AT&T shareholders will vote at the company's April 27 proxy meeting on a series of stockholder proposals, including one requiring it to prepare annually a report on its lobbying efforts. The company is recommending "no" votes on the stockholder proposals, according to proxy Monday at the SEC. The statement said the lobbying report would require the company to disclose its policies and procedures for lobbying; any company payments for lobbying or grassroots lobbying communications, including amounts and recipients; and membership in and payments to tax-exempt organizations that write or endorse model legislation. The board said it gives the public and shareholders "ample transparency and accountability" via reports on its websites and reports filed with the federal government. Other shareholder items to be voted on are a change in proxy access requirements, a requirement the chairman be independent, and a reduction in the amount of shares necessary for stockholders to take action by written consent. Such shareholder efforts on lobbying are common and frequently get voted down (see 1706140023).
The bench trial on AT&T's proposed buy of Time Warner starting March 19 is expected to last 15 days, according to a docket 17-cv-2511 supplemental scheduling order (in Pacer) issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington.
The FCC informed users of local number portability administrator "ancillary" services that incoming LNPA iconectiv launched "Wireless Do-Not-Call, Enhanced Law Enforcement Platform, and law enforcement Public Safety Answering Point Interactive Voice Response services (also referred to as ancillary services)" Saturday (see 1803050055). "All Ancillary Services users should now use their iconectiv credentials to access the iconectiv online portals going forward," said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 09-109 in Wednesday's Daily Digest. It noted incumbent Neustar's related services will be discontinued Friday.
AT&T is considering an initial public offering for a minority interest in DirecTV Latin America. It said Wednesday it filed a registration statement with the SEC on a possible sale of Class A common stock shares of Vrio, its DirecTV Latin America holding company, though that form hasn't become effective.
Bitcoin-derived blockchain technology might improve an FCC Lifeline program that is ineffective and has seen "considerable fraud," said Mark Jamison, American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar and director of the University of Florida's Public Utility Research Center. "Studies consistently demonstrate" the low-income USF support program "has little impact and is costly," he blogged Tuesday. Blockchain transactions are conducted using "wallet" software that contains private and public keys to protect security, along with computer "miners" to verify transactions, he wrote. For Lifeline, "each person that is enrolled in one of the qualifying federal programs and that does not have a phone would be assigned a wallet suitable for the service for which the person wants to use the subsidy," he said. "The wallet might be an app on a secure smartphone if the person wants to use the subsidy for mobile service or on a piece of hardware that could plug into a smartphone, laptop, or tablet computer." Universal Service Administrative Co. each month "could transfer the Lifeline subsidy from a USAC wallet to the recipient’s wallet," he wrote. "The recipient could then use the currency to pay all or part of the service fee, depending on how much the person is paying for service. This payment would be made from the recipient’s wallet to a wallet designated by his or her service provider."
The recent tax overhaul will boost AT&T and Verizon cash flow by billions of dollars, Moody's said Monday. The changes "will result in an increase in operating cash flow by about $3 billion for AT&T and by up to $4 billion for Verizon," said Mark Stodden, senior vice president. "The extra cash will increase both companies' flexibility to continue investing in capex and modestly reduce leverage, while sustaining high dividends." The higher cash flows are unlikely to affect the pace of telecom consolidation or materially change AT&T's or Verizon's level of capital investment, he added.
Iconectiv said it transitioned law enforcement, public safety agencies and businesses that must comply with the Telephone Consumer Protect Act to its phone number identification and porting services. It's "a significant milestone and marks the start of the final phase of this transition effort," said CEO Richard Jacowleff Monday. "Access to number portability data via a new, modern and highly secure system is crucial to the daily operations of law enforcement and public safety agencies and to ensuring regulatory compliance for businesses." Iconectiv is taking over local number portability administrator functions from Neustar.
A broad group of trade associations said the FCC should change policies for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, especially its interpretation of the statutory definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system.” The groups reported on a meeting with Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff. “The Associations explained that many of the Commission’s existing TCPA interpretations impair the ability of the Associations’ members to use efficient dialing technologies to contact their customers with important messages,” said a filing in docket 02-278. Among those represented at the meeting were the American Bankers Association, the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Edison Electric Institute, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform.
Representatives of the National Consumer Law Center and Consumers Union pressed in a meeting with FCC officials from the Enforcement and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus their proposal for a centralized system for evaluating call unblocking requests on robocalls. “The party submitting an unblocking request should be required to verify that their caller ID information is accurate, to ensure that callers are not engaging in caller ID spoofing to evade blocks,” said a filing in docket 17-59. “If an unblocking system is established before caller ID authentication technology has been fully implemented, that an alternative means to confirm the accuracy of the caller ID information may be used.”
The FCC partially granted a Telrite request to extend a temporary waiver of Lifeline USF "recertification and non-usage rules in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands through May 31," citing lingering hurricane disruption. "Because of these compelling and unique circumstances, we find good cause to temporarily waive for 30 days sections 54.405(e)(3), 54.405(e)(4), 54.407(c)(2), and 54.410(f) of the Commission’s rules for all eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) serving Lifeline subscribers residing in Puerto Rico or the USVI," said a Wireline Bureau order Thursday in docket 11-42. Telrite's petition sought a waiver extension until the FCC determines it's in the public interest to be lifted. A PRWireless petition posted Thursday sought an "emergency waiver of the Lifeline recertification rules to prevent loss of critical wireless telephone service by thousands of low‐income inhabitants of Puerto Rico who face severe challenges in the ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria."