Consumer groups want the FCC to strengthen protections against unwanted robotexts, they said in reply comments posted Monday in docket 21-402. State attorneys general, filing as a group, also urged the FCC to clamp down on robotexts. In initial comments, most said the FCC shouldn’t impose new rules on text messaging similar to those in place for robocalls (see 2211140030).
Country of origin cases
OMB approved additional information collection for a May FCC order on gateway providers and foreign-originated robocalls, said a notice for Monday’s Federal Register (see 2211170035). Rules requiring gateway providers to accept calls from foreign providers using North American numbering plan resources only if that provider's filing appears in the robocall mitigation database, plus rules requiring intermediate and voice service providers to accept calls from a gateway provider if their filing appears in the database, are effective Jan. 11. Compliance with the rules takes effect April 12.
Broadcasters tout ATSC 3.0’s capabilities for disseminating detailed emergency information, but it’s not clear what form the standard’s advanced emergency information offerings will take and who will provide it, said participants at an Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance roundtable event at NAB’s headquarters Wednesday. AWARN’s roundtables are intended to help determine what advanced emergency alerting is, said AWARN Executive Director John Lawson, who's also the president of ATSC 3.0 alerting firm America’s Emergency Network.
Artificial intelligence systems should be safe and respect human rights, EU telecom ministers said Tuesday, agreeing on a negotiating stance on the proposed EU Artificial Intelligence Act. Among other things, the European Council narrowed the original European Commission definition of an AI system to those developed through machine learning approaches and logic- and knowledge-based approaches to distinguish them from simpler software systems. It extended the prohibition against using AI for social scoring to private actors and broadened the bar against using AI to exploit vulnerable people to those who are vulnerable due to their social or economic situation. The council also clarified when law enforcement agencies should, in exceptional cases, be allowed to use real-time remote biometric identification systems in public spaces; and added protections to ensure high-risk AI systems aren't likely to cause serious fundamental rights breaches. A new provision addressed situations where AI can be used for many different purposes (general purpose AI) and where such AI technology is then integrated into another high-risk system. The council version explicitly excluded national security, defense and military purposes from the scope, as well as AI used solely for research and development. It also set more proportionate caps on fines for small and mid-sized businesses and start-ups. The legislation needs approval from the council and the European Parliament, whose negotiating stance hasn't been finalized. The negotiating document sparked criticism from a consumer group and a member of the European Parliament. The European Consumer Organisation said ministers "reached a disappointing position for consumers" by leaving too many key issues unaddressed, such as facial recognition by private companies in publicly accessible places, and by watering down provisions about which systems would be classified as high risk. It urged EU lawmakers to stand up for consumers. One legislator, Patrick Breyer of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Germany, agreed. The Council approach is "extremely weak" on the use of AI for mass surveillance purposes, he emailed: "With error rates (false positives) of up to 99%, ineffective facial surveillance technology [bears] no resemblance to the targeted search that governments are trying to present to us."
The FCC will consider an NPRM that would define digital discrimination and adopt best practices for states and local governments to combat it, during the commissioners' Dec. 21 meeting. Also on the agenda are an Enforcement Bureau action and NPRMs seeking comment on ways the FCC can facilitate acceptance of satellite and earth station applications under its Part 25 rules, on a proposal to require wireless carriers and text providers to use location-based routing to avoid misrouting wireless 911 calls and texts, and on proposed modifications to the Telecom Relay Service Fund.
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., and panel Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., led filing Tuesday of the Rural Internet Improvement Act in a bid to bolster Agriculture Department broadband programs’ funding for rural areas. The measure would combine USDA’s traditional broadband loan and grant program and the ReConnect program. It would also mandate that ReConnect funding goes only to areas in which 90% of households are unserved, and would make changes to the program’s challenge process. Thune’s office suggested the legislation is among his proposals for inclusion in the 2023 farm bill process. “Access to these broadband services is typically determined by where you live, which often leaves rural communities in the dust,” Thune said. “Our bipartisan legislation would help bridge the digital divide by improving” ReConnect “to ensure its funding goes to truly unserved areas.” The bill would “make USDA programs more efficient and ensure that unserved communities receive the investments they need,” Lujan said. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., signed on as original co-sponsors. Thune’s office cited support from the American Farm Bureau Federation, NCTA, NTCA and other agriculture groups.
EU governments approved stronger cybersecurity rules Monday. Once the revised network and information security directive (NIS2) takes effect, EU members will have 21 months to enact it into national law, the European Council said. NIS2 will "set the baseline for cybersecurity risk management measures and reporting obligations across all sectors that are covered by the directive, such as energy, transport, health and digital infrastructure." It will apply to providers of public electronic communications services, digital services and domain name system services (see 2103220038). It will harmonize cybersecurity requirements and the way they're implemented in different countries. Under the original directive, it was up to governments to determine which entities met the criteria to qualify as essential services subject to the rules, but NIS2 introduces a size-cap rule. It also adds additional provisions "to ensure proportionality, a higher level of risk management and clear-cut criticality criteria" to allow national authorities to determine if other entities should be covered. NIS2 won backing from the European Parliament Nov. 10.
Comments are due Jan. 12, replies Feb. 13, in docket 22-405 on petitions from NAB and Xperi for changes to limits on digital FM power levels, said a public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest (see 2210270061). NAB and Xperi want the FCC to adopt an updated formula to allow increased FM digital sideband power levels and combine the proceeding with a 2019 rulemaking requested by NAB, Xperi and NPR on “blanket authorization to originate digital transmissions at different power levels on the upper and lower digital sidebands (asymmetric sidebands).” The proposed changes “will serve the public interest by improving digital FM signal quality and coverage while minimizing harmful interference to adjacent-channel stations,” according to the petitioners.
Chinese companies appear likely to take the FCC to court with the commissioners approving, as expected, a draft order to further clamp down on gear from Chinese companies, preventing the sale of yet-to-be authorized equipment in the U.S. The order, circulated by FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel Oct. 5, bans FCC authorization of gear from companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision and Dahua Technology.
An additional short-term extension of the FCC’s spectrum auction authority past Dec. 16 is looking increasingly likely amid congressional negotiations that have made some progress since late September but haven’t bridged gaps on policy issues like the structure of a proposed auction of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, said lawmakers and others in interviews. Congress temporarily renewed the FCC’s authority in September as part of a continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations, in hopes an additional two months of talks would yield a broader deal on spectrum legislation (see 2209300058).