that from start to finish the current regulatory cycle takes too long. If the U. S. Government has as a policy goal, harmonization of technical requirements in North America, in this hemisphere, and ultimately globally, then methods and procedures to keep harmonized technical requirements synchronized must be developed and used. Otherwise the years of effort directed to harmonization will have been wasted efforts if regulations harmonized at a point in time are allowed to become different requirements due to un-harmonized regulatory time lines.

CONCLUSION

This rulemaking is significant to future globalization of the industry and will set the stage for further work under the North American Free Trade Agreement "(NAFTA") and activities implementing the Summit of the Americas because it would introduce similar technical requirements for registration and certification of terminal equipment in Canada and the United States. TIA requests that the Commission expeditiously proceed to amend its rules and is ready to assist the Commission in the implementation of those changes.

	Respectfully submitted, Telecommunications Industry Association User Premises Equipment Division __________________________________ Dan Bart, Vice President, Standards and Technology Telecommunications Industry Association Ron Angner, Chairman, User Premises Equipment Division 2500 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 Arlington, VA 22201 703-907-7703 April 1, 1996