The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued several citations for “illegal receipt of duplicate Lifeline support” Thursday. “According to our records, you currently receive Lifeline-supported service on four customer accounts,” each of the 10 citations said (http://bit.ly/13Hp8LV). “As you should know, your household can have only one Lifeline-supported phone service.” The orders chastised the individuals for falsely certifying that they were eligible for Lifeline service, and that all of the information in their applications was truthful. “We ORDER you to cease and desist from applying for -- or receiving -- more than one Lifeline-supported phone service,” the bureau wrote. It threatened fines of as much as $16,000 for each violation and up to $112,500 for a single continuing violation if the recipients continue to violate the Lifeline rules.

Representatives from the healthcare, financial, education, transportation, insurance and technology sectors met with aides to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai last week to seek clarification on whether certain predictive dialers count as “automatic telephone dialing systems” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (http://bit.ly/12pWMcl). A wide range of businesses uses predictive dialers to place “critical, time-sensitive non-telemarketing calls” to benefit consumers, said the American Bankers Association, American Financial Services Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others. They urged the commission to clarify that predictive dialers unable to store, produce and dial random or sequential numbers are permitted under the law.

The FCC’s waiver process for USF and intercarrier compensation rules is riddled with “onerous, burdensome, and costly shortcomings,” said Alexicon Telecommunications Consulting in a filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/12pTmXg). The company submitted a report on behalf of its client, the Small Company Coalition, an alliance of rural telecom and broadband providers. Since the 2011 USF/ICC order, many impacted parties have filed petitions for waiver with limited or no relief, Alexicon said. The waiver process doesn’t give affected carriers an effective avenue to address shortfalls in the new rules, it said. “As a matter of good public policy, the FCC should have aimed for a net zero change in regulatory burden between the pre- and post-ICC/USF Transformation worlds,” Alexicon said: A decrease in funding would be OK if accompanied by a decrease in regulatory obligations, for instance. “This plainly has not happened,” the consultant said. A review of the waiver requests reveals that “the process is expensive, untimely, and in general not working properly,” Alexicon said. For example, it said, the Texas companies that sought waivers “met the substantial burden” required to file, but had their requests dismissed in a single order because of the existence of alternative remedies through a state process (CD May 1 p8). The Wireline Bureau “moved the goal posts,” Alexicon said, because nothing in the USF/ICC order mentioned seeking state relief as a prerequisite for obtaining a waiver of FCC rules. Alexicon urged the commission to “reconsider the rules causing the most harm” instead of relying on “an untested waiver process” that has an “ever-changing set of requirements."

Public Knowledge elaborated on its proposal (CD June 12 p10) for the FCC to establish a process for telcos to rebuild damaged copper with new services, in a Monday meeting with several members of the commission’s Technology Transitions Policy Task Force (http://bit.ly/13Heip9). Because the existing Telecom Act Section 214(a) process is “not very well-suited” to situations where carriers choose not to rebuild copper plant in response to a natural disaster, the commission needs a “post-disaster network change process” robust enough to “absorb unanticipated challenges in disaster recovery,” PK said. The commission should first establish that carriers are required to submit a filing discussing their new anticipated services, PK said. Carriers should also have to establish that the replacement services will be “adequate substitutes” for the services consumers get over copper, including calling card and collect call capabilities, PK said. The commission should also establish that it will continue to treat the replacement service as a Title II telecom service “at least until the Commission has resolved the complex issues raised by the phone network transition,” PK said. “The Commission cannot let natural disasters become opportunities for carriers to shortcut the deliberations currently underway to comprehensively consider how best to handle the phone network’s transition to IP-based technologies.” Verizon’s intended Voice Link fixed wireless replacement on Fire Island, for instance (CD May 13 p9), should be treated as a Title II telecom service and the commission should determine how best to apply obligations like those found in Sections 251 and 271 of the Telecom Act, PK said.

Exclusion zones set up to protect federal meteorological-satellite receive sites from interference, if the 1695-1710 MHz block is opened for sharing with industry, cover areas where about 10 percent of Americans live, said a report to be presented to the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee next week. CSMAC was divided into five working groups to look at spectrum sharing, a major theme of the Obama administration. One block expected to see early sharing is 1695-1710 MHz, the target of CSMAC Working Group 1. The report (http://1.usa.gov/11Ymajv) listed 27 sites requiring protection, where sharing would not be permitted or would be limited within a distance of as much as 98 kilometers. The protection zone around the Suitland, Md., earth station covers the biggest population, more than 3.1 million. Suitland is in Prince George’s County, Md., outside Washington, D.C. Earth stations in Miami and Sacramento, Calif., would require protection zones covering 1.5 million and 900,000 people, respectively, the report said. But the working group also said it’s examining a testing program “to demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of proposed protection/mitigation methods,” which would allow carriers to have some operations within the protection zones.

