Altice USA Executive Vice President-Government & Community Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer Lee Schroeder leaves the company in July, with community affairs and chief diversity officer roles going to Executive Vice President-Communications Lisa Gonzalez Anselmo, who continues to report to CEO Dexter Goei; the cable operator "will look to appoint a new head of Government Affairs" ... Among others leaving the FCC whose departure was announced Tuesday by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see this section, Dec. 15 issue of this publication) are Wireline Bureau's Pricing Policy Division Deputy Chief Robin Cohn, who says retirement begins at year-end.
Country of origin cases
A Manassas, Virginia, man pleaded guilty Monday to defrauding Amazon of more than $300,000 by running a mail fraud scheme to buy high-end products, claim a refund, then return a similar item of significantly lesser value, said DOJ. Farhaad Riyaz, 34, operated the scheme from his home through multiple Amazon accounts he opened between 2017 and 2020, it said. During the scheme, said DOJ, Riyaz fraudulently got a $37,000 home theater system by returning a $2,000 alternative for a full refund of the original purchase. He’s scheduled for sentencing on March 22 and faces a maximum 20-year prison term. Attempts to reach his lawyers for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful. Amazon didn't comment.
An FCC Further NPRM on gateway providers and curbing illegal robocalls got a mixed reaction in comments posted through Monday in docket 17-59. Several questioned whether the proposed rules are duplicative. Most backed ending the foreign provider prohibition, which the commission paused enforcement on during the proceeding.
At University of Colorado Law School, Silicon Flatirons Executive Director Amie Stepanovich resigns; Brad Bernthal, associate professor at the school and director of the Entrepreneurship Initiative at Silicon Flatirons, becomes the organization's interim executive director; Future of Privacy Forum hires Stepanovich as vice president-U.S. policy, effective in January ... Lincoln Network's Garrett Johnson takes a "non-executive leadership role as chairman," and fellow co-founder Aaron Ginn joins the board; Head-Policy Zach Graves moves up to executive director ... Squire Patton taps Gardner Foster, ex-SpaceX, as of counsel, Communications Practice.
Four years after the FCC voted to authorize ATSC 3.0's voluntary deployment (see 1711160060), MPEG LA is about to launch a 3.0 patent pool license, emailed a spokesperson. “If things go as we now anticipate, we expect to begin offering the license in January.” MPEG LA originally planned to have the patent pool operational by early 2019 (see 1811270013). “Each pool has its own unique set of factors affecting time to market, and in some cases, reaching agreement among patent holders to offer a license of wide benefit to the market takes longer than others,” said the spokesperson now. “This license is timely in light of the expected ATSC 3.0 ramp-up.” The 3.0 pool doesn’t have “a final licensor count yet,” he said. ATSC 3.0 services are on the air in about three dozen U.S. cities, with 18 more slated to come online through the spring. CTA forecasts 4 million 3.0-compliant sets will be sold in 2022, climbing to 11 million in 2023 and 20 million in 2024. MPEG LA announced a call for 3.0-essential patents, the first step in the patent pool formation process, in August 2017 (see 1711010054). ATSC bylaws require that patent owners disclose they hold intellectual property relevant to 3.0 and that they commit to licensing their patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms (see 1711210004).
The FCC ordered small voice service providers that aren’t facilities-based to implement Stir/Shaken in the IP portions of their networks by June 30. The old deadline was a year later. Facilities-based carriers still have until June 30, 2023. Commissioners OK’d the order 4-0, after unanimously approving a Further NPRM in May (see 2105200072). Friday's release targets the small players “most likely to be the source of illegal robocalls.” It cited “overwhelming record support and available evidence showing that nonfacilities-based small voice service providers are originating a large and disproportionate amount of robocalls.” Facilities-based carriers can still be required to implement Stir/Shaken earlier if the Enforcement Bureau “suspects” them of originating illegal robocalls and the company “fails to mitigate such traffic upon Bureau notice,” the FCC said. Those companies face a 90-day implementation deadline unless “sooner implementation is otherwise required,” the order said. “We close a gap in our current STIR/SHAKEN regime and, by targeting those providers most likely to be involved in illegal robocalling, we reap a substantial portion of the benefits offered … to Americans,” the FCC said.
A status conference is Jan. 13 on the license of a Pennsylvania broadcaster convicted of attempting to have a woman raped, said an order Friday. The license revocation hearing proceeding on Roger Wahl, licensee of WQZS(FM) Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, had been terminated due to a lack of response from Wahl (see 2112020025). That termination was rescinded after FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin learned Wahl had attempted to respond by the deadline. Halprin also ruled that Wahl’s daughter, Wendy Sipple, can’t file as an intervenor. Wahl originally sought to transfer the station to Sipple, which the bureau initially granted and then rescinded in July 2020. Licenses can’t be transferred until questions about the existing licensee’s qualifications are resolved, Halprin wrote. “It does not follow that being a party to the assignment application, by itself, makes Ms. Sipple a party in interest to this revocation proceeding.” Wahl and WQZS didn’t comment.
News publishers and tech companies disagreed whether online headlines, photos and story snippets need stiffer copyright protection, in a Copyright Office proceeding (docket ID COLC-2021-0006) and roundtable on publisher protections. Publishers choose to have their content included in news aggregators and social media, and benefit from the traffic, said Google Public Policy Manager Kate Sheerin. It’s a “Hobson’s choice” for news organizations, replied News Media Alliance General Counsel Danielle Coffey. “We are forced to waive our ability to enforce our rights because of the dominance of these platforms.” Additional comments on the study are due Jan. 5.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., filed the Robocall Trace Back Enhancement Act Wednesday, which they describe as a follow-up to the 2019 Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (see 1912310028). The new measure would bolster private sector-led work to trace back the origins of “illegal and bothersome” robocalls, Markey’s office said. The Traced Act “is already having an impact stopping illegal robocalls by blocking fraudulent calls before our cell phones even ring” and the new bill “is a natural extension” of the law, Markey said in a news release. “This legislation makes it easier to root out bad actors who illegally robocall countless phone numbers by promoting public accountability among, and aggressive action against, those responsible for illegal, fraudulent, and abusive robocalls.” The proposal “would build on” the Traced Act “by supporting privately led efforts to trace back and identify the origins of the calls,” Thune said. “We must continue to hold these bad actors accountable.” The lawmakers cited support from FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who says the commission is “hard at work to trace and root out scam robocalls. But more tools are always welcome in this fight.”
A California fight is heating up over proposed broadband subsidies that the California Public Utilities Commission might award next week to carriers including Frontier Communications and Race Communications. Etheric, GeoLinks, LTD Broadband and others in recent weeks opposed proposed California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) resolutions up for vote at the CPUC’s Dec. 16 meeting because they said the projects overlap with places where they won Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support. Commissioners may vote at the meeting on a proposed decision that could prevent LTD from qualifying for RDOF support in California.