Witnesses set to testify during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday (see 2402090072) want lawmakers to consider longer-term initiatives for curbing China’s risk to U.S. communications networks. The push for Congress to allocate an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2401240001) will likely receive attention during the hearing, as it has in other recent panels, lobbyists said. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a rise in “totalitarian violations of constitutional rights” under the “guise” of public health, said Liberty Counsel’s U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief Tuesday in Murthy v. Missouri (docket 23-411). The nonprofit legal organization's brief supports the injunction barring White House officials and four federal agencies from coercing social media platforms to moderate their content.
Public interest and consumer groups urged the FCC take a more aggressive stance on a November Further NPRM about protecting consumers from SIM swapping and port-out fraud (see 2311150042). CTIA said the commission should “pursue a flexible and risk-based approach” toward customer account security and fraud deterrence. Reply comments were due this week in docket 21-341, and they largely mirror initial comments (see 2401180053).
A new proposed rule from the Treasury Department could make investment advisers subject to certain anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act. The agency said the measures could close a loophole that allows sanctioned companies, including in China, to invest in U.S. companies and access sensitive technology.
LiveFree Emergency Response, which sells mobile medical alert systems, placed telemarketing calls to Garrett Traylor and his putative class members using a prerecorded voice, despite not having received prior express written consent to place those calls, alleged Traylor’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Friday (docket 1:24-cv-10329) in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Boston. Traylor listed his landline phone number on the national do not call registry in August 2003, yet he received multiple calls pitching him on LiveFree’s Life Beacon device and $39.99 monthly monitoring services, said his complaint. On all the calls, LiveFree spoofed its phone number to make the incoming call appear as though it originated from the plaintiff’s same 617 area code “so that Traylor would be more likely to answer the phone,” it said. Not only did LiveFree “incessantly place telemarketing calls to Traylor,” it did so after he repeatedly asked the company in writing to stop calling him, it said. The calls that LiveFree placed to the Westwood, Massachusetts, resident and his putative class members were “harassing, irritating, invasive and annoying,” said his complaint. “Where LiveFree is the only party that disclosed its identity” in calls that Traylor answered, he alleges the company is “directly liable” for those unlawful calls, it said. But if discovery reveals that some or all of the calls were made by third parties on LiveFree’s behalf, then it's vicariously liable for those calls, the complaint said. LiveFree isn’t permitted under the law “to outsource and contract its way out of liability by directing and benefitting from its agents’ TCPA violations," it said.
The Fraternal Order of Police supported a proposal assigning the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet (see 2401190067). “In recent months, there has been a concerted effort by organizations -- many of which are not public safety -- to sow doubt about public safety’s vision for how to reform the 4.9 GHz band,” the group said in a Friday letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. These groups “shrouded their mission under the false banner of ‘local control’ and falsely claim incumbent licensees would lose access to the band if it is operationalized for nationwide 5G,” the letter said: Under their plan, a “fractured, decentralized approach would continue -- thus limiting the utilization of the band for the benefit of public safety.” Some of the strongest opposition has come from the recently formed Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (see 2402060078). Members include the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Edison Electric Institute, T-Mobile, UScellular, Verizon and the Competitive Carriers Association.
The in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing draft NPRM on the FCC's February agenda would set an overall ISAM licensing framework, but just as important is the NPRM's very existence, space experts tell us. “It's the arrival of ISAM as a serious part of the space economy," said Stephen Ganote, head of the space team at management consultancy Oliver Wyman. A 5-0 approval is likely, space experts say.
The Treasury Department last week released its 2024 money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risk assessments, highlighting areas where companies can focus compliance resources and help “inform their own risk mitigation strategies.”
Wireless carriers are concerned and have many questions about the administration's processes for proposed studies under the national spectrum strategy that will examine the future of five bands as part of a possible spectrum pipeline, industry and government officials said. Carriers are most concerned about two bands, the lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz, which they see as possible spectrum for full-power licensed use. Meanwhile, USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter urged the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees Thursday night to reach a deal on legislation to “unite behind a national spectrum strategy” and reinstate the FCC’s lapsed auction authority.
BlackBerry adds former Sierra Wireless President-CEO Philip Brace to its board to replace Prem Watsa, resigning, effective Feb. 15 ... Geospatial intelligence company Maxar Intelligence hires former Meta, Apple and Google executive Arvind Srinivasan as chief technology officer ... US Signal, provider of cloud solutions, network connectivity and data center services, hires Sean Socha, ex-FirstLight Fiber, as chief financial officer ... Sidus Space taps Bill White, ex-ProPhase Labs’ and also former Intellicheck, as CFO, effective Feb. 20, replacing Teresa Burchfield, remaining with the company in an advisory role ... The Futurum Group, technology advisory, media and research firm, names Techstrong Group's Shira Rubinoff president of its newly formed cybersecurity practice after acquiring her branded cybersecurity assets, including her video series, speakerships and consulting activities ... National Security Council promotes Matt Pearl to director and special adviser-emerging technologies, and hires NTIA’s Brian Larkin as a director ... Public policy firm Klein/Johnson Group acquires media, tech and telecom advocacy firm Perry Bayliss Government Relations, with the latter’s Steve Perry and Kim Bayliss becoming Klein/Johnson principals (see 2402080057) ... National Press Club Journalism Institute announces new board members: Mike Balsamo, the Associated Press; Jamila Bey, WHYY Philadelphia; Ed Kelley, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma; Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, ProPublica and past National Press Club president; and Delano Massey, Axios.