Public Knowledge cited religion in lobbying the FCC on the IP tech transition, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 14-174. Public Knowledge asked the FCC to clarify that in event of natural disasters or other unforeseen circumstances, carriers are obligated to restore service or file applications for discontinuance under Section 214 of the Communications Act if they don't plan to repair their networks or restore service. It said some parties argue they shouldn't have to file such discontinuance applications in those situations. "This is apparently an application of the theory that where an Act of God has struck down a network in His terrible wrath, no mere mortal shall presume to repair it," Public Knowledge said, with a footnote citing Ecclesiastes 7:13 ("Marvel at the work of God, for who may straighten that which He has made crooked?"). "Such a religious-based theory finds no sanctuary in the statute, however. Under the plain language of the statute, a carrier is obligated to continue to provide service until it has actually obtained a certificate from the Commission finding that the discontinuance serves the public interest." Citing Section 214(c), Public Knowledge said, "In other words, regardless of whether or not the physical facility is destroyed or damaged, and regardless of whether this network damage, degradation or destruction comes from the Act of God or the hand of man, whether by sin of commission or sin of omission and casual neglect, the carrier is required to offer its preexisting service to the community at sufficient quality as to not constitute an impairment."

FCC Enforcement Bureau letters notifying Icon Telecom and Oscar Enrique Perez-Zumaeta of their suspension from participating in the Lifeline USF program are to be published Thursday in the Federal Register, said two FR notices including the letters (here and here) posted Wednesday. The letters, which also give notice of the commencement of debarment proceedings against Icon and Perez-Zumaeta, were dated May 26 and June 8, respectively, and released at the time by the FCC (see 1505260027 and 1506080067), but the parties have 30 days to contest the suspensions upon receipt of the letter or publication of the suspension in the Federal Register, whichever comes first. Icon, a Lifeline participant, pleaded guilty "to knowingly making a false statement to the Universal Service Administrative Company through its submission of 58 fabricated customer recertification forms," the bureau said in its letter notifying Icon. In April, Wes Yui Chew, president and owner of Icon, was ordered to serve four years in federal prison and pay a fine of $117,166 after pleading guilty to money laundering for transferring $20.5 million from an Icon bank account to his own, "despite knowing that Icon had thousands fewer customers than it reported to the Commission," said the bureau in a separate letter notifying Chew of his own suspension (which was not part of Wednesday's FR notices). Chew also agreed to forfeit $27 million seized during a Department of Justice investigation. Perez-Zumaeta owned and managed PSPS Sales, which recruited low-income people to apply for Lifeline-supported phone services through Icon. He pleaded guilty to money laundering for depositing a $52,390 check from Icon into a PSPS bank account "despite knowing that more than $10,000.00 of those funds was the result of criminal fraud against the Commission," the bureau said in its letter to Perez-Zumaeta.

The Supreme Court may be moving in a direction of giving less deference to the Chevron doctrine and that could be bad news for the FCC as an appeal of the February net neutrality order moves forward, Free State Foundation President Randolph May said Tuesday in The Hill. In recent decisions, King v. Burwell, an Affordable Care Act (ACA) case, and Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency, the court raised new questions about Chevron deference, the doctrine that if a reviewing court deems a statutory provision “ambiguous” and the agency's interpretation “reasonable,” an agency's interpretation is to be given “controlling weight,” May said. In rejecting the latest challenge to the ACA, Chief Justice John Roberts “refrained, at least explicitly, from relying on Chevron deference, despite acknowledging the statute's ambiguity,” May wrote. “While observing that Chevron's approach ‘is premised on the theory that a statute's ambiguity constitutes an implicit delegation from Congress to the agency to fill in the statutory gaps,’ he nevertheless declared that this was one of the ‘extraordinary cases’ in which the Chevron doctrine doesn't apply. Why not? Because, according to Roberts, it involves a question of such deep 'economic and political significance' that ‘had Congress wished to assign that question to an agency, it surely would have done so expressly.’" In the Michigan case, writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said the EPA may regulate power plants only if it concludes "regulation is appropriate and necessary," May said. “Scalia, while not questioning Chevron's applicability, determined that, ‘even under this deferential standard,’ the EPA's interpretation of the statute was unreasonable. Thus, Chevron did not carry the day.”

