The Competitive Carriers Association and NTCA urged caution as the FCC considers how to tighten secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) rules, with an eye on moving up by a year the June 30, 2023, deadline for smaller providers to implement the technology (see 2105200072). Replies were posted Tuesday in docket 17-97. ‘’Be careful not to inadvertently penalize carriers acting in good faith and earnestly seeking robocall mitigation solutions for their consumers,” CCA said: “Additional time to implement STIR/SHAKEN is vital for small carriers. The Commission should adopt an approach that is most likely to address the most culpable parties without inadvertently sweeping in those providers operating in good faith.” The record supports targeting “bad actor” providers that “knowingly enable (or turn a blind eye towards) parties using voice service to generate illegal robocalls and ‘spoofing’ caller-ID information,” said NTCA: “The record also highlights the importance of avoiding overly-inclusive and burdensome proposals that would sweep in innocent voice providers.” USTelecom supports keeping the current deadline for facilities-based providers, but shortening it for others. “Should the Commission move forward with the proposal, it should allow such nonfacilities based providers to seek the full two-year extension based on the same challenges the Commission cited when it first adopted the small provider extension,” the group said. “There can be no justification for imposing an accelerated deadline on small voice providers that are not prone to originating large volumes of illegal robocalls and that are operating in good faith to meet the June 30, 2023 deadline,” said ACA Connects. The rules should be “narrowly tailored to capture the most likely sources of illegal robocalls,” NCTA said.

Industry backed extending the letter of credit requirement waiver for Connect America Fund Phase II and rural broadband experiments support recipients beyond Dec. 31, in comments posted Monday in docket 10-90. Comments were due Friday (see 2107060073). CAF II recipients are facing "pervasive" supply chain delays, said the Connect America Fund Phase II Coalition. The group, whose members include Air Link Rural Broadband, Nextlink, Aristotle Unified Communications, GeoLinks, Cal.net, IdeaTek Telcom, Inventive Wireless of Nebraska and Midcontinent Communications, said the waiver should be made permanent “given the annual increase in the CAF letter of credit value that will exacerbate the pandemic and post-pandemic challenges CAF recipients have and are experiencing.” USTelecom agreed and said it's "good policy" to adopt Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction letter of credit requirements for CAF II.

Providers asked for greater flexibility in notification times and type of information relayed to public safety answering points in response to the FCC’s NPRM to harmonize 911 outage reporting, in comments posted Monday in docket 15-80. Comments were due Friday (see 2106290046). PSAP notifications should be triggered by “reportable outages,” said T-Mobile. It said requiring originating service providers to notify PSAPs about commercial outages would “increase the volume of notifications received by PSAPs significantly” and “not provide information that could be used by PSAPs to mitigate the impact.” T-Mobile said providers should be given more than 30 minutes to send “actionable information." AT&T, Verizon and Lumen agreed. Keep the “as soon as possible” standard to prevent over-notification, AT&T said. The proposed timing “would risk confusion and miscommunication between service providers and PSAPS,” Verizon said. Lumen said the timing should be “more flexible to avoid publicizing unvetted facts that may confuse the public.” The National Emergency Number Association said to prioritize electronic notifications because voice communication “comes with significant limitations surrounding sharing, recording, analysis, and continuity.” ATIS said providers won’t know the root cause or extent of an outage within 30 minutes and “additional burden to the industry and potential confusion would outweigh the benefits.” CTIA said it would be “extremely difficult for that provider to verify the other material information the proposal requests within that timeframe.” The Competitive Carriers Association agreed and said carriers “risk supplying PSAPs with incomplete or inaccurate information.” APCO disagreed and said notifications “should occur as quickly as possible.” Requiring notification no later than 15 minutes from discovery “would provide a stronger incentive for service providers to automate their notifications,” it said. Lumen opposed including geographic information systems data instead of descriptions of areas affected. USTelecom said smaller providers would “have no way of immediately providing this type of information” because they don't collect it in real-time.

NTIA's Allan Friedman, who helped lead software bill of materials (SBOM) multistakeholder work, leaves for Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, where he says he will help CISA "focus on scaling and operationalizing" SBOM, "in the context of the vulnerability and security ecosystem" ... Also at NTIA, Aadil Ginwala begins as chief of staff; he had worked at Sandpaper Medical and Walla Technologies ... Forbes Tate Partners hires ex-AT&T Assistant Vice President-Federal Relations Kevin McGrann as senior vice president, working in Public Affairs and Government Relations practices.

FCC commissioners are expected to OK 4-0 an order on secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) rules and an NPRM on certification requirements for VoIP providers seeking numbering access. They could potentially have tweaks sought by Commissioner Brendan Carr, said industry and agency officials in interviews last week. Both are set for a vote at Thursday’s meeting (see 2107150066).

