The Association for Telecommunications Industry Solutions released task force findings on the challenges facing public safety applications as communications systems migrate to IP-based networks, an ATIS release said Tuesday. "Today, there are a broad range of critical public safety-related applications provisioned on legacy copper networks," ATIS said. "These include alarm circuits to local fire and police departments, circuits to airport towers and alarms, circuits monitoring railroad crossings, as well as those for sensors at gas and power company locations. The ATIS findings offer insight into the solutions needed to advance the all-IP transition for these technologies." A PowerPoint presentation detailing the task force's findings is available here.

The FCC wants comment on AT&T's push for regulatory actions to facilitate real-time text (RTT) as a replacement for text telephony (TTY) services that traditionally provide the deaf and others with access to voice communications. Initial comments are due Aug. 24 and replies Sept. 8 on a public notice issued Friday by four FCC bureaus in docket 15-178. The notice seeks comment on AT&T's petition asking the FCC to open a rulemaking aimed at writing rules to shift the text market serving the hearing- and speech-impaired from TTY to RTT solutions in an IP-based environment. It also asks about the telco's petition to temporarily waive rules requiring covered service providers to support TTY services until the new rulemaking is done or AT&T deploys RTT (expected in 2017), whichever comes later. AT&T believes RTT provides service superior to "obsolete" TTY (see 1506150036). AT&T recently asked the FCC for expedited review of its waiver petition so it could compete with rivals that are rapidly deploying IP-based Wi-Fi calling services. AT&T said it needs the waiver to provide its own Wi-Fi calling service. "The failure to grant a waiver on an expedited basis risks placing AT&T at a long-term competitive advantage," the telco said. The FCC public notice seeks comment on whether it should waive the rules for AT&T individually or for all covered entities.

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) released the first draft of a step-by-step guide to show healthcare providers how to better secure smartphones and mobile devices to protect patient information, a National Institute of Standards and Technology news release said Friday. The draft, first in a series of publications meant to teach businesses and organizations how to improve cybersecurity, instructs medical IT personnel on ways to decrease the risks of patient information theft by increasing the security of mobile devices used to transmit the data, said NIST. "This guide can help providers protect critical patient information without getting in the way of delivering quality care," said NCCoE Director Donna Dodson. NIST also said the use of mobile devices to "store, access and transmit electronic healthcare records is outpacing the privacy and security protections on those devices." The NCCoE requests comments on the draft be submitted to the center by Sept. 25.

Cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly dominant issue for teleport and satellite service providers, the World Teleport Association (WTA) said Tuesday in a report. Cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly important issue to teleport and satellite providers because 94 percent of them have reported a security breach in the last 12 months, WTA said. “Today’s teleport is a data center with antennas, and both large and small operators have to develop an approach to cybersecurity that is appropriate, not only to the threats they face, but to the concerns of their customers and the resources they can bring to the problem,” said WTA Executive Director Robert Bell in a news release. “Whether the adversary is a hacker or an employee who gives away a password by mistake, constant vigilance has become the new requirement.”

In the first six months of 2015, Verizon received almost 150,000 “demands for customer information from U.S. law enforcement,” wrote Executive Vice President-Public Policy Craig Silliman in a blog post Monday announcing the release of Verizon's transparency report for the period. Verizon received 149,810 requests, vs. 148,903, in the first half of 2014, said the report. Verizon also said it received between 0 and 999 national security letters from the FBI in the first half of 2015, affecting between 2,000 and 2,999 customers. Due to a required six-month delay in reporting Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act information order requests, Verizon said it received between 0 and 999 FISA orders for content in the second half of 2014, affecting between 2,000 and 2,999 customers. The telco has a legal obligation to provide customer information to law enforcement, but protecting customer privacy remains a “bedrock commitment at Verizon,” Silliman said. He added that Verizon “carefully” reviews each request received and sometimes requires law enforcement to “narrow the scope of their demands or correct errors in those demands before we produce some or all of the information sought.” It continues to receive a large number of demands, but the overall number of customers affected remains very small, he said.

