Comments are due July 20, replies Aug. 20, on progress in fighting illegal robocalls and what hurdles remain, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday. CGB said it's seeking data and input on how providers are responding to the rules adopted in last year's call blocking order (see 1711200055) and what progress is being made toward the Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using Tokens and Secure Telephone Identity Revisited protocols for caller ID authentication. The call blocking order also directed the bureau to prepare, along with the FTC Consumer Protection Bureau, the robocalling report.

Arizona’s self-named “Bitcoin Baron” got 20 months in prison for directing 2015 distributed denial of service attacks at computer networks of Madison, Wisconsin, DOJ said Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes in Arizona also sentenced 23-year-old Randall Tucker to pay more than $69,000 in restitution to victims, the department said. Tucker pleaded guilty April 17 to one count of intentional damage to a protected computer, admitting to executing DDoS attacks against Madison and other city websites, DOJ said. “The attack crippled [Madison’s] Internet-connected emergency communication system, causing delays and outages in the ability of emergency responders to connect to the 911 center and degrading the system used to automatically dispatch the closest unit."

FCC staff provided guidance to Lifeline eligible telecom carriers choosing to have Universal Service Administrative Co. recertify their low-income subscribers in 2019. All ETCs wishing to have USAC carry out the annual recertification must give notice to USAC between July 16 and Aug. 31, including those that previously elected USAC, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 11-42. ETCs not making a USAC election by Aug. 31 "will be responsible for conducting recertification of their subscribers, except for those subscribers where the National Verifier, a state Lifeline administrator, or another state agency is responsible for the annual recertification of Lifeline eligibility," said the PN. "For the 2019 recertification process, ETCs will perform their elections via an online form. USAC will post information on this process on its website, and ETCs are encouraged to subscribe to the Lifeline Program Newsletter for updates on the program and for further instruction on the election process." TracFone Wireless said it has "significant concerns regarding certain aspects" of the national verifier plan. "A primary concern is the unexplained and inexplicable refusal to include an Automated Programming Interface (API) for Lifeline service providers to use to make eligibility determinations using the National Verifier," said a filing. It said an API allows Lifeline providers to screen potential applications to a National Lifeline Accountability Database, reducing administrative burdens.

Annual telecom relay service complaint log summaries are due July 2, covering June 1, 2017, through May 31, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau reminded state administrators and interstate TRS providers in a public notice in docket 03-123 in Monday's Daily Digest.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said automated speech recognition technology would improve IP captioned telephone services (IP CTS), speeding the delivery of captions to consumers with hearing loss. In remarks to the M-Enabling summit Tuesday, he said last week's ruling approving the technology made clear "that the FCC won’t approve any application to provide ASR unless the provider shows that it will meet our mandatory minimum standards for functional equivalency, including those relating to the confidentiality of IP CTS calls" (see Notebook at end of 1806070021). Pai highlighted actions to improve access for people with disabilities: implementation of video relay service interoperability and a centralized database to improve program accountability and fiscal responsibility; encouragement of direct video calling in customer call centers; a national deaf-blind equipment distribution program; improvements to 911 calling and other emergency communications; an increase of about 75 percent in the number of programming hours that must be video-described on certain channels; and efforts to spur the videogames industry to make communication services more accessible. Pai announced winners of the chairman's awards for innovations that advance accessibility (Chairman's AAA): Orbit Reader 20, Captioning and Description Editing Tool, Content Clarifier and Seeing AI.

North American Portability Management's final monthly report on the local number portability administrator change from Neustar to iconectiv said the three-year transition was completed successfully in May and new number portability administration center "is now processing porting transactions for NPAC users in all regions." No "critical or high severity defects for the iconectiv NPAC are currently outstanding," said the report in docket 09-109 Friday. Contributing to the "smooth and on-time completion" foremost was "active engagement and collaboration of industry, regulatory, and public safety stakeholders."

U.S. robocalls totaled 4.06 billion in May, up 20 percent from April and the third straight monthly record, YouMail said Thursday. It said Americans received 15.2 billion robocalls in the first five months of 2018, a 27 percent increase from the year-ago period, despite government and industry efforts to crack down. "The barrage of robocallers clearly has consumers not answering their phone for unknown numbers, or using apps to block calls, which in turn is causing the robocallers to call even more to try to get through," said CEO Alex Quilici. "It's sad, but the phone call now appears to be in a slow motion death spiral."

