Employ an independent body to "determine the metrics, measurement methodology, and performance criteria" for IP captioned telephone services, commented deaf and hard of hearing advocates last week in docket 13-24 on the FCC proposal to amend minimum performance standards (see 2101290025). Commenters included the Hearing Loss Association of America, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, National Association of the Deaf and National Black Deaf Advocates. An American National Standard Institute-accredited standards organization has due process, notification of standards development, and no "dominance by any single interest category," the groups said. Standards should "meaningfully assess whether service providers are delivering functional equivalency and avoid unintentionally establishing the wrong types of provider incentives," said the Clear2Connect Coalition of disability and veterans service organizations. CaptionCall, ClearCaptions, Hamilton Relay, InnoCaption, T-Mobile and CapTel submitted a copy of an industry request for proposal to have an independent third party "test participating providers and validate methods of measuring IP CTS quality metrics." Procedures should be flexible so they "incentivize, not hinder, technological improvements," the providers said. InnoCaption urged encouraging providers to meet a minimum speed for calls using automatic speech recognition: "A requirement would run counter to the FCC’s statutory directives to ensure technological neutrality and functional equivalence."
The telecom relay service market will top an estimated $6 billion by 2027, Global Market Insights reported Thursday. GMI said North America will likely hold a major market share for TRS due to the "expansive presence of enterprises and the penetration of diverse relay services." Avaya, Bell Canada, Cisco, Relay UK BT and Sprint Relay are the major players, GMI said.
Roughly 75% of small and medium-sized businesses have experienced a cyber breach at least once, and 45% were hacked in the past year, reported USTelecom and CyberRx Thursday. SMBs took an average of five months to fully recover and spent $170,000 to resolve each cyber breach. About six in 10 report breaches that stopped daily productivity; 46% reported lost customers. "SolarWinds and the recent attack at a water plant in Florida demonstrate that companies need to immediately take stock of their cyber defenses -- and get ready" (see 2103040066), said Robert Mayer, USTelecom senior vice president-cybersecurity and innovation.
The Fiber Broadband Association scheduled its 2021 Fiber Connect conference July 25-28 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, the group announced Wednesday. It's the first time FBA announced that the event will be in person, and there won't be any virtual aspect, a spokesperson told us. Registration opens March 10.
Inmate calling services providers must submit annual reports and certifications by April 1, an FCC public notice said Wednesday in docket 12-375. Forms are here.
Reject Peerless Network's lone opposition to USTelecom's petition for reconsideration of the FCC 8YY access charge order, providers replied, posted Tuesday in docket 18-156 (see 2102010071). Peerless urged, "Reset the rates for 8YY originating switched access to the regime and levels that pre-existed." Peerless' opposition "exceeds the scope" of what's allowed in oppositions, with no "substantive basis" for denying the petition, said USTelecom, which Lumen and Consolidated Communications echoed. "The vast majority of the Peerless opposition serves not so much as a rebuttal to the narrow USTelecom petition but as a petition for reconsideration in its own right of the entire order," USTelecom argued. Frontier said Peerless "fails in any way to actually address (much less meaningfully counter) the issues raised in USTelecom’s petition." Peerless didn't comment.
The North American Numbering Council meets virtually April 15 at 9:30 a.m. EDT, said the FCC Tuesday. NANC will hear status reports from North American portability management, secure telephone identity governance authority, and numbering administration oversight working group.
Form 477 data from Dec. 31 is due by March 15, an FCC public notice said Monday. The deadline was extended due to "significant" technical issues last week (see 2102230060).
The California Public Utilities Commission scheduled late April hearings to collect feedback on inmate calling services' intrastate rates (see 2011100033). Securus, Global Tel*Link and other ICS providers must give advance notice of the hearings “via several communication channels,” Administrative Law Judge Cathleen Fogel ruled Friday in docket R.20-10-002. The hearings are April 28 at 1:30 p.m. PDT and April 29 at 6:30 p.m. PDT.
The FCC Wireline Bureau granted Fusion's request for transfer of control as part of its bankruptcy reorganization, a public notice said Thursday (see 2102230053). The exercise of special warrants and issuance of new common stock in exchange will result in the voting and equity interests of Fusion's subsidiary Telecom Holdings decreasing to non-controlling levels. Fusion will be "widely held by numerous stockholders, nearly all of whom will hold non-disclosable interests," staff noted.