The FCC Wireline and Wireless bureaus told AT&T Wireless last wee...
The FCC Wireline and Wireless bureaus told AT&T Wireless last week they agreed with the company’s interpretation of customer proprietary network information (CPNI) requirements linked to priority access service (PAS), which gives priority access to wireless networks to national…
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security and rescue workers during emergencies. AT&T Wireless had asked the Commission to confirm it could disclose certain CPNI as part of the PAS program. The carrier is in talks with the National Communications System (NCS) to provide PAS. NCS already has a contract with T-Mobile USA to provide the service. AT&T Wireless said NCS and its agent, Computer Sciences, had asked that it provide PAS subscribers’ call records, including location and charges, so they could ensure the system wasn’t being misused. Because NCS and Computer Sciences provide wireless carriers with a list of authorized users, AT&T Wireless said it couldn’t obtain customer consent to the disclosure of CPNI information before it began service. Sec. 222 of the Communications Act bars carriers from disclosing customers’ CPNI to 3rd parties without customer approval or a court order. But AT&T Wireless argued the customer information at issue in the PAS program would be covered by an exception to Sec. 222, which allows disclosure in certain cases to protect against fraudulent or unlawful use. The letter to the carrier from Wireline Bureau Chief William Maher and Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta also said the contractual provisions that AT&T Wireless had said it would use to protect customer privacy would specify that the CPNI provided to NCS could be used only under the terms in the antifraud provisions of Sec. 222. It would require NCS to provide notice to PAS users that the records of those calls might be provided by a wireless provider to NCS or Computer Sciences.