Ballard Spahr adds Jay Coogan, ex-DLA Piper, as partner, Business and Transactions Department, working on deals, with clients including in technology ... Sidley Austin adds Nicolai Schwarz-Gondek, ex-O’Melveny & Myers, as partner, Private Equity practice, working on deals including information services and technology, media and software ... Twilio adds from Facebook Mike Buckley as vice president-corporate communications ... Rockwell Automation advances Patricia Contreras to vice president, she's the "first Latina to lead the company’s global public affairs."

Moffitt Cancer Center Chief Information Security Officer Dave Summitt will chair the new FCC Hospital Robocall Protection Group, agency Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday. USTelecom Senior Vice President-Policy and Advocacy Patrick Halley is vice chair. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips were appointed advisory committee members, among others (see personals section, this issue). The group meets July 27 (see 2006190017).

Broaden the USF contribution base by including one-way VoIP services among contributors, the phone industry asked the FCC in comments posted through Tuesday in docket 06-122. "Given the rising contribution factor and the shrinking base of assessable services, the Commission should consider comprehensive USF reform that sets USF contributions on a sustainable path," USTelecom said. "While it is unlikely to make a noticeable difference to the contribution factor at this time, one way to begin addressing this issue in an incremental way is to broaden the base by including one-way VoIP services." Zoom wanted the FCC to ensure new obligations "are consistent with its long-standing commitment to fostering a regulatory environment that will invite investment in information services, including those that incorporate voice." Inaction on more comprehensive changes to USF contribution methodology threatens "the stability of USF funding and its mission to provide universal service nationwide," said the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee. Incompas urged comprehensive changes to contribution methodology, seeing the one-way VoIP matter as a distraction.

The broadband mapping data collection order and Further NPRM proposed by Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to get some changes before a commissioner vote Thursday, FCC and industry officials told us. Foremost among them is a change to the maximum buffers for fiber deployments. Groups and companies told the FCC the 6,660-foot maximum buffer may not be appropriate for all technologies, especially in rural areas, and that for fiber deployments the distances are frequently much larger.

Verizon and USTelecom said the FCC should rely on the Industry Traceback Group as the registered consortium. “The ITG meets the statutory requirements in the TRACED Act and has been acting as the de facto traceback consortium; in that role, it has proven effective in tracing and identifying the source of illegal robocalls,” Verizon said. The ITG did hundreds of tracebacks this year and worked with the FCC and the FTC “to identify providers targeting consumers with COVID-19 scams,” Verizon said. “Providers across the industry are collaborating to determine the source of these harassing and often fraudulent calls and coordinating with providers and government to shut them down,” USTelecom commented. Comments posted Monday in docket 20-22.

Phone industry trade groups want the FCC to expand call blocking safe harbor protections to allow network level blocking of robocalls deemed illegal or unwanted. Calling originators with ongoing customer relationships urge commissioners to take a more cautious approach when they vote on an order at Thursday’s meeting (see 2006250062), according to interviews and filings in docket 17-59. The rulemaking stems from the Traced Act.

The Supreme Court’s decision last week to hear Facebook v. Duguid is expected to provide long-desired clarity on the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. And July 6 (see 2007060052), in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC), justices upheld a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that a 2015 government debt collection exemption is unconstitutional and severed the provision from the remainder of the law.

The Utilities Technology Council raised similar questions as USTelecom and NTCA (see 2007080047) on the draft broadband mapping order and Further NPRM set for a commissioner vote Thursday (see 2006250062). The maximum buffers proposed “are not appropriate for fiber to the premises networks in rural unserved areas,” UTC said: “Instead, the Commission should increase the maximum buffer distance for fiber to the home technologies to 20-60 kilometers (km) from the aggregation point.” In rural areas, “many homes and businesses are located miles apart from each other, which is why fiber runs are typically longer than in suburban or urban environments,” UTC said. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association expressed similar in a call with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. In markets today, providers are “consistently seeing” gigabit passive optical network equipment serve customers at distances of 40 km to 45 km or more,” NRECA said. ACA Connects said it “takes issue” with the buffer distances.

Ask additional questions in the Further NPRM teed up on the supply chain item set for a commissioner vote Thursday (see 2006250062), USTelecom requested of the FCC. “The information collection Congress required the Commission to conduct under the Secure Networks Act supersedes the Commission’s May Information Collection,” the group said in calls with Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr. Seek comment on how the FCC should “navigate the differences in these two collections without creating duplicative reporting requirements for carriers?” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89.

The telecom industry has put forward "a reasonable transition path" for rolling out the 988 suicide hotline given the 10-digit dialing transition and translations work needed to make it universal, and a phased-in approach is the only route that works, CenturyLink representatives told aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, per a docket 18-336 posting Friday. The draft order and its two-year deadline "grossly underestimates" the complexity of numerous simultaneous 10-digit dialing transitions, it said. CenturyLink -- which services all but one of the 87 numbering plan areas (NPA) that will have to transition to 10-digit dialing -- said more than 1,100 of its rate centers will need 10-digit dialing conversions, each taking up to 80 hours of work. It said the draft order is wrong to suggest the ongoing IP transition will speed up or coincide with 988 implementation. "Nothing in the record suggests a two-year timeline is possible, and to the contrary, much in the record plainly states a two-year timeline is not possible," it said. If commissioners go ahead with a two-year timeline at Thursday's meeting, that clock should start ticking only once the North American numbering plan administrator has developed a transition schedule for the 87 NPAs, or require the administrator develop an implementation schedule with the two-year deadline starting after a final FCC order explaining the criteria for wireline providers to get waivers, CenturyLink said. In calls with aides to Pai and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, USTelecom said waivers might be necessary. The National Institute of Mental Health backs the FCC efforts, NIMH Director Joshua Gordon tweeted Friday. "A 9-8-8 three-digit number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will help callers quickly and simply access help in times of crisis."