Consumer groups said the FCC must broadly define "automated telephone dialing systems" to extend Telephone Consumer Protection Act cellphone protections to texting. "As texts do not involve either a prerecorded or an artificial voice, the TCPA’s restrictions on calls to cell phones apply to texts only if they were made using an" ATDS, said National Consumer Law Center filings on a meeting it and other groups had with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai, posted Thursday in docket 02-278. "If the Commission issues a definition of ATDS that is as narrow as the calling industry urges, the consequence will be that automated texts will no longer be subject to these consumer protections." The other groups were Consumers Union, Public Knowledge, the National Association of Consumer Advocates and Electronic Privacy Information Center. They also said the "right to revoke TCPA consent cannot be limited by contract," a "debt collection rule should be finalized and implemented immediately" and the "Commission should revoke its Broadnet Ruling."
The ATIS Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) supported industry best practices and opposed new rules in response to a June FCC Public Safety Bureau notice seeking comment on network resilience during and after the 2017 hurricanes. NSRC said it formed a Situational Awareness for 9-1-1 Outages Task Force, which has identified "areas for future work and is developing a set of requirements,” the ATIS committee said. “The group is focusing on the possible development of a [public safety answering point] database and a standardized process for updating the information in the database.” On backhaul, the NRSC suggested “industry examine resiliency-related best practices to see if gaps exist vis-à-vis backhaul providers.” NSRC members met with Public Safety Bureau staff, said a filing in docket 11-60.
“Verizon is no longer a member” of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which lobbies state legislatures on behalf of businesses, a Verizon spokesperson confirmed. “Our company has no tolerance for racist, white supremacist or sexist comments or ideals.” The carrier cut ties after right-wing activist David Horowitz spoke at last month’s ALEC event in New Orleans, The Intercept had reported. Other ALEC telecom members AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Charter Communications and NCTA didn’t say Tuesday if they will follow Verizon. It's "patently false" that ALEC is racist, the group said. "ALEC does not condone hate speech of any kind."
The FCC and AARP scheduled town halls by phone on illegal robocalls Tuesday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (EDT), said an agency advisory Monday. Seniors and others can learn about such scams, how to avoid them, and FCC anti-robocalling efforts during the one-hour calls. Interested participants can ask questions by registering here for the 10 a.m. session and here for the 2 p.m. session, or listen in at those webpages.
An FCC wireline infrastructure order to spur broadband deployment partly takes effect Oct. 15 under a rule set for Friday's Federal Register (calendar), clarifying the agency will pre-empt state and local laws that inhibit reconstruction and restoration efforts after disasters. Sections III.A-E rules adopting one-touch, make-ready and other streamlining of pole-attachment processes take effect the later of Feb. 3 or 30 days after FR announcement of Office of Management and Budget approval of modified information-collection requirements. That implements the FCC decision to give affected parties at least six months to make system changes to comply with the August order (see 1808020034).
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday “imposing certain sanctions in the event of foreign interference” in a U.S. election and declaring a "national emergency." “The proliferation of digital devices and internet-based communications has created significant vulnerabilities and magnified the scope and intensity of the threat of foreign interference, as illustrated in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment,” Trump said. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said “an executive order that inevitably leaves the President broad discretion to decide whether to impose tough sanctions against those who attack our democracy is insufficient.” He called for spelling out “strong, clear consequences” through the Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines (Deter) Act (S-2313).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will visit six states this week to discuss broadband efforts: Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. His visits include a Veterans Affairs hospital in Providence, Westfield Gas & Electric Light in Massachusetts and a rural broadband roundtable in Springfield, Massachusetts, said an advisory Monday.
Sprint and Ericsson plan to jointly build a distributed and virtualized IoT core network and an IoT operating system, they said Tuesday. They said the operating system capabilities would include managing configurations and updates for each device.
The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation told FCC Chairman Ajit Pai it supports cutting red tape for wireless and wireline infrastructure deployments. “As broadband becomes ever more essential to communities of color, it is critical that policymakers work to ensure that new networks can be built out as quickly as possible,” the group said in docket 17-79. It cited 5G.
Calling FCC informal interpretations, advice, policy statements and other unofficial guidance "illegal and unconstitutional 'extortion,'" limited government advocate New Civil Liberties Alliance is petitioning the agency to formally end such practices and give regulated parties the ability to petition to rescind such guidance and to seek judicial review, it said, posted Wednesday. The FCC didn't comment Friday. The group said it filed similar such guidance petitions in recent weeks with agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and Education Department (see here) to DOJ (see here).