The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee will meet virtually June 28 at 1 p.m. EDT, the FCC said Tuesday.

The FTC wants comments by Aug. 2 on proposed amendments to the telemarketing sales rule, said a notice for Friday's Federal Register. The commission proposed additional recordkeeping requirements, a prohibition on "material misrepresentations and false or misleading statements" in business to business telemarketing transactions, and a proposed new definition of "previous donor." Also due by Aug. 2 are comments on whether the FTC should continue to exempt telemarketing calls to businesses, whether a "notice and cancelation mechanism with negative option sales" should be required, and whether to extend the rule to calls consumers make to a telemarketer.

The Universal Service Administrative Co. projected USF Q3 revenue will be $8.3 billion (see 2203020058).That's about $466 million less than Q2 and "the lowest quarterly revenue in the history of the USF," emailed analyst Billy Jack Gregg Wednesday, noting the quarterly contribution factor will be 33.0%.

Comments are due June 8, replies June 15, regarding a Competitive Carriers Association petition seeking FCC clarification that broadband data collection filings can be certified by a qualified engineer who isn't a licensed professional engineer accredited by a state licensure board (see 2205170073), says a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register.

Deaf and hard of hearing advocacy organizations asked the FCC to "quickly" act on its pending video relay service rates proceeding and set metrics for IP captioned telephone services, in separate meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, said an ex parte posted Thursday in docket 03-123. The FCC's "lack of oversight, coupled with rates that likely are too low to sustain human-captioner-based services and higher than needed to sustain [automatic speech recognition]-based services, appear to be fueling the trend of ASR-based solutions overtaking human-captioner-based solutions without the commission having a handle on the quality, privacy, and other tradeoffs involved in using ASR," said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America, Communication Service for the Deaf, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind and the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic at Colorado Law. The groups asked the FCC to implement the Disability Advisory Committee's recent recommendations on relay access to videoconferencing services and ensure multimodal services are "fully accessible to all people with disabilities." They also sought action on real-time text and device accessibility, accessibility for incarcerated individuals, and the "usability of closed captioning display settings."

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced Thursday the commission signed memorandums of understanding to share information and coordinate on combating illegal robocalls with nine more states (see [Re:2204070067]). The FCC reached agreements with Iowa, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, said a news release. “With the majority of states now coordinating with our enforcement team, we are better positioned to help protect consumers from scammers than ever before,” Rosenworcel said.

Comments are due June 21, replies by July 18, on a record refresh on proposed rules enabling people with disabilities to access and use videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex. The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee approved a report on the item in February, seeking additional clarity (see 2202240064). In the notice, in Thursday’s Federal Register, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau seeks further comment on the kinds of services encompassed by the term ‘‘interoperable video conferencing service.’’

The FCC Wireline Bureau wants comments by May 26 on NTCA's petition to waive the affordable connectivity program's rolling 30-day non-usage rule for small providers offering fully subsidized plans to tribal households, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 21-450 (see 2205130069). NTCA also asked as an alternative to set a Sept. 15 effective date for the rule.

The FCC asked for comment on a petition by the Competitive Carriers Association for a declaratory ruling to clarify that broadband data collection filings may be certified by a qualified engineer who's not a licensed professional engineer accredited by a state licensure board. Comment deadlines will come in a Federal Register notice, said a Tuesday notice in docket 19-195. “This requirement was adopted to ensure that filers have engaged in the analysis necessary to meet Congress’s objective of developing more accurate broadband coverage data,” the FCC said.

Vermont National Telephone claims of fraud by big winners in the 2015 AWS-3 auction are heading back to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday reversed the lower court's dismissal of VTEL's Fair Claims Act suit. The FCC doesn't have the authority to assess financial civil penalties during licensing proceedings, so its evaluation of Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless long-form applications and of petitions to deny them doesn't count as an "administrative civil money penalty proceeding" under the federal False Claims Act, the D.C. Circuit said (docket 21-7039). The act doesn't allow actions based on allegations or transactions subject to a civil suit or an administrative civil money penalty proceeding where the government is a party. The Circuit Court said it disagreed with the lower court finding that VTEL hadn't plausibly alleged any false claims that could influence Northstar and SNR eligibility for bidding credits in the auction. They said there are perhaps other reasonable justifications for SNR and Northstar actions in the auction, but VTEL allegations of undisclosed agreements to act on behalf of Dish Network and transfer AWS-3 spectrum rights to Dish are plausible. "We are pleased with the D.C. Circuit’s decision, and Vermont National Telephone Company looks forward to pursuing its claims against DISH and other defendants in federal district court," VTEL outside counsel emailed. Northstar, SNR and Dish outside counsel didn't comment. Deciding the appeal were D.C. Circuit Judges David Tatel, Judith Rogers and Cornelia PIllard, with Tatel penning the decision. Oral argument was March 3. The Dish designated entities are separately challenging the FCC's 2020 rejection of the AWS-3 bidding credits -- the second time the agency did so (see 2011230062).