“Technology makes it easy for scammers to fake or ‘spoof’ caller ID information” and can make it look like they’re calling from a different place or number, including the receiver's’ own number, said a blog post Tuesday from FTC Do Not Call Program Coordinator Bikram Bandy. “Scammers use this trick as a way to get around call-blocking and hide from law enforcement,” Bandy said. Don’t pick up, press buttons to be taken off the call list or talk to a live person as it’s an illegal robocall, he said. Ignore them and move on with your day, Bandy said.

Global Tel*Link proposed ancillary fees for inmate calling services (ICS) it would abide by if the FCC adopts a broader set of industry recommendations to revise ICS rates, said an ex parte filing submitted by the company and posted Monday in docket 12-375. The proposal would allow Global Tel*Link to collect transaction or deposit fees of up to $7.95/transaction when ICS customers use credit or debit cards or other customer-arranged payment mechanisms to establish or replenish their accounts or to pay for amounts due in arrears; money transfer fees of up to $2.50 to administer payments made through a third-party money transfer entity such as Western Union or MoneyGram; and per-call validation fees of up to 8 percent of the total amount charged for a call, excluding administrative support payments. "This voluntary commitment to limit ancillary charges is conditioned on the Commission's adoption of a comprehensive ICS rate regime as contemplated by the Joint Provider Reform Proposal," Global Tel*Link said.

Next-generation 911 was a major theme when more than 2,000 met in Denver last week for the National Emergency Number Association's annual meeting, NENA said in a news release. “NG9-1-1 not only provides the capability to accept 9-1-1 text and multimedia messaging, but also enhances call routing and handling,” the group said. “In addition, NG9-1-1 allows for communications and data transfers across county, state, and international borders, and provides for interconnection and seamless information sharing between 9-1-1 centers, first responders, poison control centers, trauma centers, and other emergency response entities.”

CyrusOne finalized its $400 million acquisition of Cervalis Holdings, operator of four data centers and two work area recovery facilities in New York, CyrusOne said in a news release Wednesday.

The first line of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s opinion that reauthorized the NSA's mass surveillance of telephone records -- “the more things change, the more they stay the same” -- is telling, wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Andrew Crocker and Activism Director Rainey Reitman in a blog post Wednesday. The court may have referred to the collection program running one last time until Nov. 29, but could have “also been describing its disappointing business-as-usual approach to deciding how the recently passed USA Freedom Act affected this program,” Crocker and Reitman said. “Bigger changes are on the horizon, but in the meantime the court reached the unsurprising conclusion that the phone records program can continue because of language in USA Freedom allowing for a six-month transition period before the Act’s stronger limitations on bulk surveillance take full effect,” they said. Noteworthy items from the FISC opinion include the court’s accepting an amicus brief, allowing bulk collection to continue for six months, criticizing the 2nd Circuit’s view that the telephone metadata surveillance program was illegal (see 1505070041), and saying third-party doctrine trumps constitutional concerns, Crocker and Reitman said. The third-party U.S. legal theory says if someone gives information to a third party, the person has no right to expect privacy for that information.

Worldwide IT spending will decline 5.5 percent in 2015, though in constant-currency terms the market is projected to grow 2.5 percent to $3.5 trillion, Gartner predicted Tuesday in a forecast report. Gartner previously projected that IT spending would decline 1.3 percent during 2015 and would grow 3.1 percent in constant currency. Communications services will continue to dominate IT spending through the end of the year, with expenditures in that segment to total almost $1.5 trillion, Gartner said. Spending on IT services will total $914 billion, while device spending will total $654 billion, Gartner said. “We want to stress that this is not a market crash,” said Gartner Vice President-Research John-David Lovelock in a statement. “Such are the illusions that large swings in the value of the U.S. dollar versus other currencies can create.” However, “vendors do have to raise prices to protect costs and margins of their products, and enterprises and consumers will have to make new purchase decisions in light of the new prices,” Lovelock said.

There was a one percent decrease in the number of federal and state intercepts for wire, oral or electronic communications authorized in 2014 from 2013, said the 2014 Wiretap Report published Wednesday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which is required to report to the figures to Congress each year. The numbers don't include data on interceptions authorized and regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it said. A total 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized in 2014, with 1,279 intercepts authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges, it said. Wire surveillance on a telephone, whether by landline, cellular, cordless or mobile, accounted for 93 percent of all applications, it said. The number of wiretaps approved by federal judges decreased by 13 percent in 2014 from 2013 figures, but state judges approved 8 percent more applications, it said. One state wiretap application was denied in 2014, it said. The most state judge requests -- 43 percent -- were authorized in California. The District of Arizona authorized the most federal wiretaps, at 7 percent of all applications, it said.