Comments on the FCC NPRM to restructure Lifeline and cover broadband are due Aug. 17, replies Sept. 15, after the Federal Register published the item on Friday. The FCC set the deadlines for 30 days and 60 days after FR publication when it adopted the notice and related orders 3-2 June 18 (see 1506180029). The Democratic majority said the proposals and actions would reboot Lifeline support for the 21st century by helping low-income consumers gain broadband access and by undertaking further administrative restructuring to ensure program efficiency and integrity. The Republican minority said the FCC refusal to impose or even propose a Lifeline budgetary cap was fiscally irresponsible and invited further waste, fraud and abuse. The NPRM seeks comment on proposals, including to maintain the current $9.25/month subsidy for Lifeline recipients and adopt minimum service standards for voice and broadband service. It also asked whether Lifeline providers should be required to offer broadband, how to spur more competition to improve price and service, and how to encourage more state participation. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the proposals would start to address the "homework gap" affecting low-income students who have no broadband access and sometimes go to fast food restaurants and other places with free Wi-Fi service to do assignments. The NPRM also proposed to overhaul the process of verifying consumer eligibility by lifting administrative responsibility from Lifeline service providers, and asked about possible alternatives, including establishing a third-party "national verifier," coordinating with other federal needs-based programs, and using vouchers to directly subsidize consumers.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau dismissed a complaint by Global Franchise Development, which does business as Exotic Sportz, against AT&T and Charter Communications after the parties settled their number-porting dispute (see 1507140030). The dismissal came in an order posted Thursday in docket 15-32. The order noted the parties had asked the FCC to dismiss Exotic's complaint that Charter unlawfully ported Exotic's toll-free number away from AT&T, and also noted that both companies had denied any wrongdoing. AT&T and Charter had opposed the complaint.

AT&T, Charter and Global Franchise Development Corp., which does business as Exotic Sportz, have settled a number-porting dispute, Exotic said in a filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 15-32. Exotic asked the commission to dismiss its June 8 complaint alleging that Charter had unlawfully ported Exotic's toll-free number away from AT&T, and that both companies had improperly denied any wrongdoing. Both Charter and AT&T had urged the FCC to deny the complaint, in lengthy responses (see here and here).

“I believe it is best for me to step aside and allow new leadership to step in, enabling the agency to move beyond the current challenges and allowing the employees at OPM to continue their important work,” former Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta wrote in a blog post Saturday regarding her resignation Friday (see 1507100037). “While my team and I have accomplished much together, in particular, I’m proud of the work we have done to develop the REDI (Recruitment, Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion) initiative and our IT Strategic Plan,” Archuleta said. “These efforts have transformed our ability to serve our customer agencies and ensure that the Federal Government is able to attract, hire, engage, and develop a talented and diverse Federal workforce.”

The D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a National Labor Relations Board ruling that the Southern New England Telephone Company, owned by AT&T at the time, committed an unfair labor practice by prohibiting employees who interacted with customers from wearing a union shirt with the words "inmate" and "prisoner of AT&T." The court said in its decision Friday that "it was reasonable for AT&T to believe that the 'inmate/prisoner' shirts may harm AT&T's relationship with its customers or its public image" and the company "lawfully prohibited its employees from wearing the shirt." The decision was written by Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The ruling follows a Southern New England Telephone Company appeal of a 2-1 NLRB decision that AT&T was wrong to prohibit its workers from wearing the pro-union shirts during contract negotiations between the company and the Communications Workers of America. According to CWA, AT&T infringed on the rights of employees under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, but the telecom company responded by saying it had invoked the act's "special circumstances" provision, which allows companies to ban union messages on publicly visible apparel on the job when the messages might harm customer relations or the company's public image, the court decision said. "Common sense sometimes matters in resolving legal disputes," said the decision. "This case is a good example." In addition to overturning the NLRB's decision concerning the shirts, the ruling also denies the NLRB's cross-application for enforcement of its initial 2-1 vote. "We’re pleased with [the] Court’s common sense approval of our apparel policies," an AT&T spokesman said Friday. "While we respect our employees' right to express their opinions, it is our policy to require appropriate dress for employees in customer-facing positions." The NLRB and CWA didn't comment Friday.