Telecom carriers will now have to process requests for records that the National Security Agency previously collected, after passage of the USA Freedom Act earlier this month (see 1506030039), wrote Kelley Drye attorneys Steve Augustino and Jameson Dempsey in a blog post Wednesday. USA Freedom doesn't impose any new data retention requirements on carriers, which “allows carriers to continue implementing their own business record retention policies,” Augustino and Dempsey wrote. Under federal law and FCC rules, carriers already are required to retain various customer records such as name, address, caller's phone number, number dialed, date, time and length of the call for carriers offering toll telephone services. Other preexisting obligations include: maintaining secure and accurate records of all interceptions of communications or access to call-identifying information for a reasonable period of time under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act; telecom relay service providers must retain call detail records for at least five years; and carriers participating in the Lifeline program must retain call detail records for three years, “although the FCC is expected to extend this retention requirement to 10 years at the month’s FCC Open Meeting,” Augustino and Dempsey said. Providers of services for E-Rate and the Connect America Fund must retain documents on their delivery of services for at least 10 years, and telecom firms must continue to follow various state-level data retention laws in states where they operate, the post said.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau extended a waiver indefinitely allowing IP Relay service providers to decline to handle 911 calls from registered users who haven't been verified as eligible for the program, given continuing fake emergency calls reported by Sprint, currently the only IP Relay service provider. A bureau order Wednesday made the waiver -- provided in 2014 -- retroactive to April 29, when it had lapsed, and extended it until the FCC comes up with a permanent solution to the problem of fake 911 calls from unverified IP Relay users. IP Relay is a text-based telecom relay service that allows people with hearing and speech disabilities to communicate in text using an IP-enabled device rather than a text telephone and the public switched telephone network. To combat abuse of the IP Relay program, the FCC in 2008 imposed duties on service providers to register and verify users' eligibility, but in 2012 it required them to handle 911 calls from registered users who hadn't yet been verified as eligible. Sprint then reported an increase in unverified registered users using the IP Relay service to hide their identities when making false reports of emergencies in 911 calls to trick public-safety dispatchers into sending first responders on unnecessary missions, a practice known as "swatting."

The FCC said presentations to the agency’s new Disability Advisory Committee won't be subject to commission ex parte rules, in a public notice Thursday . The DAC held its first meeting March 17 (see 1503170063), with a second set for June 23. “Presentations to the DAC, including to its subcommittees and working groups, and presentations between DAC members and FCC staff, will be treated as exempt presentations for ex parte purposes,” the FCC said. “This treatment is appropriate because presentations to the Committee will not directly result in the promulgation of new rules.”

The FCC Wireline Bureau announced the North American Numbering Plan Administration fund size estimate and contribution factor for fiscal year July 1, 2015, through September 30, 2016, in a public notice Monday in docket 92-237. The fund covers costs of the NANPA, which helps ensure consumers have access to numbering resources, the notice said. Welch LLC, the NANP billing and collection agent, on May 4 proposed a NANPA funding requirement of $8.176 million and a telecom industry contribution factor of 0.0000387 of revenue, with $6.65 million coming from U.S. providers, $162,000 from Canadian and Caribbean providers, and $1.36 million from a surplus in the prior fiscal year. If the FCC takes no further action within 14 days of the notice's release, the fund size and contribution factor are deemed approved.

The FCC made the right decisions in February in its net neutrality order, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the Greater D.C. Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. “Those of us who voted to support the Order have and will continue to take some heat, but I firmly believe this approach is in the best interest of the people we have pledged to serve, including the small and medium-sized business owners in this room,” Clyburn said in the text of the speech posted Thursday. Clyburn also stressed the importance of expanding the Lifeline program. An order and further rulemaking on Lifeline are teed up for a vote at the FCC’s June 18 meeting (see 1505280037). There are issues with Lifeline but the “level of criticism the program has received is not entirely justified,” she said. Clyburn said current efforts to reshape the program started in 2013 when she was acting chairwoman. “Like many of you, I know what it is to be underestimated, under-appreciated and misunderstood,” she said. “When I was appointed Acting Chair of the FCC, many concluded that I would be a mere bench warmer, accepting the title and the perks, but hanging out until the permanent appointee assumed the post. But like many of you, being underestimated, under-appreciated and misunderstood just causes me to shift into this highly motivated, hyper-driven state -- where I do as much as I can for as long as I am able.”

