President Joe Biden named Jessica Rosenworcel as acting FCC chair Thursday (see 2101210053), and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as acting FTC chair (see 2101210048). The Commerce Department said Evelyn Remaley, head of NTIA’s Office of Policy Analysis and Development, will temporarily lead that agency.

Public records show top tech and telecom executives gave campaign contributions in recent years to several members of Congress who objected to certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Numerous tech and telecom companies halted political action committee contributions after last week’s riot on Capitol Hill.

Including an automatic dispatchable location to be conveyed with calls to the 988 suicide prevention hotline is seen raising technical and privacy concerns (see 2012220022), so some telecom interests urged the FCC to get interested parties together to reach consensus, in replies posted Tuesday in docket 18-336. USTelecom said the FCC's report to Congress about geolocation feasibility should include a recommendation for more study "in a proper forum by a field of experts from the public safety, voice service provider, and mental health communities." NCTA said the FCC should create an industry forum to tackle these issues and try to get consensus on operational requirements of Lifeline call centers and how to best design a location information solution for 988 calls. CTIA said the FCC should gather stakeholders to evaluate and provide specific recommendations. Vibrant Emotional Health, which administers the Lifeline call center network, said Lifeline counselors will need to access caller location information "only in rare but urgent circumstances" and Lifeline policy is to access location information only in "imminent risk situations."

FCBA said 19 employers are in its inaugural diversity pipeline program, which will facilitate technology, media and telecom internship placements for law students. It said Monday that participating law firms are Davis Wright, Harris Wiltshire, Hogan Lovells, Kellogg Hansen, Kelley Drye, Lerman Senter, Mintz, Wilkinson Barker, Wiley and Willkie Farr. Also participating are ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA, USTelecom, AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast/NBCUniversal, T-Mobile and Verizon. The program remains open to employers in the Washington area through Jan. 18, said FCBA. Students may apply until Friday. “As the Tech Bar, the FCBA has real power to drive meaningful diversity, inclusion, and equity, and it is our responsibility to do so,” said President Natalie Roisman. Such efforts were discussed in our recent Special Report on diversity (see here and here).

Facebook, AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Intel and Airbnb said they’re limiting political contributions after Wednesday’s deadly riot at the Capitol. Also Monday, Amazon Web Services was hit with an antitrust lawsuit from Parler after AWS stopped hosting the social media service, which is popular with conservatives. The Computer & Communication Industry Association supported platforms’ right to suspend certain accounts involved “in the incitement of violence,” including President Donald Trump's. See here for our news bulletin on Twitter permanently yanking Trump's account Friday.

President-elect Joe Biden named Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) Friday as his pick for commerce secretary, as expected (see 2101070069). Biden also named longtime aide Don Graves as deputy commerce secretary and California Office of the Small Business Advocate Director Isabel Guzman to lead the Small Business Administration. Raimondo and Graves are “proven leaders,” with “keen understanding of how broadband innovators support American connectivity,” said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter: The Commerce Department now “plays a vital role in our connected digital future, and this talented leadership team is ready to face a range of issues related to cybersecurity, 5G and spectrum management, and the future of the internet.” Raimondo “was one of the first to recognize 5G’s potential,” said CTIA President Meredith Baker. “Her nomination sends a strong signal that the Biden Administration is committed to maintaining America’s position as the world’s innovation hub.” The Telecommunications Industry Association hopes to work with Raimondo and Graves “on a range of important issues that include improving supply chain security, expanding internet connectivity and access, promoting the competitiveness of trusted [information and communications tech] manufacturers, and ensuring that the U.S. leads in standards innovation,” said CEO David Stehlin. Raimondo's experience includes businesswoman and advocate for government-industry collaboration, said Information Technology Industry Council CEO Jason Oxman.

Telecom and mental health interests say privacy concerns should be considered as the FCC readies a report to Congress on the feasibility and cost of including an automatic dispatchable location that would be conveyed with calls to the 988 suicide prevention hotline, according to docket 18-336 comments due Monday. The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 requires a report to Congress on geolocation. Enabling such capabilities for 988 calls would be "a significant undertaking," and the FCC needs to ensure resources and attention aren't diverted from the primary task of 988 implementation, USTelecom said. It said a study would be needed of call flows, the existing and to-be-developed technology and a new funding mechanism. Providing automatic location information for 988 calls raises numerous technical, privacy and policy issues that need careful consideration, and the FCC should propose that stakeholders develop recommendations to address those issues that will need to be resolved if Lifeline will be expected to receive and manage location information of mobile wireless 988 callers, CTIA said. "Dispatchable location is the gold standard for public safety" when an emergency dispatch is needed, said APCO, noting it's technically feasible to get such information, as evidenced by the dispatchable information available for some mobile 911 calls. Backing provision of geolocation information to the Lifeline centers it administers, Vibrant Emotional Health said callers get better support when routed to a local community call center, but such routing is challenged because 80% of Lifeline calls come from mobile phones. That creates a challenge of matching a device's number to the caller's location, it said. Citing possible privacy concerns, the American Association of Suicidology said Lifeline should develop better standardized universal training because the current approach to active rescue and imminent risk is insufficient "and rel[ies] on subjective, emotional, and sometimes reactionary responses." Messaging should be clear on what crisis services are and how they differentiate from 911 or emergency services, and crisis centers outside the Lifeline network need to be involved in service provision, it said. The National Alliance on Mental Illness said the 988 system optimally should provide "'someone to call' (988 hotline), 'someone to respond' (mobile crisis teams), and 'somewhere to go' (crisis stabilization programs)," and geolocation is key to mobile crisis teams. It also said the FCC report should include the need for federal guidance and best practices on protecting callers' privacy "while simultaneously ensuring appropriate and timely responses to people in need of in-person assistance."

Representatives of CTIA, the Edison Electric Institute, NCTA and USTelecom updated the FCC Public Safety Bureau on the industry Cross-Sector Resiliency Forum, said a filing posted Friday in docket 11-60. The forum is “a collaborative effort towards advancing resiliency through improving information sharing, identifying lessons learned from previous events, and enhancing coordination between the communications and electric industries before, during, and in the immediate aftermath of emergencies and disasters,” they said. At a meeting last month, the group “identified short-term, medium-term, and long-term activities to advance resiliency,” they said.

California will extend the FCC’s expired pandemic connectivity pledge for 90 days, California Public Utilities Commissioners agreed unanimously at their livestreamed meeting Thursday. The nonvoluntary moratorium on disconnections and late fees amid COVID-19 will cover traditional landline, facilities-based VoIP and wireless providers. Commissioners also voted 5-0 to make public much of a 2019 service quality report on AT&T and Frontier Communications.

Expect to see fewer big interagency spectrum disputes under the President Joe Biden administration, and the FCC taking a lot more action on delegated authority, with the commissioners being split 2-2, agency watchers said in a Georgetown University-hosted webinar Thursday looking at likely policy issues for the next commission. Many said the 2-2 commission won't inherently lead to political deadlock.