USTelecom, AT&T, Frontier, Lumen and Verizon asked the FCC to use session initiation protocol return code 603 to notify callers about blocked calls, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-59. The code is “the only way providers can implement a return code in the short term,” they said. If the commission does mandate SIP code 603, “leave some flexibility for appropriate response codes that are still in development through the industry standard bodies.” They asked Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff to confirm call blocking notifications should be based on analytics programs (see 2106150062).

New York is enjoined from enforcing its broadband affordability law, in a stipulated final judgment (in Pacer, docket 21-CV-02389) approved Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip, Long Island. Hurley ruled last month that ISPs would likely succeed on conflict and field preemption arguments, and granted a motion for preliminary injunction by the New York State Telecommunications Association, CTIA, ACA Connects, USTelecom, NTCA and the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (see 2106110064). Under the stipulated final judgment, the sides agreed to a final judgment in favor of the ISP interest plaintiffs conceding that the state law is preempted by federal law. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) reserves the right to appeal the stipulated final judgment, declaration and permanent injunction. Her office didn't comment. For our report on the sides settling this case that may go to an appeals court, see here.

New York will continue defending its broadband affordability law, with a pact between the state attorney general and ISP plaintiffs a procedural step on the way to appeal, said an AG office spokesperson Friday. New York reserved appeal rights while agreeing not to enforce its law, in the agreement with ISP associations including the New York State Telecommunications Association (NYSTA), USTelecom and CTIA. See our bulletin. “The parties have conferred and agree that the Court’s holdings on preemption” in its June 11 preliminary injunction order “resolve the substantive legal issues in this matter and render the entry of final judgment appropriate,” said the stipulated final judgment (in Pacer). New York reserves the right to appeal the stipulated final judgment, declaration and permanent injunction, it said. “Defendant expressly reserves all appellate rights in this matter.” Assistant AG Patricia Hingerton asked (in Pacer) Judge Denis Hurley to order the proposed stipulation be filed by the parties Friday in case 2:21-cv-02389 at U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York. Hurley ruled last month that ISPs would likely succeed on conflict and field preemption arguments, and granted the motion for preliminary injunction by NYSTA, CTIA, ACA Connects, USTelecom, NTCA and the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (see 2106110064). New York appealed June 30 to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2106300071). “It looks like the parties agreed to take steps to move the appeals process forward,” emailed New York Public Utility Law Project Executive Director Richard Berkley. “This case would never have ended after a decision by the trial court; it was always going to be appealed. So this would save the time of having to fight it out in the lower court, then start moving it up the appeals courts' ladder.” ISP groups declined to comment.

New York wouldn't enforce its cheap-broadband law as part of a settlement with ISP associations including the New York State Telecommunications Association, USTelecom and CTIA.

Amazon again supplanted Facebook in Q2 as top lobbying spender in tech and telecom, with NCTA and Comcast rounding out the top four. Huawei, Twitter, the Information Technology Industry Council and Telecommunications Industry Association had the sectors' largest percentage increases compared with the same period last year. Broadcom, BSA|The Software Alliance and the Computer and Communications Industry Association had large decreases. Amazon spent $4.86 million in Q2, up almost 11%. Facebook paid $4.77 million, down 1%. NCTA disbursed $3.26 million, down more than 10%. Comcast spent $3.25 million, down almost 11%. AT&T spent just over $3 million, down more than 10%. Verizon expended $2.76 million, up almost 9%. Charter Communications was little changed at $2.57 million, and CTIA at $2.5 million was also flat. Microsoft spent $2.47 million, a 15% decrease. T-Mobile spent $2.4 million, down 8%. NAB fell 5% to $2.18 million. Qualcomm gained 8% to $2.13 million. Google reported $2 million, a more than 23% increase. Apple had $1.64 million, an almost 11% increase. ViacomCBS paid $1.6 million, up 39%. Dell's $1.12 million was a 23% increase. Huawei spent just over $1 million, a 523% increase. IBM was $980,000, down more than 5%. Disney spent $830,000, down more than 6%. Cox's $810,000 was down almost 13%. Twitter spent $660,000, a 69% increase. ITI spent $600,000, rising 43%. USTelecom was relatively unchanged at $570,000. Lumen had $520,000, an almost 9% increase. The Internet Association disclosed $390,000, up more than 14%. Broadcom posted $360,000, down 40%. BSA was $290,000, down almost 31%. ACA Connects was level at $160,000. NTCA also spent $160,000, an 11% decrease. ICANN spent $85,000, similar to Q2 2020. TIA spent $70,000, a 40% increase. CCIA's $30,000 was down 25%.