The FCC's major to-do list over the next 19 months includes the ongoing Lifeline modernization, redefining multichannel video programming distributors to include the over-the-top universe, speeding along the IP telephony transition, the incentive auction and overhauling its website and Electronic Comment Filing System, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler. Sohn spoke Thursday at a Media Institute luncheon on what she called the agency's lesser-heralded accomplishments over the past 19 months since Wheeler was confirmed by the Senate, and its major priorities over the coming 19 and the remainder of the current presidential administration. Asked about the timing of a variety of decisions the regulator still has to make before the expected auction in 2016, Sohn said it "depends on when things are ready." "Obviously we want to start the auction in the first quarter," she said. "Summer, fall's going to be pretty critical for some of these decisions to come out." Wireless companies agreeing to unlock their cellphones and allowing texting to 911, and the elimination of the sports blackout rule were among significant FCC accomplishments that have "flown under the radar," Sohn said. "It's those lower-profile decisions ... that make me especially proud," she said.

The FCC established an expedited pleading cycle on a $1 billion deal under which Crown Castle proposes to buy Quanta Fiber Networks, also called Sunesys. The companies sought FCC blessing last week (see 1505280013). The transaction would give tower company Crown Castle 10,000 miles of fiber in major metropolitan markets across the U.S., including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, northern New Jersey, Philadelphia and Silicon Valley, the companies told the FCC. Comments are due June 17, replies June 24, said a Wednesday notice from the agency. "The transfer of control identified herein has been found, upon initial review, to be acceptable for filing as a streamlined application," the notice said, but the application can be returned if it's "defective and not in conformance with the Commission’s rules and policies."

Comcast officials updated FCC staffers on the company's "Internet Essentials" broadband-adoption efforts during discussions they had on the commission's Lifeline USF program, said a Thursday ex parte filing on a meeting they had. Internet Essentials offers students and their families in more than 30,000 schools access to broadband service for $9.95 per month, Internet-ready computers for less than $150, and options for digital literacy training, the filing said. The program connected more than 450,000 households with more than 1.8 million Americans to the Internet, the filing said. Comcast spent $225 million in cash and in-kind support to promote digital literacy and readiness training and education reaching more than 3.1 million people, it said. Comcast officials also outlined their efforts to make the program's application process more user friendly. Meanwhile, Charter Communications officials meeting with FCC officials said Charter supported transitioning Lifeline to provide discounts for broadband and discussed barriers to company participation in the program, a Thursday ex parte filing said.

Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council President Kim Keenan said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal to revamp the Lifeline program (see 1505280037) is a positive move. “Americans are increasingly relying on broadband to access education, jobs, healthcare, and other essential services, but a disproportionate number of minorities and economically vulnerable consumers rely on their smartphones to access these services,” Keenan said in a news release Thursday. “Closing the digital divide and getting everyone connected is critical and the Chairman’s actions today are a major step in the right direction.” MMTC was part of a 36-member coalition that recently called for modernization of the Lifeline program (see 1505150049). NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said Lifeline support is only part of the answer for increased adoption. “In high-cost areas, the Lifeline program and other USF programs can only be effective to the extent that a network for consumer use is there in the first instance and if the services offered on that network are reasonably comparable in price and quality to those in urban areas,” Bloomfield said. "If we don’t tackle and overcome these threshold issues in high-cost areas -- if we don’t set up a sufficiently funded and predictable high-cost mechanism that is updated for a broadband world -- consumers of all kinds in rural America, low-income and otherwise, could be left behind notwithstanding any Lifeline changes that might follow."

The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee will next meet June 23, the FCC said Friday. The meeting takes place at FCC headquarters, starting at 9 a.m. The DAC held its initial meeting in March (see 1503170063). DAC is divided into four subcommittees: Communications, Emergency Communications, Relay/Equipment Distribution and Video Programming.