Taking aim at curbing unwanted robocalls and caller ID spoofing, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau suggested a two-year timetable for implementation (mostly by industry) of highly technical authentication and call-filtering actions. That news came with CGB's release of the agenda for a related workshop scheduled for Wednesday. The first planned steps would be this winter, with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) completing a “Secure Telephone Identity Revisited SIP (session initiation protocol) header document" and industry organizations and advisory panels recommending how to store "per-number cryptographic credentials,” the bureau said in a public notice Thursday. Several actions would be targeted for next year, including carriers offering "egregious caller" filters in the spring and initial user-controlled call filtering in the fall. The timetable’s stretch run anticipates terminating carriers validating “SIP calls based on carrier or per-number certificates or credentials” in winter 2016-17 and all VoIP-originated calls being “signed” by summer 2017. The workshop will examine call-blocking and call-filtering solutions to robocalls and caller ID spoofing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Commission Meeting Room. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is to make opening remarks, followed by panels on call-blocking services, third-party solutions, carrier/provider capabilities, and the role of “gateway providers” in stopping unwanted robocalls. Panelists and moderators will include officials from the FCC, FTC and the Indiana attorney general’s office; representatives of telecom providers (AT&T, Bandwidth.com, Level 3, USTelecom, Verizon and Vonage), other industry parties (e.g., the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, Call Control, IETF and Oracle); Consumers Union; and professors from Georgia Tech and Columbia University.

The FCC released a new eligible service list (ESL) for the E-rate USF program providing discounts for schools and libraries. "In the ESL Public Notice for this coming funding year, we proposed keeping the basic structure of the ESL while modifying the ESL to reflect the changes the Commission made to the E-rate program for funding year 2016 in the Second E-rate Modernization Order, and to provide some minor clarifications," the Wireline Bureau said in an order. The bureau said it is adopting the proposed changes to the ESL in the public notice with some modifications.

AT&T Digital Life will begin offering a limited number of its existing security and automation customers a free trial of a personal security app in November, it announced Thursday. The app will offer trial users access to Digital Life’s professional monitoring service for support when problems arise while they are outside their home, said the provider. Components of the service include professional monitoring, messaging and a mapping feature, said the company. A user who is traveling can use the app’s one-click alert feature 24/7 to contact Digital Life’s monitoring center, which can dispatch emergency services and provide first responders with information such as health conditions and allergies from the user’s profile, said AT&T. Users can opt in to have the monitoring center view live audio and video of their location or condition, it said. Another option is to set a timer at the start of a trip -- such as walking to a parked car in a dark location -- which will trigger an alert unless canceled, said AT&T. The messaging function sends an alert to a programmed list of contacts within the app to let them know information such as a safe arrival or that the user has been in an accident, it said. A map feature shows the user's location, with the individual's permission, for use by monitoring professionals in case of emergency. The trial service will be available to a limited number of existing AT&T Digital Life Premium Security and Automation subscribers and AT&T plans to launch Personal Security to a broader audience in the future. The company plans to add features “to continue extending Digital Life beyond the home,” it said. Questions to AT&T on length of the trial, how trial customers will be chosen and planned date to begin broad service weren’t immediately answered.

Neustar agreed to buy caller authentication assets from Transaction Network Services for about $220 million in cash. After tax benefits are factored in, the purchase will be worth about $173 million, said Neustar and TNS, a Siris Capital Group affiliate, in a joint release Wednesday. "This acquisition will allow Neustar to compete in the broad market for call authentication in mobile, broadband and wireless services with offerings that include subscriber data storage, database management, caller identification and verification services," the release said. "The Company estimates that the acquired assets will generate approximately $60 million in revenue in 2016." The companies expect the deal to close in 4Q after receiving federal Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust clearance.

NetCompetition Chairman Scott Cleland blasted presidential candidacy talk from Larry Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor and net neutrality advocate. “The political agenda hidden inside Mr. Lessig’s Trojan horse candidacy is network neutrality,” Cleland wrote Monday in an op-ed for The Daily Caller. “At least part of the reason Mr. Lessig is running for president, is because he knows the partisan net neutrality gains enjoyed at the FCC are at serious risk of defunding from Congress, of overturning in court, and/or reversal by a potential Republican President in 2017.” NetCompetition receives support from the telecom industry. Lessig announced consideration of a bid last month and plans to officially announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination Wednesday. He has said he has no intention to govern as president, simply to advance a campaign finance overhaul measure and then resign.

Verizon raised its Q3 dividend 2.7 percent to 56.5 cents per share, the company said in a news release Thursday. The new quarterly payout is up 1.5 cents per share from the previous quarter, and increases Verizon's annual dividend by 6 cents per share to $2.26, it said. It's the ninth year in a row the company's board approved a dividend increase, said Verizon.

Voxx completed its buy of biometrics company EyeLock for about $20.2 million, it said Wednesday. Voxx said last month (see 1508190039) that it was creating an “acquiring entity” to buy a majority of EyeLock, which holds more than 70 patents and pending patents in iris authentication. Voxx CEO Pat Lavelle said the acquisition holds great potential for Voxx because "biometrics increasingly has become a desired authentication mechanism for the Internet of Things, and for increased access management and security measures.” Lavelle called EyeLock the “fastest and most secure iris-authentication technology in the market,” pegging overall category revenue forecasts at $20 billion in the next five years. Lavelle said he will work with EyeLock CEO Jim Demitrieus and his team to leverage combined resources and expand reach with existing and new distribution partners, enterprises and government agencies. Before the transaction, Voxx was the exclusive distribution partner of EyeLock’s myris devices to retailers in North America and throughout Europe, and Voxx will now play a larger role in distribution and sales, it said.

The North American Numbering Council scheduled its next meeting for Sept. 30, the FCC said in a public notice Wednesday in docket 92-237. The meeting is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room.

The NG9-1-1 Institute said it's seeking candidates for open positions on its board. Nominations are due Sept. 16. Six positions are open -- one education professional, one representative of a small telecom carrier/company, two representatives of vendor/integrator/software companies, one representative at large and one representative at large representing public safety/public health. “The Institute shares and enhances the mission of the Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus to promote education regarding and the advancement of emergency services nationwide,” the group said. New board members are to be seated Oct. 21.

Apple and Cisco said they’re partnering to optimize Cisco enterprise networks for iOS devices and apps. To address the increasing demands on corporate infrastructure, Cisco networks and iOS devices will be optimized so they work together more efficiently and reliably, the companies said in a Monday news release. Apple and Cisco also are working together to make iPhone “an even better business collaboration tool in Cisco voice and video environments, with the goal of providing employees with a seamless experience between iPhone and their desk phone,” they said. With Apple’s support, Cisco will deliver experiences specially optimized for iOS across mobile, cloud and premises-based collaboration tools such as Cisco Spark, Cisco Telepresence and Cisco WebEx, they said.