AT&T and Verizon acknowledged Saturday that their networks were part of the U.S.-based infrastructure that was hacked in Salt Typhoon Chinese government-affiliated operation (see 2411190073), but both carriers insisted their operations are now secure. “We detect no activity by nation-state actors in our networks at this time,” an AT&T spokesperson said. “Based on our current investigation of this attack, the People's Republic of China targeted a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest.” The carrier said it monitored and secured its networks following the attack to protect other consumers’ data. Verizon Chief Legal Officer Vendana Venkatesh likewise said the carrier has “not detected threat actor activity in Verizon's network for some time, and after considerable work addressing this incident, we can report that Verizon has contained the activities associated with this particular incident.” Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging technology, said during a Friday conference call with reporters that the federal government has identified a ninth U.S.-based telecom provider compromised in the Salt Typhoon hack. The “Chinese gained access to networks and essentially had broad and full access,” which allowed them to “geolocate millions of individuals, to record phone calls at will,” Neuberger said. She said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s draft declaratory ruling finding that Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act Section (CALEA) Section 105 requires telecom carriers to secure their networks against cyberattacks (see 2412050044) would help limit the impact of future hacks.

The Wireless Infrastructure Association was among the four industry groups that filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson (see 2412260037).

The FCC is rechartering its Disability Advisory Committee for a two-year term, said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register. More details, including the first meeting date and agenda topics, will be announced later. The last iteration of the DAC held its final meeting in October (see 2410180032).

Informal consumer complaints to the FCC regarding telemarketing, robocall and caller ID spoofing continue falling, according to an annual agency report to Congress released Friday. The report from the agency's Enforcement, Wireline, and Consumer and Government Affairs bureaus is required under the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act. In 2023, the agency received 31,042 complaints about the receipt of unsolicited marketing calls or faxes using an artificial or prerecorded voice or an automated dialer. That compares with more than 39,000 in 2022 and more than 46,000 in 2021. It said it received 57,917 complaints last year about sales calls to residential or wireless telephone numbers in the National Do Not Call Registry, down from nearly 71,000 in 2022 and nearly 98,000 the year before that. It said it received 14,715 complaints involving fax or artificial or prerecorded voice systems, down from 19,000 in 2022 and nearly 29,000 the year prior. The agency received 31,594 misleading or inaccurate caller ID complaints in 2023, compared with nearly 40,000 in 2022 and more than 57,000 in 2021. The FCC's 2023 Traced Act report to Congress reported informal consumer complaints tallied through Nov. 30 of last year. When asked Friday about the change in reporting, with this year's report providing 12 months of 2023 but no 2024 numbers, the FCC didn't comment. The agency said that neither it nor DOJ collected forfeiture penalties or criminal fines for Telephone Consumer Protection Action Act violations in 2023.

The growing number of companies on the Build America Buy America self-certification list shows the White House's prioritization of expanding broadband access and strengthening American manufacturing, NTIA wrote this week. The BABA list, with 18 recent additions, now totals 45 self-certified manufacturers that produce broadband equipment that meets federal standards for domestic production, it said. NTIA said it will continue updating the list with participating companies.

The FCC “will take quick steps” to secure the additional funding that Congress authorized in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law this week (see 2412240036), said a Thursday notice. The NDAA authorizes the commission to borrow as much as $3.08 billion from the Treasury Department to fully fund the program, said the notice from the Wireline Bureau and Office of Managing Director. While the commission secures funding, “recipients can and should continue their work to remove, replace, and dispose of covered communications equipment and services,” the agency said: “The Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, as implemented through the Commission’s rules, requires recipients to remove, replace, and dispose of all Huawei and/or ZTE communications equipment and services that were in their networks as of the date of the submission of the application even if the recipient received a prorated allocation.”

Consolidated Communications' purchase by Searchlight Capital Partners and British Columbia Investment Management is expected to close on Friday, Consolidated said in an SEC filing. The deal received FCC approval earlier this month (see 2412100031). Consolidated said it was the last regulatory approval needed.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel will hear oral argument Feb. 11 in Indian Peak Properties' challenge of an FCC order about over-the-air reception devices rule, said an order in court docket 24-1108. Indian Peak is appealing an FCC order denying its petitions for declaratory ruling seeking a federal preemption under the OTARDs rule of a Rancho Palos Verdes, California, decision to revoke, under local ordinances, the company’s conditional use permit for the deployment of rooftop antennas on a local property (see 2405060035).

President Joe Biden signed off Monday on the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5009) with language that allocates $3.08 billion in funding for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412110067). Congress passed the measure earlier this month (see 2412180033). The NDAA gives the FCC $3.08 billion in Treasury Department borrowing authority through 2033 for rip-and-replace reimbursements. It offsets the rip-and-replace funding by authorizing the FCC to reauction the 197 AWS-3 licenses that Dish and affiliated designated entities returned to the commission last year.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected a petition for review that China Unicom (Americas) brought seeking to overturn the FCC’s 2022 decision revoking the company’s Section 214 authority to operate in the U.S. (see 2201270030). The decision was 2-1 with Judge Daniel Collins writing a majority opinion supported by Judge Kenneth Lee. Judge Carlos Bea dissented. The majority held that the commission “correctly interpreted its authority under the Communications Act” and that the “grant of authority to ‘issue’ certificates to telecommunications carriers must be understood as carrying with it an implied incidental authority to revoke such certificates.” The court reviewed the FCC’s authority under the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondi, which overturned the Chevron doctrine, and found that the revocation was within the FCC’s discretion to act (see 2406280043). “There was no indication in the statutory text or structure that Congress denied the FCC any relevant authority to revoke a carrier’s [Section] 214 certificate,” the majority held. “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” Bea wrote in his dissent: “Today, the majority declares that” the FCC “may act as the Lord in canceling telecommunications certificates. … I disagree. Unlike the majority, I find myself constrained by the text of the statute and a regard to separation of powers principles of our Constitution to resolve this case otherwise.” All three judges were Republican appointees -- President George W. Bush appointed Bea and President Donald Trump appointed Lee and Collins.