FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to ban malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and international calls is expected to be approved Thursday with bipartisan support. CTIA last week raised the lone questions in the record. FCC officials said Monday the order could be tweaked to address the CTIA concerns.
In the days before the sunshine period for August's FCC meeting, the eighth floor had a parade of parties urging tweaks or changes to the broadband mapping draft order on this coming Thursday's agenda. That's according to docket 19-195 postings.
The FCC boosting some standards for what type of broadband is eligible for Lifeline government subsidies caused some stakeholder confusion in the hours after Thursday's release at 3:13 p.m. EDT. Some state telecom and industry representatives were puzzled why the otherwise routine-looking staff action came as a CTIA et alia petition is pending (see 1906280012). The agency replied that the action was previously mandated. The Wireline Bureau public notice came a day after NARUC members approved a resolution asking the FCC to not make such changes (see 1907230040). The PN noted it's delivering on what a 2016 order envisioned.
The 2019 nationwide test of the emergency alert system planned for Aug. 7 (see 1907010041) is expected to be largely routine. It will involve aspects of the system that haven’t been tested since the first nationwide test in 2011, said emergency alerting officials and broadcasters in interviews. Since the 2011 test experienced some complications, they are seen as possible this time around as well, EAS and broadcast officials told us.
Leaders on anti-robocall legislation say they're confident they can get a conference agreement over the August recess to marry elements of the House-passed Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375) and the Senate-passed Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (S-151). The House passed HR-3375 last week 429-3 (see 1907240063). House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, was among those voicing optimism about the prospect for conference legislation, during an interview on C-SPAN's The Communicators to have been televised Saturday.
After a prolonged negotiation, DOJ reached agreement with T-Mobile/Sprint and Dish Network (see 1907260021). Justice got five attorneys general onboard from states that hadn't tried to block the multibillion dollar transaction. Industry officials said getting some support from states was important to the department and delayed an announcement by a day, though opposing states are expected to continue their lawsuit in federal court in New York. The California Public Utilities Commission also hasn't approved the deal. DOJ’s consent decree with the companies did little to mollify most critics.
Wireless carriers supported broad implementation of Shaken/Stir and said a safe harbor, based on the use of reasonable analytics, is critical. Companies concerned about reaching customers urged the FCC to build in safeguards that make sure only illegal and unwanted calls don’t get through. Some comments closely tracked concerns raised at the FCC’s recent summit on secure handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) and secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) (see 1907110023) Comments were due Wednesday in docket 17-59 (see 1907240047).
The small satellite streamlining order on Thursday's FCC agenda (see 1907110071) is expected to get 5-0 approval. But it remains undetermined how operators will use the new licensing option, experts told us. To them, the draft is a substantial improvement over the current licensing regime, at least for a portion of smallsat operators.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., again (see 1905150061) criticized the C-Band Alliance's proposal for clearing spectrum in 3.7-4.2 GHz, saying during a Thursday House Commerce Committee hearing it could disrupt the opportunity for using proceeds from sales of the spectrum to pay for rural broadband deployment. Several tech and telecom policy topics came up during Thursday's hearing on the policy priorities of lawmakers who aren't its members. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, urged House Commerce to probe the tech sector's Communications Decency Act Section 230 liability shield and make further CDA changes.
T-Mobile/Sprint delayed an expected announcement (see 1907240062) of a deal with Dish Network Thursday. T-Mobile issued a news release less than an hour before a Q2 call with its CEO John Legere and others, saying the call was delayed. T-Mobile was ready to go and the holdup likely came from DOJ, which appears to be looking for state support, industry officials said. The deal with Dish was intended to address Justice interest in creating a fourth national wireless carrier to replace Sprint. Dish closed at $39.17, down 5.75 percent.