A federal court sided with AT&T in overturning an FCC VoIP symmetry ruling that had allowed local competitors to collect higher switching charges for routing over-the-top long-distance calls to local phone customers. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously reversed the commission's February 2015 ruling that CLECs in partnership with over-the-top VoIP providers were providing the "functional equivalent" of end-office switching and thus could collect associated access charges, instead of the lower charges associated with tandem switching.
Mushrooming plans for non-geostationary (NGSO) mega constellations should drive the FCC to update or tweak some of its satellite regulations but don't necessitate a wholesale revamp of the rules, speakers said at an FCBA CLE. The rules set up years ago governing, for example, in-line events didn't anticipate the existence of massive NGSO constellations and thus might need to be revisited, FCC International Bureau Satellite Division Chief Jose Albuquerque said Tuesday night. "The regulatory framework is already there -- it's just small adjustments."
LA QUINTA, California -- NARUC attendees this week buzzed about the surprising election of Donald Trump. While speakers at the state commissioner association’s annual meeting stressed the uncertainty about what a President Trump means for telecom policy, some predicted an increased role for state utility regulators under a GOP-controlled presidency and Congress. Meanwhile, the National Governors Association (NGA) predicts little impact to the deployment timeline for the FirstNet public safety network even with a new administration and more than 10 new governors to educate, NGA Center for Best Practice's Homeland Security and Public Safety Division Director Jeffrey McLeod said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Timelines are in place and things will continue to move.”
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau rejected a petition by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) asking for an exemption from the prior express consent requirement under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for autodialed or prerecorded “mortgage servicing” calls to wireless phones. In August, the bureau sought comment (see 1608030032). MBA had argued that the benefits of mortgage servicing calls “far outweigh potential privacy interests,” the bureau said. “MBA maintains that the exemption is necessary to ensure that the TCPA does not restrict mandated, timely communications with residential mortgage borrowers that are required by other federal and state laws or regulations.” The CGB disagreed. “Applying Commission precedent and in light of the record, we find that MBA has not shown, as a threshold matter, the exempted calls would be free of charge to called parties,” the bureau said in a Tuesday order. “Separately, we find that MBA has not shown that it should be able to make or send non-time-sensitive robocalls, including robotexts, to consumers without first obtaining consumer consent.”
LA QUINTA, California -- The Vermont Public Service Board will soon rule on state authority over VoIP services, PSB member Sarah Hofmann said on a panel at the NARUC annual conference. The ruling would come more than three years after a state court ordered the regulator to decide the classification of fixed VoIP as either a telecom or information service. While the telecom industry has argued that states may not regulate IP services, telecom consultant Earl Comstock -- formerly CEO of CompTel (now Incompas) -- said states wanting to regulate them need only assert themselves with fact-based determinations.
Some continuity is likely from the GOP-led Congress but one great unknown is how President-elect Donald Trump's administration will interact with those on Capitol Hill, agreed veteran industry lobbyists for CTIA, NCTA, Verizon and the Telecommunications Industry Association Tuesday. These lobbyists, speaking at an event hosted by the Phoenix Center, expect the unified government could yield significant action on telecom overhaul, including on a net neutrality framework, and a focus on less regulation while also helping their industries significantly through Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure proposal (see 1611090054).
Wilkinson Barker hires Tony Clark, ex-Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner and previously on the North Dakota Public Service Commission, where he was active in NARUC, as senior adviser at the law firm, effective Jan. 3 ... Comcast said it moved Kathy Kelly-Brown to senior vice president-strategic initiatives, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal, succeeding Maggie McLean Suniewick, recently promoted to president, NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises, new position ... VimpelCom appoints to Group Executive Committee: Mark MacGann, ex-Uber, named group chief external affairs officer, leading newly combined functions of Communications, Corporate, Regulatory and Government Affairs; and Jeffrey Hedberg, ex-CEO of VimpelCom’s Pakistan subsidiary Mobilink, becomes group chief people officer.
If the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denies the FTC's request for an en banc rehearing in its consumer protection fight with AT&T Mobility, Congress may act to provide the commission with the necessary authority, experts said in interviews last week. That's gotten more complicated with the election of Donald Trump, whose views about privacy, consumer protection and telecom aren't really known (see 1611090016). Some have predicted Trump-appointed commissioners would roll back FCC ISP privacy rules (see 1611090034).
The GOP election victory is seen as complicating FCC action on business data services near term and putting the commission's broadband net neutrality policy in serious doubt for next year. The FCC Thursday put a BDS item on the agenda for commissioners' Nov. 17 meeting, and while it could still be withdrawn, several agency and industry officials told us Thursday they thought the commission would adopt the item. It nevertheless could still get gummed up in post-vote procedural steps that leave it vulnerable when President-elect Donald Trump takes power, and a new Republican-run FCC could always change course, they said.
Verizon opposed expanding the District of Columbia Universal Service Trust Fund to support broadband for low-income households. "The Commission lacks jurisdiction over broadband services, and thus may not regulate the provision of broadband services," the company commented Monday on the D.C. Public Service Commission’s notice of inquiry in docket FC988. The D.C. Office of the People’s Counsel supported expanding the District’s USF to include broadband as a measure to close the digital divide. “Federal and state programs, like the Lifeline program, designed to facilitate universal access to communications services, must continually evolve to ensure that cost and social barriers do not foreclose the participation of low-income and marginalized consumers,” OPC commented. The USTF should be “updated to reflect changes to the manner in which District residents use communications technologies,” it said. It’s legal for the D.C. program to support broadband because the Communications Act allows states to adopt regulations that advance universal service consistent with FCC rules, and the federal program now supports broadband, OPC said. Section 706(a) directs state commissions to encourage deployment of advanced telecommunications capability, it said. To further close the divide, OPC said the PSC should set up a schools and libraries fund through USTF to supplement the federal E-rate program, and help subsidize the cost of computers for District schoolchildren who participate in the National School Lunch program. In an interview last week, PSC Chairwoman Betty Ann Kane said she expects the her agency will align Lifeline rules with the updated federal program ahead of the December implementation deadline but supports a NARUC resolution seeking waivers for states that need more time (see 1611020045). “It will be tight” meeting the deadline in the District, but doable, she said. Lifeline isn’t a statutory program there, so the PSC merely must make rule changes, she said. However, some other states need legislators to change the statute and probably won’t make the FCC’s deadline, she said.