Cutting Lifeline support for 70 percent of current users “is cruel for those who have experienced domestic violence and rely on this service,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a Wednesday opinion in Bustle. About 20,000 women, men and children domestic violence hotlines daily, and many rely on Lifeline support to make calls, she said. To curb fraud, the FCC instead could ban phone companies that violate program rules or strengthen eligibility verification, she said. “Rosenworcel isn’t telling the truth about Lifeline, and it’s particularly unfortunate that she is invoking the serious issue of domestic violence to mislead Americans and oppose efforts to reduce Lifeline fraud," said a spokeswoman for Chairman Ajit Pai. It's false that focusing Lifeline on facilities-based providers would remove consumers from the program, the representative said. "Those customers would have the ability and incentive to simply switch to a facilities-based provider." Pai improved Lifeline, the spokeswoman said. "Dissatisfied consumers no longer need to wait a year before changing broadband providers, and Lifeline carriers can no longer get away with offering consumers 'mobile broadband' that really isn’t mobile broadband."

The FCC proposed a $2.8 million fine against drone seller HobbyKing for selling devices that “could apparently transmit in unauthorized radio frequency bands, including some that could also operate at excessive transmission power levels,” said a release. The notice of apparent liability approved by commissioners concerns 65 “models of devices used to relay video from drones to amateur drone operators,” the release said. HobbyKing “represented that its transmitters operated in designated amateur radio bands” but that wasn't true, and it didn’t respond to FCC inquiries, the NAL said. “Such unlawful transmissions could interfere with key government and public safety services like aviation systems and weather radar systems,” said the release. HobbyKing is the trade name for a group of companies based in Hong Kong and the U.S., all associated with Anthony Hand, the NAL said. HobbyKing and Hand didn’t comment. The Enforcement Bureau also issued an advisory Tuesday warning against noncompliant drone transmitters. Because audio/video "transmitters are intentional radiators, retailers may not advertise or sell them, and no one may use them, unless the FCC has approved such transmitters under its equipment authorization process," the advisory said. “Anyone advertising or selling noncompliant AV transmitters should stop immediately and anyone owning such devices should not use them.” The NAL was approved by the full commission, including Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who said last month she was leaving the agency but has remained in office (see 1805180042).

The FTC sought a court order to block operations it said facilitate "billions of illegal robocalls to consumers nationwide, pitching everything from auto warranties, to home security systems and supposed debt-relief services," said a release Tuesday. The agency filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleging James Christiano and the companies he controls -- which operate a computer-based dialing platform "to blast out" robocalls -- violated a telemarketing sales rule that makes virtually all telemarketing robocalls illegal. A Christiano representative emailed: "As a responsible provider of software for over two decades, NetDotSolutions takes compliance seriously and has spent innumerable resources to ensure that it legally provides its software and services. NetDotSolutions and its president, Jamie Christiano, strongly deny any wrongdoing and will vigorously defend themselves against allegations they assisted or facilitated misuse of the NetDotSolutions software or are somehow vicariously liable for the actions of others." Comments are due at the FCC June 13, replies June 28 in docket 18-152 on interpretations and implementation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 1805150014) following partial court reversal (see 1803160053), says Wednesday's Federal Register. Google intends to implement Shaken/Stir (Secure Handling of Asserted Information using toKENs/Secure Telephony Identity [STI] Revisited) call authentication standards aimed at curbing call spoofing and unwanted robocalls. It voiced "concern about limiting the ability to obtain STI certificates and sign for calls to a narrow set of voice providers, and emphasized the importance of having all identity header fields delivered to devices in order to enable mobile applications to perform validation and spam detection," said a filing on discussions with FCC Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger and others in docket 17-59. Alaska USA Federal Credit Union told the FCC it backs a possible reassigned number database to further assist anti-robocalling efforts. The Minnesota Credit Union said it's "not necessarily opposed to the creation of a database" but concerns it "could be cost prohibitive" and "should not be the only solution." Comments on a Further NPRM are due Thursday (see 1803220028).