AT&T Alascom workers represented by Teamsters Local 959 voted to authorize a strike, the union said Wednesday. “The 175 tower climbers, technicians and other frontline workers who build, maintain and monitor Alaska's telecommunications infrastructure are taking a stand against AT&T's labor law violations and neglect of Alaskan communities,” said a news release. "AT&T pockets billions of dollars but refuses to invest in workers or communities," said Sean O'Brien, Teamsters general president. "We’re proud to be one of the largest employers of union-represented employees in America," an AT&T spokesperson emailed: "While not surprising, we are disappointed the local Teamsters union voted to authorize a strike. Whether they strike or not, we will continue bargaining in good faith toward a mutually beneficial agreement."

The FCC committed more than $266 million in additional Emergency Connectivity Fund support, totaling nearly $5.6 billion so far, said a news release Wednesday (see 2206300061). The new funding will support 15 schools, two libraries and one consortium from the first two application windows, and more than 400 schools, 45 libraries and 15 consortiums from the third application window.

The FCC Broadband Data Task Force and Office of Native Affairs and Policy scheduled a webinar July 26 at 2 p.m. EDT on the broadband data collection system for tribal leaders, tribal ISPs and other tribal filers, said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The webinar will provide an overview of the filing system and use the broadband serviceable location fabric.

The American Bankers Association, the American Financial Services Association, the Credit Union National Association, the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions and others met virtually with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to raise robocall blocking concerns. “The Associations explained that many time-sensitive calls are being wrongly blocked by voice service providers’ use of analytics engines,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-59. “These erroneously blocked calls include emergency calls from public safety organizations, anti-fraud messages, safety recall messages, research calls on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and necessary account updates and reminders needed to maintain financial health and well-being,” the groups said. The groups raised concerns about providers’ use of session initiation protocol code 603, in addition to SIP codes 607 and 608, to meet the FCC’s call blocking notification requirement. “A caller receiving a SIP Code 603 response would not be able to understand whether the response code signaled that the call’s recipient declined the call or that the provider blocked the call in the network,” the groups said: “The Associations emphasized our continued support for the adoption of SIP Code 608 -- which was ‘designed to be used for call blocking’ -- to provide immediate notification of analytics-based blocking, and that SIP Code 608 could be implemented without the need to encrypt information regarding the blocking entity.”

The FCC Wireline and Wireless bureaus and Office of Economics and Analytics partially granted the Competitive Carriers Association's request for clarification on submissions to the broadband data collection system by a certified professional engineer, said a declaratory ruling Friday in docket 19-195 (see 2206160060). Mobile and fixed service providers' certifications of the accuracy of broadband submissions to the FCC don't need to be a certified professional engineer, the ruling said. A "corporate officer" with "at least a bachelor of science in engineering" and "direct knowledge" of a carrier's "network design and construction" satisfies the requirement. The bureaus declined to grant CCA's request that a corporate engineering officer "need not be a corporate officer" or be an engineer "if their qualifications demonstrate their expertise." The bureaus also granted a limited waiver allowing "an otherwise-qualified engineer" to certify submissions for "the first three filing cycles" of the broadband data collection.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau "opened a formal case and is actively investigating" an apparent illegal robocall operation alleged by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) in a lawsuit filed by his office Thursday for "possible legal violations," said a news release (see 2207070072). The investigation doesn't "foreclose the possibility that the FCC might also take enforcement measures including financial penalties against the parties," the release said.

Nearly two dozen individuals have engaged in a robocall campaign that "bombarded American consumers with billions of robocalls" about auto warranty plans since "at least July 2018," said a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Thursday. The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Telemarketing Sales Rule, plus Ohio's Consumer Sales Practices Act and the Telephone Solicitation Sales Act. It alleges the defendants received "over $12.9 million from at least 13 entities that sell [vehicle service contracts] to Ohio consumers" between 2018 and 2021. Two of the defendants, Californians Aaron Jones and Roy Cox, were named as "recidivist robocallers." The FTC sued Cox in 2011 for "strikingly similar business practices." Jones was sued twice by the FTC and once by Texas. Yost said the lawsuit "coincides with the FCC issuing the cease and desist letters" and a public notice to voice service providers "informing them of the letters and authorizing them to cut off any traffic from the pertinent targets." The FCC didn't comment on whether the letters are new. “Auto warranty scams are one of the top complaints we get from consumers and it’s time to hold those responsible for making these junk calls," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The alleged robocall campaign resulted in "more than 1,600 unwanted-call complaints to my office," Yost said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by Aug. 1, replies Aug. 16, on an interagency agreement among the commission, USDA and NTIA, said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Under the agreement, which was signed in June 2021, the agencies are required to coordinate on broadband deployment and share information about current and planned projects. The notice seeks comment on the effectiveness of the agreement and availability of state, local and tribal data on deployment.

The FCC reminded some smaller carriers they must comply with robocall rules as of Thursday. The rules kicked in for larger carriers a year ago. “Effective today, a problematic gap in FCC robocall rules closed, requiring nonfacilities based small voice service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication standards on their networks,” the FCC said: “These providers are now required to implement STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication standards on the IP portion of their networks.” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, “Each time I get a robocall it reminds me that we can’t stop looking for ways to stop these nuisance calls and the scams behind them.”

The FCC's inaugural broadband data collection system opened Thursday for facilities-based broadband service providers to file data on where their "mass-market internet access service" is available, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 19-195 (see 2206290062). The data is due by Sept. 1. The data collection "will tie together data from multiple sources to give us an accurate, detailed, and evolving picture of broadband availability that is much needed and long overdue," posted Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.