The New York Senate passed a bill designed to close the digital divide, focusing on broadband access in rural parts of the state. S-5481, known as the Rural Broadband Deployment Act of 2013, passed the Senate with 61 votes Wednesday, with no votes against it and two legislators excused. The bill proposes creating a refundable tax credit for deploying broadband to households and small businesses in rural, unserved areas. “Despite large investments by broadband providers, it is not economically feasible for providers to reach these areas,” according to the bill text (http://bit.ly/14yN7Q4). “Unfortunately, the projects just don’t pay off the investment before it is time to reinvest and rebuild the network with next-generation technology.” The bill proposes that any eligible out-of-pocket network construction costs for such residents and small businesses receive the opportunity for a fully refundable tax credit, given out for five years. The fiscal implications are about $10 million in the first year, it said. The bill has now gone to the Assembly, going first to the Governmental Operations Committee. Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk (D), one of the bill’s cosponsors, applauded the passage of the bill in a press release and emphasized its companion bill: S-4523, the Broadband Internet Access Act of 2013, which would provide a tax credit for the delivery of current generation broadband and next generation broadband. That bill has not yet faced a full Senate vote. “The cornerstones of my legislative package would help small businesses by expanding Broadband Internet service, and would also support the small and medium farms that contribute so much to the Upstate economy,” Tkaczyk said in a statement (http://bit.ly/16ils5Z), also stressing the need for fast broadband access in schools.

Requirements in a May 17 order from the FCC (http://bit.ly/10fbdA1), on what happens when a subscriber sends a text message to 911, were not addressed in a standard developed by the Telecommunications Industry Association and ATIS, and will require additional work, AT&T said in a meeting with commission officials. The carrier said new requirements could force the suspension of text-to-911 trials already under way. “The mandates for a ’temporary shutdown/overload bounceback message’ and a ‘roaming bounceback message’ were not accounted for in the ATIS/TIA joint industry standard solution for text-to-911 services and, thus, will require additional development by ATIS/TIA,” AT&T said in a filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/17JEN2Z). “The ‘roaming bounceback’ rule may require additional clarification” on “the extent ... this obligation is merely for the ‘home carrier’ (i.e. the carrier of the customer originating the message) to provide a bounceback message about the unavailability of text-to-911 services when customers attempt to send text messages to 911 while roaming,” said the filing. The new rules take effect June 28.

Dish Network extended its tender offer of $4.40 per share for Clearwire stock until July 2 unless it is extended further. It was previously scheduled to expire June 28 (CD May 31 p9). Colbent Corp., the depository for the tender offer, advised that, as of June 11, “approximately 245,411 shares of common stock of Clearwire were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn from the tender offer,” Dish said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/13HoIoE). Clearwire recommended that stockholders accept Dish’s cash tender offer (http://bit.ly/12qn9PD). Sprint said it’s evaluating Clearwire’s statement and it will review any corresponding filings before determining its next steps. The wireless company “continues to have every intention of enforcing its governance rights,” it said in a press release (http://bit.ly/11ccQgj). Sprint filed an investor presentation that provides additional details on the due diligence process by Sprint’s special committee on Dish’s preliminary proposal to buy Sprint, Sprint said in a press release (http://bit.ly/19vC0LA). It also outlined its amended merger agreement with SoftBank, “which provides investors with additional cash consideration of $4.5 billion at closing,” it said. The presentation outlines what it said is the significant value provided to Sprint stockholders through the transaction.

The European Commission expects “swift and concrete answers” to questions about Prism, Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Commissioner Viviane Reding told U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in a letter dated Monday. The two officials will meet Friday at a ministerial meeting in Dublin. Respect for fundamental rights and the rule of law form the basis of the EU-U.S. relationship, Reding wrote. “This common understanding has been, and must remain, the basis of cooperation between us in the area of Justice,” she said. In that context, the EC has already questioned the scope of laws such as the Patriot Act, which can lead to European companies being forced to hand over data to the U.S. in breach of EU and national law, she said. The U.S. should, to the greatest extent possible, use already agreed-upon formal channels of cooperation such as mutual legal assistance agreements to exchange data for crime prevention and investigation, she said. Giving U.S. law enforcement authorities direct access to information on EU citizens on servers of U.S. companies “should be excluded unless in clearly defined, exceptional and judicially reviewable situations,” she said. Programs such as Prism could undermine the trust of Europeans in the Safe Harbor system now under review, she said. Reding asked Holder to clarify: (1) Whether Prism, similar programs and the laws under which such programs may be authorized are aimed only at the data of citizens and residents of the U.S. or also, even primarily, at non-U.S. individuals. (2) Whether access to and collection of data under Prism is authorized in specific and individual cases and, if so, under what criteria. (3) Whether individuals’ data are accessed, collected or processed in bulk regularly or occasionally. (4) Whether the scope of Prism and similar programs is restricted to national security or foreign intelligence or broader. (5) What judicial or administrative avenues are available to EU citizens to be informed of whether they're affected by Prism or other programs, and how those avenues compare to what’s available to U.S. citizens. (6) What mechanisms are available to companies in the U.S. or EU to challenge access to data. (7) How EU citizens or companies can challenge access to personal data under Prism and how those compare to mechanisms available to U.S. citizens and residents. “Given the gravity of the situation and the serious concerns expressed in public opinion on this side of the Atlantic, you will understand that I will expect swift and concrete answers to these questions on Friday 14 June,” Reding said. The EC is accountable to the European Parliament, “which is likely to assess the overall trans-Atlantic relationship in the light of your responses,” she wrote. Data protection is top of the list of agenda items for Friday’s ministerial meeting, a Thursday EC memo said. The EU and U.S. are negotiating a personal data protection agreement in the context of fighting terrorism and crime that aims to ensure strong safeguards for information such as passenger or financial data transferred through a trans-Atlantic cooperation, it said. The EC will stress again that the pact should set enforceable rights for people whose data are being exchanged for law enforcement purposes and treat U.S. and EU citizens equally, it said.

Correction: The secondary usage of data which law-enforcement international talks on information sharing assume may occur, to which European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx referred, relate to lawful access to the data (CD June 13 p3).