The FTC, in a 4-1 vote last week, extended the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) to apply to inbound telemarketing calls made for technical support services. Dissenting Commissioner Andrew Ferguson said his vote was "not because [TSR] ... is bad policy, but because the time for rulemaking by the Biden-Harris FTC is over." He added, "The proper role of this lame-duck Commission is not to announce new policies, but to hold down the fort, conduct routine law enforcement, and provide for an orderly transition to the Trump Administration." Ferguson said he will vote against rules that the statute does not require until the transition is complete. In a concurrence, Commissioner Melissa Holyoak said the Democratic majority "has prioritized controversial and unlawful rulemakings" and the agency "should redirect its efforts and resources toward enforcement against fraud and, only where appropriate, rulemakings that ensure the Commission can robustly prosecute fraud and provide consumers redress." She said the TSR amendment fit that bill.

The FCC Office of Economics and Analytics released on Wednesday its latest lists of providers that have “purchased, rented, leased, or otherwise obtained any covered communications equipment or service” from entities on the FCC’s list of unsecure companies. “Consistent with the Commission’s directive to ‘release to the public a list of providers that have reported covered equipment or services in their networks,’ attached are lists of such providers for the 2022 and 2023 Supply Chain Annual Reports,” OEA said: Many of the providers are “participants in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, which supports the removal, replacement, and disposal of communications equipment and services produced or provided” by Huawei and ZTE.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau approved the reassigned numbers database administrator's request that subscribers’ unused queries to the reassigned numbers database will be added to the queries purchased with a new subscription. Subscribers have asked that unused queries “roll over to the new subscription ... prior to using 100% of their queries,” said a notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The administrator “recommended this modification as it better meets the needs of subscribers,” the bureau said: “We have reviewed the Administrator’s recommendation and find it reasonable. The proposed change serves the interests of fairness by allowing a subscriber to, within certain parameters, keep the queries it has paid for but not yet used.”

The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will meet at FCC headquarters Dec. 18, starting at 1 p.m., said a notice in Monday’s Federal Register. That was the expected next meeting date, officials said during CSRIC’s last meeting in September (see 2409270047).

Wireless operators, particularly T-Mobile, showing increasing interest in fiber companies could help generate more broadband M&A activity, CoBank said Friday. Valuations for privately owned broadband providers were flat during the past 12 to 18 months and below levels of two to three years ago. T-Mobile is using M&A for growth and to bolster its smartphone service by bundling it with home internet, CoBank noted. It said broadband operators were the subject of bidding wars five years ago due to low interest rates, easy access to good labor, and new fiber builds growing in underserved areas. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed valuations higher given the work-from-home trend. However, subsequent inflation hurt broadband valuations. Now there is "a staring contest between some buyers and sellers" over price, slowing M&As. CoBank added that M&A activity should begin picking up again owing to lower interest rates and nationwide wireless operators' interest in fiber assets.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) took shots at each other on X Wednesday, trading jabs about net neutrality and Carr's selection as President-elect Donald Trump's FCC chair. Carr "opposes net neutrality, which ensures that you, not telecom companies, get to decide where you go on the internet," Wiener wrote. "Fortunately [California] has a strong net neutrality law, which I authored after Trump's FCC repealed net neutrality in 2017," he said, adding that "we'll defend an open internet" (see 2309280056). Carr responded with an image of search results for "What has Scott Wiener done?," appearing to imply that Wiener has done little worth noting.

Every state and territory received NTIA approval for their BEAD plans, the agency said Tuesday. NTIA said about $37 billion in BEAD funding was made available (see [Ref:2410100002). "States and territories must now submit a final proposal" detailing the "outcome of the provider selection process and how they will ensure universal broadband coverage," said a news release. The agency noted that 16 states and territories have "finalized the homes and businesses that will be connected via BEAD-supported projects." Eight states have begun selecting ISPs. Louisiana became the first state on Monday to release its final proposal for public comment, NTIA said.

AI and traditional telecom infrastructure aren’t the same and a carrier may require different structures for each in their networks, Beth Cohen, Verizon advanced networking and security product strategist, said Tuesday during a TelecomTV webinar. “They’re actually quite different types of workloads, so to build the infrastructure to support them doesn’t necessarily require an integration between the two workloads,” she said. Another question for providers is the extent they’re going to rely on a third-party cloud provider to handle workloads that are “highly compute intense and storage intense.” These are “early days” for AI and networking and each carrier must work through problems itself, she said. “It would be great if there was more consensus, but I don’t think there is yet.” Fernando Castro Cristin, vice president-telco infrastructure at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, said companies want AI to reduce costs and optimize their business and generate revenue. “The telecom industry is there to connect all that together,” he said, adding carriers already are using AI to optimize parts of their networks. “We’ve been optimizing networks for decades, not using AI,” Cohen said. “It’ll be interesting to see how much AI can optimize further.” There’s also a push for carriers to open networks so they can offer customers AI-based applications. “That is very much more exciting and a newer approach to using AI and using the infrastructure to support it,” Cohen said. That’s also much more complicated and puts additional pressure on providers to protect customers’ data, she added. Cristin predicted security will become more important than it is today.

The Vermont Community Broadband Board announced it will soon have $8 million available for additional broadband buildout throughout the state. The new funding comes from interest earned on initial American Rescue Plan Act funding, VCBB said Tuesday. The agency will "work carefully and extensively with partners to leverage these funds," said VCBB Board Chair Patty Richards.

Mercury Wireless Indiana notified the FCC it's unable to meet rural digital opportunity fund commitments to build out its service in 13 census tracts in Indiana. “This was a very difficult decision for Mercury to make, as we continually strive to deploy high-speed broadband throughout rural America,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-126. “Mercury took the time to put forth thoughtful analysis as we endeavored to find a way to make these broadband deployments feasible,” the provider said: “However, deployment costs have increased dramatically since Mercury made its bids in the RDOF reverse auction.”