The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline "needs considerably more resources" at its crisis centers to respond to text and chat volume now, and will need more staffing and training when the ability to text to 988 is fully implemented nationwide, Lifeline administrator Vibrant Emotional Health emailed us Thursday. The FCC will vote Nov. 18 on setting a July 16 deadline for carriers to support texting to 988 (see 2110270049). The draft order was released Thursday.
Country of origin cases
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission chair was overruled by colleagues on telecom deregulation at a teleconferenced meeting Thursday. Vice Chair John Coleman and Commissioner Ralph Yanora supported Coleman’s motion to slash more rules than proposed in the draft order. Chair Gladys Brown Dutrieuille voted no to the motion and the item overall. “There are areas of Pennsylvania today where competition is ineffective,” she said.
Fox hires Stephen Potenza from Kirkland & Ellis as deputy general counsel, Fox News Media, and promotes Lisa Richardson to executive vice president-business and legal affairs and associate general counsel ... Hotwire Communications hires Angel Garcia from Atlantic Broadband as vice president-government and enterprise sales, and David Silbering from Brightstar as senior vice president-strategic initiatives ... Disney's Hulu promotes for Hulu Originals Ashley Chang to vice president-content development, drama and Beth Osisek to vice president-original documentaries and limited series.
The full FCC denied Foundation for a Beautiful Life applications for review seeking permission to operate its Saratoga, California, low-power FM station, said an order released Monday. FBL’s license originally faced difficulty when the FCC said it constructed what's now DKQEK-LP Cupertino several miles from the location where it was licensed. FBL continued to broadcast from the site after its license was dismissed, and didn’t wait for the agency to rule on a special temporary authority request seeking permission to provide COVID-19 updates to Cupertino’s Mandarin-speaking residents. After the Media Bureau denied FBL’s requests, it appealed to the full FCC and unsuccessfully sought a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2006260052). FBL argued the station provided an important information service for Chinese residents of the market, and that many of its errors were inadvertent. FBL unsuccessfully appealed a requirement that it submit copies of the bureau’s order commanding it to cease operating with any application it files for the next 10 years. By operating the station without a license, FBL was effectively a pirate, the FCC said. "The existence of a serious health crisis, while important, is not a mitigating factor,” said the order. “It does not override licensing requirements or justify a unilateral use of the public airwaves without prior authority.” FBL didn't comment.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau sent cease-and-desist letters to Duratel, Primo Dialler and PZ/Illum Telecommunication demanding the network providers stop permitting apparent illegal robocalls. Duratel and PZ/Illum were found to have apparently originated "substantial numbers of government imposter scam calls." Primo Dialler was found to have apparently originated robocalls that "threatened utility discontinuation and offered fake credit card rate reductions." This "should serve as a warning sign to other entities that believe the FCC has turned a blind eye to this issue," said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Thursday.
The National Association of State 911 Administrators asked the FCC to begin a rulemaking or notice of inquiry on improving 911 services, in a petition posted Tuesday in docket 94-102. NASNA asked the commission to establish authority "over originating service providers' ... delivery of 911 services through IP-based emergency services networks," advance next-generation 911 implementation, and "require the cost of compliance" to be the responsibility of originating service providers. It asked the agency to consider establishing an "NG911 Readiness Registry."
Localities want to blow up silos created by the Telecom Act, a NATOA webinar heard Monday. The act didn’t anticipate how critical the internet would be or that companies would provide so many services over so many technologies, said NATOA General Counsel Nancy Werner. “Silos are causing a lot of the issues now.” The persistence of different technology buckets for wireline, cable and wireless “allows for a kind of arbitrage” in which companies try to choose which silo’s rules apply to their services, said Rick Ellrod, Communications Policy and Regulation Division director for Fairfax County, Virginia. “Silos don’t make sense anymore because of convergence,” agreed local government attorney Mike Bradley. He cautioned it could take eight years to change the act after “people get serious about it, and I’m not sure that anybody is serious about it yet.” Werner said policymakers’ desire to address issues like privacy or digital equity could lead to a broader discussion about the silos standing in the way of changes on those fronts. Since the original act included broadcast TV channels, it would make sense for a rewrite to include over-the-top streaming services like Netflix, said Bradley. Local authority protected by the 1996 act has eroded in the courts, panelists said. Section 253 is the “most litigated section” and might be its biggest failure, Bradley said. The section was meant to increase competition, said Ellrod, but now industry uses it as a weapon to prevent it.
VoIP providers said a Further NPRM on imposing more requirements for those seeking direct numbering resources would harm members of their industry compared with traditional carriers, This came in comments posted Friday in docket 13-97. Others said additional requirements are necessary to curb illegal robocalls and spoofing. The NPRM would require that VoIP certify compliance with anti-robocalling obligations (see 2108050038).
A Massachusetts legislative committee's sudden delay of testimony on a possible digital ad tax caused some confusion Monday. The Joint Revenue Committee was originally scheduled to consider H-3081 at a virtual hearing that day. Bill sponsor Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven (D) testified on the bill, but House Chair Mark Cusick (D) then told her it wasn’t on the agenda. The tax bill “was removed from the agenda for today's hearing by mutual agreement of the Chairs ... because the Committee has other bills like this bill and have decided to hear them together at a future hearing,” Cusick’s Chief of Staff Ryan Sterling emailed us. Senate Chair Adam Hinds' (D) Chief of Staff Steve Maher told us “the bill was added by mistake to today's hearing and was removed once the error was noticed.” Chairs typically agree on a set of bills to be heard, and since H-3081 wasn't discussed "it was removed to be heard at a later date,” he emailed.
Industry groups want the FCC to investigate whether emergency broadband benefit providers or households receiving the monthly internet discount are abusing the program through benefit transfers. Some in recent interviews sought FCC guidance.