Parties interested in discussing the local number portability administrator transition from Neustar to Telcordia/iconectiv can meet with officials from PwC at two events in September. The North American Portability Management (NAPM) chose PwC as the LNPA transition oversight manager. The PwC officials will be available for in-person meetings Sept. 7 (10 a.m.-5 p.m. PDT) and Sept. 8 (9 a.m.-3 p.m. PDT) at the Venetian I Palazzo Congress Center, adjacent to the CTIA conference in Las Vegas, and Sept. 26-27 (10 a.m. to 5 pm. EDT both days) at the JW Marriott Indianapolis, where an NTCA conference will be, said a PwC email. The meetings don't require registration or appointments, but parties with questions or seeking a particular time for a meeting can send them to an NAPM webpage.

Wired magazine endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Thursday, an atypical practice for the publication. Clinton “has ideas that clear away stumbling blocks for entrepreneurs and strivers,” Editor-in-Chief Scott Dadich wrote in the endorsement. “Clinton favors net neutrality -- giving every packet of data on the Internet the same priority, regardless of whether they originate from a media corporation or from you and me.” Despite listing many positions he favors, he slammed her encryption stance: “Her specific position on encryption is tough to pin down, but she seems to favor encryption weak enough for law enforcement to penetrate. That violates basic privacy.” He lauded Clinton’s policy understanding as that of a “technician” and said the magazine’s endorsement is “one shared by an overwhelming number of tech leaders.”

FTC staff commented to the Delaware Board of Dietetics/Nutrition on its proposed telehealth regulation that would allow licensed dietitians and nutritionists to determine whether the virtual technology would be appropriate for patient care and delivery, said the commission, which voted 3-0 to issue comment, in a Wednesday news release. The FTC Office of Policy Planning, and bureaus of Competition and Economics collectively said in a Tuesday letter to the board that telehealth "could enhance consumer choice by providing an alternative to in-person care, potentially reducing travel costs and increasing access to care." But FTC staff said the proposed regulation also requires initial evaluations be done in person rather than via telehealth, a requirement that "could unnecessarily discourage" use of the technology and restrict consumer choice. The FTC encouraged the board "to consider whether the proposed regulation could be improved by eliminating the prohibition on the use of telehealth for initial evaluations and expressly state that ... licensees have the option to use electronic communications for assessment and diagnosis."

Midwest Energy Cooperative and Utilities Technology Council representatives lobbied FCC officials on parts of its planned Connect America Fund Phase II auction of broadband-oriented support in areas traditionally served by price-cap telcos (see 1605260034). "Specifically, Midwest and UTC supported the FCC’s Gigabit performance tier and urged the Commission not to reallocate funds from certain census blocks into other census block or other states," said a UTC filing Tuesday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Wireline Bureau staffers, one of three meetings at the commission. To account for differing levels of broadband performance, the FCC sought comment on how subsidy bids should be weighted in four proposed performance tiers, including a gigabit tier requiring participants to offer at least 1 Gbps/500 Mbps and unlimited monthly usage. The commission also is considering how to target funding in an auction that includes areas in states where some price-cap carriers declined offers of broadband support. Some parties have asked the FCC to reallocate the funding to other areas or states.

Less Government President Seton Motley bashed the broadband deployment plan that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been touting (see 1608110054). “Mrs. Clinton is making broadband promises that would be impossible to keep under the best of circumstances -- conditions government is utterly incapable of setting,” Motley said in a Tuesday column for conservative news website Townhall. “And using the exact same throw-government-money-at-it model that has already failed too many times to even count. How very DC of her.”

The North American Numbering Council scheduled its next meeting for Sept. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the FCC, said a commission public notice Monday in docket 92-237. The PN included a proposed agenda consisting largely of reports from various numbering administrators and groups. Included are reports from North American Portability Management and its local number portability administrator transition oversight manager, PwC.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment on a petition by the Professional Services Council (PSC) that asked the FCC to revise language in its recent declaratory ruling (see 1607060013) providing an exception to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for federal government and federal contractor debt collection. The council questioned (see 1608040058) one phrase in the ruling, the finding that the TCPA prohibitions don't include calls by "the federal government or agents acting within the scope of their agency under common-law principles of agency." PSC said the language in the order would limit the amount of relief from the TCPA seen by federal contractors. Comments are due Sept. 14, replies Sept. 29 in docket 02-278, said a Monday notice by the bureau.

PwC plans a local number portability administrator transition webinar Aug. 31, 3-4 p.m., said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Thursday in docket 09-109. Parties can register for the webinar here. Telcordia/iconectiv this week signed contracts, with North American Portability Management, to replace Neustar as the LNP administrator, with a target of May 2018 for completing the transition (see 1608090048). PwC is the LNP administrator transition oversight manager.

A preliminary list and map of census blocks deemed initially eligible for a planned Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy auction are being released, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 10-90 listed in Thursday's Daily Digest. The PN contained links to the information, though the map wasn't yet available late Thursday afternoon. A final list of eligible census blocks will be published at least three months before the deadline for submitting short-form applications for the reverse auction, which hasn't been scheduled, said the PN. It said industry notifications for additional broadband coverage data are due by Aug. 31. The auction will allow providers to bid for up to $215 million in annual CAF II support to provide both broadband and voice service in high-cost and extremely high-cost rural areas where large (price-cap) telcos didn't accept support or weren't offered support (see 1605260034). The rules haven't been finalized and commenters disagree on the weights the FCC should assign different proposed broadband performance tiers (see 1608080053).

AT&T received more than 137,600 demands for customer information from federal, state and local criminal and civil government agencies in the first half of 2016, nearly 9,500 less than in the first half of 2015, the company said in a transparency report this week. About 103,000 of the 2016 requests were subpoenas, about 16,000 court orders and 18,500 were search warrants or probable cause court orders. AT&T said it rejected or challenged nearly 3,000 demands and provided partial or no information on more than 29,000. The company provided nearly 37,000 "location demands" and almost 61,000 emergency requests. The carrier said it received a range of 500 to 999 requests for national security letters.