The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a cease-and-desist letter to Urth Access Thursday on apparent illegal robocall traffic about student loan forgiveness (see 2211030071). The bureau ordered the company to stop originating such calls, after an investigation with YouMail and the USTelecom Industry Traceback Group identified "upwards of 40%" of related calls originated from the provider, said a news release. The bureau "opened a formal case and is investigating these calls for possible further legal action." Also Thursday, the bureau issued a public notice authorizing all providers carrying traffic originating from Urth Access to stop. Urth Access CEO Fawaz Saleem didn't comment.
Country of origin cases
Margaret Harding McGill announces she left Axios to become NTIA’s senior adviser-public affairs … Wi-Fi sensing platform Origin promotes Chief Commercial Officer Spencer Maid to president-CEO, effective Jan. 1, succeeding CEO Ray Liu, who will remain chairman and chief technology officer ... NCR names Patricia Watson, ex-Bank of America, chief information officer and adds her to its executive leadership team.
Low-power TV and TV translator virtual channel assignments and changes should be limited to avoid conflicts and confused viewers, said NAB, the Society of Broadcast Engineers and others in comments posted this week in docket 03-185. Allowing translating stations to change their program and system information protocol (PSIP) “carries a very real risk of causing viewers to think that the translator or LPTV station is the originator of the programming, when that is not the case,” said SBE. Broadcasters in the docket also discussed apparent errors in a proposed FCC method for calculating station coordinates, and restrictions on low-power television relocation.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved a 2020 request by Proceq USA (see 2005070053) to expand the range for an ultra-wideband ground-penetrating radar device used to test “the safety, durability and sustainability of materials such as concrete, metal, rock, and composites used in industrial settings.” Proceq originally proposed to operate in the 30-8000 MHz range, but dialed that down to 30-6000. “We find that opening a path for the sale and operation of this next generation equipment will allow Proceq to deploy its system to enhance the GPR capabilities for soil contact construction material assessment, in furtherance of the public interest; and that operation of this device under the specified waiver conditions poses no greater risk of causing harmful interference to communication services than those devices already permitted under the existing rules,” OET said Friday. The company was already operating on a previous waiver (see 1803140062).
FCC efforts to foster nascent in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) activities face a challenge because doing so falls outside the agency's job docket, said space operators and others Tuesday in docket 22-271. There also were multiple calls in the ISAM docket comments for identification of spectrum for ISAM activities. A number of commenters pushed for a licensing regime involving a license for a category of services, rather than trying to make emissions fit into the traditional non-geostationary or geostationary framework. The commissioners adopted its ISAM notice of inquiry in August (see 2208050023). Replies are due Nov. 28.
Whether Oklahoma should cap its state USF surcharge divided Corporation Commission members at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday. Commissioners weighed a draft bill, distributed last week, to update Oklahoma USF (OUSF) policy in the 1997 Oklahoma Telecommunications Act. A commission rulemaking might be a better option than legislation to strengthen OUSF accountability, said Commissioner Todd Hiett (R).
CTC Media Group agreed to pay an $8,000 forfeiture for operating WECU(AM) Winterville, N.C., at reduced power without permission and originating programming on its translator, according to an order and consent decree in Monday’s Daily Digest. The FCC Media Bureau learned of the matter via an informal complaint that WECU “had been off the air for months.” CTC told the FCC WECU had been operating at reduced daytime power and it had been originating content on the translator, the consent decree said. CTC also didn’t provide station logs requested by the FCC. Along with the $8,000 payment, CTC agreed to implement a compliance plan and make regular compliance reports to the FCC for three years.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) urged the FCC and wireless industry to partner to expand language accessibility for severe weather alerts. FCC rules currently require carriers to send wireless emergency alerts in English and Spanish. The AG is “deeply concerned” the alerts don’t support other languages, James wrote Wednesday to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and CTIA President Meredith Baker. “In the absence of that capability, immigrant communities across the country -- including an estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers who have limited English proficiency and are not Spanish speakers -- are left without critical information to protect themselves in response to severe weather and other emergency situations.” James earlier sought more languages in a Feb. 23 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and the National Weather Service’s then acting Director Mary Erickson. Erickson told James that NWS supported sending alerts in more languages, but the FCC would have to update its rules, the AG said. New York City Council Members Sandra Ung and Julie Won agreed in the AG’s news release Thursday. “In my district, where three Asian immigrants lost their lives during Hurricane Ida, 72 percent of the residents are Asian and over 90 percent of Asian senior citizens have limited English proficiency,” said Ung. The Asian American Federation and Asian Americans for Equality also supported the AG’s letter. "Within a WEA message, local alert originators can already today include links to websites with information that warns and informs the public about an emergency in any format, including illustrations or videos and multiple languages," said a CTIA spokesperson: Industry will keep working with the FCC, Federal Emergency Management Agency, New York state "and the broader alert originator community to ensure that WEA messages continue to fulfill their life-saving mission." The FCC didn’t comment.
The FCC will tackle 911 calling at its Nov. 17 commissioners' meeting, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday. The agenda is light, with only a broadcast item and an enforcement action also set for a commissioner vote. Drafts are expected to be released after Thursday's meeting.
Supporters of FCC nominee Gigi Sohn marked the one-year anniversary Wednesday of her original nomination to the post (see 2110260076) by lambasting Senate officials over her stalled confirmation process. President Joe Biden renominated Sohn in January, but she hasn’t advanced beyond a March 14-14 tied Senate Commerce Committee vote (see 2203030070). Her backers hope the Senate will confirm her during the upcoming lame-duck session (see 2209130065). The Senate “gets an ‘F’ in FCC” because Sohn “has been in limbo for a year now, preventing a deadlocked agency from passing crucial policies that would help people in the United States connect and communicate,” said Free Press Action Internet Campaign Director Heather Franklin. “For a year, Democratic leaders have dithered and delayed” amid “a smear campaign against” the nominee by communications sector opponents. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “has a chance to call this important vote as soon as Congress returns from the upcoming midterm elections,” Franklin said: “He should have the courage to take it.” It’s “long past time to vote on Ms. Sohn’s nomination and confirm her to the FCC, where she can put her decades of experience to work for American consumers,” said Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis. Fight for the Future supporters “should be just as furious with Schumer “and Senate Democrats for the inexcusable delay in confirming Gigi Sohn to the FCC” as they were when the commission rescinded its 2015 net neutrality rules, tweeted Director Evan Greer: “It has been an entire year. Get it done.”