Mavenir is the company where Pardeep Kohli is CEO (see 2108270039).
ACA Connects praised the FCC FY 2021 regulatory fee order for setting satellite MVPD fees to the same rate paid by other MVPDs (see 2108270072). “The FCC finally has made the regulatory fee amount it charges DIRECTV and DISH Network per subscriber equal to that imposed on cable and IPTV providers, closing the book on its seven-year phase-in process,” said President Matthew Polka Monday. Information Technology Industry Council Director-Policy Joel Miller expressed concern about the agency’s look at possible future changes to regulatory fees. “The law and process undergirding how the Commission allocates the burden of reg fees among regulated entities has been well-established,” Miller emailed Friday. “Any changes to this model of regulation could have far-reaching negative consequences and should be carefully considered.”
The FCC acting chairwoman's office circulated an NPRM on tackling SIM swapping and port-out fraud, proposing various actions aimed at preventing takeovers of consumers' cellphone accounts and follow-on attacks using stolen data, the agency told us Monday. The NPRM was circulated Friday. SIM swapping happens when a wireless carrier is deceived into transferring a victim's service from the victim's mobile phone to another phone in a scammer's possession, the agency said. Port-out fraud is when the scammer, posing as the victim, opens an account with a new carrier and then arranges for the victim's number to be transferred -- or "ported out" -- to the new carrier account, the FCC said.
A new DOJ Cyber Fellowship program is designed to develop “prosecutors and attorneys equipped to handle emerging national security threats,” the agency said Friday. The program will be coordinated through the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, it said.
The FTC Competition Bureau will begin recommending “enforcement action” Sept. 27 against companies that “fail to file” proposed transactions with the commission and DOJ “when retirement of debt is part of the consideration for the deal,” acting bureau Director Holly Vedova said in a Thursday blog post. Competition “is concerned” informal agency staff interpretations provided to companies about whether specific types of deals require going through the review process “may not reflect modern market realities or the policy position of the Commission,” Vedova said. “We are currently in the process of reviewing the voluminous log of informal interpretations to determine the best path forward,” but “previous informal interpretations” that “gave the impression that companies could avoid filing by paying off a target company’s debt, instead of paying the company with cash … missed the mark.” Some “merging parties have responded by structuring deals in ways that they believe fall outside of the filing requirements,” she said.
The FCC proposed a $5.13 million fine Tuesday for alleged illegal robocalls tied to the 2020 general election. The fine was proposed against John Burkman, Jacob Wohl and JM Burkman & Associates, and sets a new record for a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the FCC said. Commissioners OK’d the notice 4-0. It’s the first action “where the FCC was not required to warn robocallers before robocall violations could be counted toward a proposed fine, per Congress’ recent amendment of the TCPA,” the agency said. Those cited allegedly made 1,141 illegal robocalls to wireless phones without prior express consent. The calls “used messages telling potential voters that, if they vote by mail, their ‘personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts,’” the FCC said. The investigation followed consumer complaints and concerns raised by a nonprofit organization, the agency said. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel thanked the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for helping gather evidence and build a case: “This kind of collaboration is vitally important in our work to combat illegal robocalls and I look forward to future collaboration like this with other law enforcement partners nationwide.” The company didn't comment.
The FCC deactivated the disaster information reporting system for Tropical Storm Henri, said a public notice in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. A DIRS report from Monday showed 7,648 cable and wireline subscribers out of service in Connecticut, 13,167 in Rhode Island, 4,573 in New York and 1,321 in Massachusetts. No public safety answering points or broadcasters were reported out of service, it said.
The FCC activated the disaster information reporting system for Tropical Storm Henri for affected counties in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island, said a public notice Sunday. Daily reports were due starting Monday, the PN said. The bureau also issued PNs on emergency contact information for licensees that need special temporary authority and on 24-hour availability of FCC staff.
Data that will be collected through the emerging IoT will be transformative for many businesses, Bryan Tantzen, senior director in Cisco’s IoT Business Unit, said Monday at Fierce’s virtual Industrial IoT Summit. The transformation is just getting started and many companies are still using clipboards to record numbers rather than putting in sensors and doing automatic data collection, Tantzen said. “The promise of this new data is vast,” he said: “We think we can eliminate 80% of unplanned downtime. We can dramatically improve overall equipment effectiveness. We can even speed new product introduction.” In the post-COVID-19 era, businesses will focus on sustainability “so you can keep the lights on as a utility and make the grid more resilient,” Tantzen said. In factories, “when a robot goes down you no longer have to wait and fly in an expert,” he said. “You can virtualize that expertise and get remote … maintenance that can reduce downtime,” he said. The time is now to address security risks from the IoT and the automation, he said. “We’re seeing threats everywhere, not only malware,” he said. Most of the IoT is “a hard shell with a soft middle” and doesn’t have adequate security, he said: “That will not work going forward.” Looking at what the industrial IoT can do for a business shouldn’t start with use cases, said Saip Yilmaz, Black & Decker director-industry innovation. “Focus on your strategy, how you will compete in the market,” he said. “Thinking about the future state of your strategy really helps to set your goals,” he said. “Don’t become another data rich, information poor company,” he said. Understand the use case and then decide what technology would work best, advised Kervin Blanke, head of U.S. operations for Kinexon, an IoT company. There’s not “one sensor that’s going to do it all; it’s more complex than that,” Blanke said. Companies need a single platform that can tie all of their sensors together, he said. Lots of companies are investing in use of the IoT for predictive maintenance, said Markus Larsson, member of the senior leadership team at California’s Palo Alto Research Center. “The performance of what has been rolled out, broadly speaking, just hasn’t been good enough,” he said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on identifying the appropriate industry stakeholders to form a search committee to select a 3.45 GHz reimbursement clearinghouse to look after relocation expenses for secondary, nonfederal licensees that have to move. Comment deadlines are to come in the Federal Register. In the C band, the FCC decided a similar search committee “would be composed of nine members appointed by nine entities that the Commission found, collectively, reasonably represented the interests of the stakeholders,” said a Friday notice in docket 19-348. “We note that in this proceeding, incumbents are two broadcasters -- NBCUniversal and Nexstar -- operating weather radar systems in the band,” the notice said: “Are incumbent interests sufficiently aligned such that one entity can represent both incumbents?”