If the FCC intends to reverse a 2015 declaratory ruling on VoIP symmetry, Bandwidth said, make clear "tandem-switched transport functions provided in originating and terminating calls to 'over-the-top' VoIP customers are compensable as tandem switching and transport services in accordance with LEC switched access tariffs." The company, posting Friday in docket 10-90, agreed with CenturyLink's petition for a declaratory ruling on the matter (see 1912050034). Commissioners vote Thursday (see 1911210049).
Country of origin cases
The House Communications Subcommittee's Thursday FCC oversight hearing is expected to include criticism of commission actions and a focus on telecom policy priorities like deciding how to allocate proceeds from a coming auction of the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band, said lawmakers and others in interviews. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the other four commissioners are to testify during the panel, which will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The hearing will happen a day after the House easily passed another FCC-related policy priority, the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (S-151).
Privacy proposals from Senate Commerce Committee Republicans and Democrats both provide stronger consumer protections than California’s privacy law, said Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Wednesday. During a long-awaited hearing, ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., raised concerns about third-party data sharing. Lawmakers gave varying views on a private right of action.
The House is to vote later this week on the compromise Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act from House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., as expected (see 1911270058). The amended language of S-151, released last week, combines provisions from the original Senate-passed version and the House-passed Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375). The legislation would allow the FCC to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call when the caller intentionally flouts the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. House leaders plan a S-151 vote under rule suspension, which means there's no chance for lawmakers to attach amendments. Leaders had not set a specific day. Consumer Reports and the National Consumer Law Center were among those issuing statements Monday. “This bipartisan bill unquestionably moves the ball forward to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls, especially by requiring that all telephone systems in the U.S. implement a coordinated authentication methodology to improve the accuracy of the caller-ID displayed,” said NCLC Senior Counsel Margot Saunders. “Ensuring that phone companies are required to provide effective anti-robocall technology, at no charge, has long been a top priority," so it's good the plan would "guarantee this protection,” said CR Policy Analyst Maureen Mahoney.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is “OK” with permanently reauthorizing USA Patriot Act Section 215, except one provision: the call detail records program (see 1911120042), he told us. President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill through Dec. 20 on Nov. 21, extending the law through March 15, three months after the original December expiration.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., released the final text of the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act Wednesday. They announced earlier this month they had reached an “agreement in principle” (see 1911150065) on a compromise that would combine elements of the original Senate-passed Traced Act (S-151) and the House-passed Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375). Both chambers will vote on the compromise text as an amendment to the original S-151. Pallone said in a statement he hopes the House will vote on the measure “very soon,” with Hill aides pegging it to happen next week. The joint text would increase FCC enforcement authority, allowing it to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call when the caller intentionally flouts the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The bill would extend to up to four years the window for civil enforcement. The FCC would be required to begin a rulemaking to help protect subscribers from receiving unwanted calls or texts from callers using unauthenticated numbers (see 1901170039). The measure also would direct the agency to issue rules requiring carriers to offer opt-out robocall blocking and caller ID services to consumers for free (see 1906200061) and initiate a proceeding “to protect called parties from one-ring scams.” It directs the attorney general and FCC to convene an interagency working group to study federal prosecutions of robocall violations in a bid to increase DOJ activity in that area. It also directs the FCC Enforcement Bureau to give the attorney general any evidence “that suggests a willful, knowing, and repeated robocall violation with an intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value.” FCC Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel hailed the compromise. “I appreciate it addresses some issue I raised over many years,” O'Rielly tweeted. “Robocall solutions should be FREE for consumers,” Rosenworcel tweeted. “They didn’t create this mess fouling up their phone lines, they shouldn’t have to pay to fix it.”
Other non-geostationary orbit operators continue to have problems with Amazon's proposed Kuiper mega constellation, with numerous reply comments filed this week arguing it needs to be part of a new NGSO Ka-band processing round. OneWeb said FCC rules mandate that the Kuiper application should trigger a new processing round. It also said Kuiper's request to share spectrum on an equal basis with first-round licensees and applicants should be denied to protect the NGSO interference environment and existing investments. Giving Kuiper the same status as other qualified applicants that were part of the 2016 processing round "would eviscerate the processing round framework and violate ... clear Commission policies," SES/O3b said. SpaceX said Amazon arguments it won't preclude future entrants since two applicants from the first round won't operate "defies common sense" since Amazon plans magnitudes more satellites than the original applicants. Iridium said Kuiper hasn't shown why it shouldn't need a waiver for its plan to use feeder links in the 19.4-19.6 GHz, 29.1-29.25 GHz, and 29.25-29.5 GHz bands or to operate in the 19.7-20.2 GHz and 29.5-30.0 GHz bands. Urging denial of the Kuiper application, Theia said if the agency approves it, it also should extend the milestones for already-authorized Ka-band systems to give those operators time to address the disruption Kuiper's entry would bring. Telesat dismissed Amazon arguments its directional antennas justify waiving the processing round rules, saying use of those antennas is irrelevant. Amazon argued a processing round waiver wouldn't eliminate its spectrum sharing obligations (see 1911140004).
Refocus FCC efforts on shoring up Lifeline affordability and reaching out to all eligible consumers instead of setting up new barriers, stakeholders recommended in interviews this week and last. The FCC last week 3-2 denied a pause on a $2 monthly decrease in support for voice-only, while raising by 50 percent a monthly minimum for broadband to 3 GB (see 1911200015). The previous week, the agency issued a 3-2 order that would curb fraud and abuse, and a Further NPRM asks whether to ban free handsets with new signups (see 1911140064).
The FCC will require by Dec. 13 precise delivery of wireless emergency alerts to 100 percent of the geotargeted area specified by alert originators, with no more than a one-tenth of a mile overshoot, for both new mobile devices offered for sale and existing devices capable of being upgraded to support the new standard, said a public notice Monday for docket 15-94. The rules were adopted in 2016, and the deadline was Nov. 30 (see 1907010036), but formal testing procedures weren't available until Nov. 15. In addition to giving providers time to test their networks and make adjustments accordingly, this extension lets participating commercial mobile service providers "avoid implementing network changes during high-traffic periods, including Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday," the Public Safety Bureau said.
DOJ’s Antitrust Division Friday asked to terminate the Paramount consent decrees, which regulate how certain movie studios distribute films to theaters. The decrees “served their original remedial purposes and no longer serve to promote or protect competition and innovation,” Justice announced. "New technology has created many different movie platforms that did not exist when the decrees were entered into, including cable and broadcast television, DVDs, and the Internet through movie streaming and download services." The request went to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The division found the decrees' "continued existence may actually harm American consumers by standing in the way of innovative business models for the exhibition of America’s great creative films,” said Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim.