More than 52% of AT&T’s production traffic is now on next-generation core routers and the carrier is seeing benefits from its open, disaggregated platform strategy, Mike Satterlee, vice president-network core infrastructure services, blogged Thursday. “We announced the next-gen open disaggregated core routing and the next-gen open disaggregated IP edge routing platforms in 2020,” he said: “In 2022, our open, disaggregated program took a significant leap forward! In fact, it is meeting and, in many cases, exceeding our expectations. It has enabled us to be more efficient with our 5G and Fiber rollouts and launch high-speed broadband and 5G services to new markets much faster, as well as offer more advanced services in existing markets.”
Industry groups met virtually with staff from the FCC Public Safety Bureau on recent work by the Cross-Sector Resiliency Forum. “Recently, over 40 member companies … reconvened to look back at 2022 and review the efforts of communications providers and electric companies to respond to disaster events, including wildfires and hurricanes (Hurricane Ian, in particular), as well as opportunities to enhance our coordination and collaborative efforts in future disaster events,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-60. They discussed early activation of and coordination for Hurricane Ian, among other topics, the filing said: “In the days before landfall of Hurricane Ian, relevant state and cross-sector counterparts began communication and coordination efforts, including establishing a cadence of reporting and conference calls. After landfall, there were daily ‘wires down’ and make safe calls between electric and communications companies in hard hit areas, like Lee County, Florida.” The forum is looking for other ways to improve coordination. “For example, federal and state governments can enhance recovery and response by improving the process for distributing access letters that enable electric and communications company teams to enter disaster areas,” the groups said. “Aligning state processes (i.e., rules of the road) is important to expedite response and recovery.” They urged wider distribution of the FCC’s notices about avoiding fiber cuts. Attending the meeting were representatives of CTIA, the Edison Electric Institute, NCTA and USTelecom.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau confirmed in a declaratory ruling Monday that certain autodialed or prerecorded calls and autodialed text messages sent by governmental agencies, contractors and managed care entities are permitted under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The Health and Human Services Department sought clarification to provide individuals with information about healthcare eligibility if they provided their phone number on an application for Medicaid or other government healthcare programs (see 2205180049).
The FCC Wireline Bureau established a new docket for materials on the North American numbering council, said a notice in Friday's Federal Register. Filings should be submitted under docket 23-01.
The FCC's amended rules from a 2020 Telephone Consumer Protection Act exemptions order on the number of exempted non-telemarketing robocalls take effect July 20, said a notice for Friday's Federal Register (see 2212270027). Commissioners approved the changes in December.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness, in a call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, urged the FCC to continue work toward having calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline be routed to the call center closest to the caller, per a docket 18-336 filing Wednesday. NAMI also pushed for the FCC to convene relevant stakeholders to discuss solutions to outstanding issues.
North Carolina State University's Friday Institute for Educational Innovation urged the FCC to "balance various forms of crowdsourced data with service provider data" to ensure the new broadband maps are as accurate as possible. "The FCC may find it needs to analyze the different types and methodologies for crowdsource data to determine whether some data sets should be considered primary challenge data, not just supplemental data," the institute said in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 19-195. It raised concerns about potential errors in how crowdsourced data is gathered based on the various methods available and asked the FCC to treat it as "supplemental data set as opposed to formal, primary challenge data."
The FCC authorized support for an additional 1,754 winning Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I bids for Hughes Network Systems and Resound Networks Friday. The Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics also denied Etheric Communications' request to waive the June 7, 2021, deadline to receive eligible telecom carrier designation, said a public notice in docket 19-126.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau wants comments on Sorenson Communication's petition for partial reconsideration of certain video relay service and IP captioned telephone service rules, said a public notice Thursday in docket 03-123 (see 2210210066). Oppositions are due 15 days after Federal Register publication, replies 10 days after oppositions.
The FCC Wireline Bureau clarified that participation in the affordable connectivity program's Your Home, Your Internet pilot program by nongovernmental entities "must be in partnership with a federal government entity or a state, local, or tribal housing entity" in response to an inquiry from the Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future. Organizations with existing partnerships with government agencies are eligible to participate, the bureau said in a letter posted Friday in docket 21-450, although the government entity must certify and submit the applications. The bureau also declined to extend the application deadline, citing the FCC's "goal of initiating our pilot programs and grant-funded outreach efforts as soon as possible."