Nationwide number portability "is probably the most technically fraught" topic recently referred to the North American Numbering Council, said Chairman Travis Kavulla, in a letter accompanying a NANC report (here). NANC recommended the FCC issue a second NNP notice of inquiry or establish a new advisory body. "Industry is divided on aspects of NNP, and in my opinion this is a topic which requires a clearer regulatory lead," Kavulla said. NNP would let consumers keep phone numbers when switching carriers or moving, outside a local market. Also released late Thursday, another NANC report had recommendations on toll-free number assignment rule changes. The council approved the reports May 29 (see 1805290023).
AT&T and Crown Castle urged the FCC to assert itself over localities to ease deployment of 5G small cells, in Friday letters. Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, localities voiced disappointment after Crown Castle won in court against the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in a case about state authority over distributed antenna systems (DAS). The court reversed the PUC's 3-2 ruling that DAS operators aren't utilities requiring state certification (see 1703020066).
An FCC proposal for a reassigned-number database drew a fair amount of backing and some resistance, in comments posted Thursday and Friday in docket 17-59 on a March Further NPRM (see 1803220028). Comcast, retailers, financial interests and an electric company group were among those supporting the proposal to create a database of reassigned numbers to help businesses reduce unwanted robocalls and liability under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Most telecom entities and some others were more skeptical or less enthusiastic, citing cost and other concerns, and backing market-based solutions and commission actions to address TCPA issues. There was much support for giving callers an effective TCPA liability safe harbor.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wasn't forthcoming enough when he testified before Congress in April (see 1804100054 and 1804110065), given new revelations about the platform’s data practices (see 1806040055), lawmakers told us. The testimony “might have been technically correct, but it was not comprehensive," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. "I would hope that they would realize more transparency is better, and that’s not been their approach so far."
TV stations headed toward repacking would be smart to employ a "belt and suspenders" approach of doing as many things as possible to get viewers up to speed ahead of time, said FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo Friday. Stations will have to think about, for example, having staffed phone banks to field calls from people struggling with re-scanning digital antennas, she told us. Requirements for notifications, which have to start at least 30 days before a transition, aren't very prescriptive because broadcasters generally recognize it's in their own interests to do as much as possible, she said.
NTIA will call a meeting with stakeholders in early July to discuss implementing recommendations in a report to the president on botnets (see 1805300065), said Deputy Associate Administrator Evelyn Remaley Thursday. The next step is to develop a “prioritized road map,” with the purpose of increasing the resiliency of the internet and communications landscape against distributed threats. That's due within 120 days of the report’s approval and will involve coordination among the departments of Commerce and Homeland Security and industry, civil society and international partners.
Six years after world IPv6 launch, the technology is in the "early majority" phase, said the Internet Society and others tracking rollout this week. The longer addresses are increasingly used by telcos, mobile operators, content networks and data centers, but deployment is being delayed by factors like the "elephant in the room" -- enterprise networks, ISOC reported. One issue has been the lack of a viable business case, but that's changing as IPv4 Internet Protocol addresses become more expensive, observers said.
Watching his decisions as chairman be reversed by what he repeatedly called “the Trump FCC” is “painful,” said former Chairman Tom Wheeler in an interview on C-Span's The Communicators, likely to be telecast Saturday and posted Friday. Wheeler, now with the Brookings Institution, disputed reports he ordered a cover-up of a distributed denial of service attack (see 1806060032 and 1806070051), praised the EU general data protection regulation and dared current Chairman Ajit Pai to push for Congress to enact net neutrality legislation. If Pai “has the courage of his convictions” and current net neutrality rules are “right for the American people,” Pai should call House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and ask for a vote, Wheeler said. It's “fascinating” the Republican position during his administration was that Congress should decide net neutrality rules and now it's the reverse, he said.
Capitol Hill moved forward on legislation aimed at limiting President Donald Trump's ability to lift or otherwise weaken a Department of Commerce-imposed seven-year ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE, despite the department's announcement earlier Thursday it had reached a deal on an alternative punishment. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other lawmakers blasted the deal or viewed it with skepticism, while other insisted they would need to hear more from the White House. Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security announced the seven-year ban in April (see 1804170018). Trump faced criticism and threats of legislative action since he first explored lifting the ban last month (see 1805140062, 1805220057, 1805230058, 1805240064 and 1805250059).
Commissioners were in lockstep Thursday as they approved a high-band Further NPRM, though there was a party-line rift over the pre-auction limit of 1250 MHz of millimeter-wave spectrum that any party can buy at auction. The agency is sending "confusing signals" to industry given those limits and yet not committing to a time frame for making available more spectrum, said sole Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who dissented in part. Her support of the pre-auction limits was unclear (see 1805250058). The FCC said there was no substantive changes from the draft, but the approved item wasn't released Thursday. Commissioners also Thursday approved a telecom discontinuance streamlining order and six other items (see 1806070021).