Carr Against Robocall Vote Delay; Time 'Not on the Side' of Consumers, Pai Says; O'Rielly Concerned

Also Monday, the agency said the vote will go ahead as planned, although Commissioner Mike O'Rielly has concerns. Carr, however, is "full steam ahead with the FCC’s decision and I look forward to getting it across the finish line this week."

Carr said the upcoming item is "not a silver bullet" and secure handling of asserted information using tokens and secure telephone identity revisited technology can help. Such technology can help identify unwanted calls even when robocallers seek to mask themselves. Chairman Ajit Pai, confirming our then-forthcoming report that night, tweeted Friday evening that "last year, I demanded that industry implement robust caller ID authentication by the end of 2019. Today, I proposed that @FCC mandate its adoption if the deadline isn’t met. Progress has been made, but we must be ready to act if major carriers don’t follow through."

Monday at the CAC meeting, Pai said "time is not on the side of the American consumer" on robocalls and "every single place I go, when they ask what I do, they say you’ve got to stop these robocalls. But I know there are other issues on your plate." On robocalls, "we’ve been pulling out the stops to attack this problem" from a regulation and an enforcement perspective, Pai told the first meeting of the 10th version of the committee.

O’Rielly told reporters Monday he has concerns. “We’re still working through this issues with the chairman’s office,” O’Rielly said at a New America event (see 1906030069). “Hopefully, we’ll have a robust item that really addresses the absolute need of consumers to deal with legal robocalls, while still protecting legitimate service and legitimate providers.” The commissioner said he's looking for a “balance.” His office “has heard a number of concerns and we’re just trying to see the legitimacy of those concerns,” he said.

The agency needs to move forward on Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules, O’Rielly said. “It’s necessary for the commission to act, and appropriate.” Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1803160053) reversed parts of 2015 FCC TCPA rules. “We have to address a number of waivers that are sitting before us,” he said: “There’s a boatload of those that can be addressed and should be addressed by the commission.”

No Delay

The vote will go on.

The regulator has "no intention of delaying this week’s vote because now is the time to act," a spokesperson emailed us. "The American people are sick and tired of receiving a flood of unwanted robocalls, and allowing carriers to use call blocking services by default will help provide consumers with much-needed relief. To the extent that any consumers feel that a call blocking service is preventing them from receiving wanted calls, they will have the ability to opt out."

The Voice on the Net Coalition raised concerns about the pending declaratory order allowing providers to block unlawful robocalls, filing in docket 17-59. The ruling rightly would "clarify that service providers can block clearly unlawful calls,” VON said: It "goes much further by suggesting that service providers can also block ‘unwanted' calls, making it possible that lawful calls (including, potentially emergency or critically important calls) will be blocked, by allowing service providers to rely on call-blocking algorithms based on a loosely defined category of ‘reasonable’ analytics.” The coalition recommended instead that the accompanying Further NPRM “be used to gather comments and build a set of rules that will protect consumers.” Von met with Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff and aides to all commissioners except Carr.

Free Press General Counsel Matt Wood met with aides to the two FCC Democrats to also raise concerns. “People always deserve more information about their service, and more power to choose what they send and receive,” Wood said: “Yet the Commission also should not hesitate to ban harmful practices when it can, on sound legal footing and policy bases. If the Commission merely empowers carriers to make choices on behalf of their customers instead, without providing complete information or ensuring sufficient accountability for such decisions, then even if the framework is a net positive it may lead to the wrong outcomes more often than it needs to.”

Broadband

On broadband deployment, "we look hard at the pace at which it's being deployed," Carr said, defending last week's annual report that said the service is being deployed in reasonable and timely manner (see 1905290017). Of some who contend the report signals the commission thinks its job on broadband deployment is completed, he said, "Anybody that read the report would know that’s not true. ... Let's not rest on our laurels."

Consumer Federation of America board Vice President Irene Leech asked Carr and Pai about places with little or no terrestrial broadband, including an area where her family has property. "There’s still a lot of gaps," she said. "Please remember that."

Leech's family farm is "in the geographic center of" Virginia at Mt. Rush, she emailed us. "Tobacco commission money provides broadband to the county seat 4 miles east of our property." The co-op there "is starting to provide broadband in the next county southwest," she recounted. "We just use cellular service via [mobile] hot spots." At her Montgomery County home near Ironto, it's "mountainous," a "bubble excluded from coverage" via ground-based ISPs, she said.

Pai noted the role of electric cooperatives in delivering web service in such areas. The agency is "encouraging more nontraditional players to participate," he responded to Leech's question about USF for broadband. Some areas may have "a patchwork or sometimes no broadband at all," he continued. "We’ve encouraged all of our friends in the electrical co-op business" to seek federal funding, Pai said. "We want to make sure that we close that gap as much as we can." Such co-ops have gotten such funds, he said. "We don’t care what type of company is aiming to serve these rural communities. We just want them to have a strong incentive to serve."

The FCC Connect America Fund Phase II auction funded 32 electric co-ops' total of 35 CAF bids of around $254 million, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association reported to us. Most are gigabit speeds, to more than 86,700 locations in 15 states, NRECA calculated. "Roughly 100 electric co-ops are working to bring" rural broadband, a spokesperson emailed: "Another 200" are "conducting rural broadband feasibility studies."

Chief Patrick Webre of the CGB, whose front-office officials addressed the meeting, noted the first CAC was chartered in November 2000. AARP, Call for Action and NAB "have all been with us since the beginning" of the body, and others "have been with us for several terms," he told members.