Rules to protect deaf consumers from unwanted marketing and lobbying have created a double standard for how the FCC regulates telecom relay service providers and dial-tone carriers, said relay providers and others. But advocates for deaf people said marketing is one issue for which the FCC should treat TRS providers differently. “If we get abused, the fundamental principles of relay service will not meet its full potential,” said Claude Stout, executive director of Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI). If TRS users believe their call is being monitored or their data will be used for other purposes, they will be “less confident” to use relay service, he said. “We need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Deputy Managing Editor for Privacy Daily. Bender leads a team of journalists and reports on state privacy legislation, rulemaking and litigation. In previous roles at Communications Daily, he covered telecom and internet policy in the states, Congress and at the FCC. He has won awards for his reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW). Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of multiple dystopian sci-fi novels. Keep up to date with Bender by reading his blog and following him on social media including Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn.
The FCC should grant cost-assignment rules forbearance to Embarq and all other price-cap incumbent local exchange carriers that agree to conditions the agency imposed on AT&T, Embarq said in comments on a Verizon and Qwest “me-too” request. In April, the FCC granted AT&T forbearance from cost-assignment rules requiring incumbent carriers to keep records that, among other tasks, separate interstate and intrastate costs (CD April 28 p5). But all of the me-too requests could be rendered moot. Last week, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates challenged the AT&T order, appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The FCC should stay an order finding that Verizon unlawfully marketed to departing phone customers, the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance said Thursday. Verizon said it would appeal the order (CD June 25 p5) if it didn’t get a stay by Thursday this week. “The order imposes a disparate playing field and favors improperly one class of providers over another,” ITTA said. “Local exchange carriers… no longer resemble monopolies that could potentially thwart budding competition. Instead, ITTA members are losing lines every month in a robustly competitive marketplace.” Barring retention marketing “stunt[s] unnecessarily” the development of an “informed customer,” it added.
Free Press’s latest effort at increasing U.S. broadband adoption (CD June 26 p9) isn’t a coalition lobbying Congress or the FCC, Marvin Ammori, Free Press general counsel, said. Rather, InternetforEveryone.org will be an organizer of public forums across the country, Ammori told us in an interview. Free Press still is crafting the digital tool, with which the group’s nearly 50 members will be able to communicate and decide collectively on details for staging events, he said. Members have no central money pot to dip into, and largely will “pay their own way,” he said. Free Press is not funding the forums, but will help pay for signs, he said. Free Press seeks discussions more casual than public hearings it held on media ownership, Ammori said. Free Press expects 4 to 6 forums the next 12 months, he said. Free Press doesn’t plan to pay for the first event itself, he said.
The Homeland Security Department is behind schedule on integrating centers dealing with disruptions on voice and data networks, GAO said Thursday. “Until DHS completes the integration of the two centers, it risks being unable to efficiently plan for and respond to disruptions to communications infrastructure and the data and applications that travel on this infrastructure,” GAO said. That increases “the probability that communications will be unavailable or limited in times of need,” it said.
An FCC order on a 10-digit numbering plan for IP relay services most closely resembles a system pitched by AT&T and GoAmerica, but also incorporates elements of other proposals, the FCC said. The order, released late Tuesday, recommends a single database of phone numbers and IP addresses, maintained by a neutral party. Access would be limited to IP relay providers, the FCC said. But the FCC didn’t throw out proposals by NeuStar and CSDVRS. “We find that no single Industry Proposal represents the best implementation of a centralized numbering directory mechanism, but instead find that a combination of different elements” is appropriate, the FCC said.
The FCC must ensure its proposed broadband mapping program doesn’t “unwittingly hamper or undermine” state and local efforts to increase broadband availability and adoption, Connected Nation said in meetings last week with the Wireline Bureau and Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. Connected Nation, which has led state and local efforts like Connect Kentucky, supports FCC proposals made this month in a further notice attached to an order on broadband data collection (CD June 16 p6). But the group wants to make sure the commission keeps state and local authorities in the loop, said Laura Taylor, Connected Nation chief analyst, in an interview. Mapping requires ground- level data collection, because few providers keep availability data in a useful format, she said. “On its own, the FCC would be hard pressed to create an accurate or meaningful availability map, but state-based programs could be built into this process to make it effective,” she said. Connected Nation has meetings scheduled with the other three commissioners next week, she said.
Democratic FCC commissioners said Monday that a study on broadband deployment in North Carolina illustrates the need for federal government involvement in a national broadband strategy. At a New America Foundation forum, Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein said such a plan should be based on a partnership between the public and private sectors.
Government should consider alternative ways to get an interoperable, nationwide network for public safety, panelists said on a Wednesday NXTcomm panel about the 700 MHz auction. The D-block auction’s failure was no shock, and a replay of that flop is likely if the FCC reauctions this year, said attorney Paul Sinderbrand, who represents the Wireless Communications Association. On 700-MHz spectrum successfully auctioned earlier this year, panelists seemed doubtful winners would meet buildout deadlines.
LAS VEGAS -- AT&T has no concerns about the next FCC’s political tilt, Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president, said in an interview here. Nor does the impending presidential election mean today’s FCC will retreat on intercarrier compensation reform, he said. Cicconi updated us about ongoing talks with Hollywood on a copyright filter for the AT&T network.