Not all automated technology, such as ability to upload a list of customer numbers that are called with human intervention and with live agents ready, should be considered an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, representatives of mortgage servicing company Mr. Cooper told FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Patrick Webre, per a docket 02-278 posting Tuesday. It pushed for a read of TCPA that has ATDS including dialers that randomly or sequentially generate and dial numbers or any system that dials automatically from a list without human intervention. It said its proposed definition of dialing automatically would mean legitimate businesses can still use such technology but have enough staffing to field all calls. The company said the FCC should clarify that when one has clear channels for consumers to indicate how they want to be contacted, consumer failure to use those channels doesn't mean revocation of consent.

The FCC Broadnet order says government contractors aren't “persons” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and any other read could mean Census not being fully deployed and hurting student loan debt servicers ensuring borrowers don't default, the servicers said in an FCC docket 18-152 posting Tuesday. The letter echoed concerns from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (see 1904090005). The Student Loan Servicing Alliance, Navient Solutions, Nelnet Servicing and Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency said the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last week in American Association of Political Consultants v. FCC "heightens the urgency" to preserve the 2016 Broadnet order. The court reversed a lower court decision and sided with the plaintiffs that the TCPA's debt-collection exemption contravenes the First Amendment's free speech clause, severing that flawed exemption from the law's ban on calls to cellphones by use of an automated dialing system or artificial or prerecorded voice. The appellant plaintiffs had sought to have the entire ban thrown out on constitutional grounds. Deciding were Judges Robert King, Barbara Milano Keenan and Marvin Quattlebaum, with King penning the decision.

The U.S. consumer tech sector in 2017 “directly provided” 5.1 million jobs, generated $2.1 trillion in output and contributed $1.1 trillion to GDP, said a CTA-commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers report Monday. PwC estimates the sector’s “economic multiplier,” which calculates the ratio of the sector’s total economic contribution to its “direct effect,” ranges 2.03 (for total output) to 3.59 (for employment). The average consumer tech “direct job” paid roughly $111,000 in salary in 2017, about 82 percent higher than that of the overall economy, said the firm. “Including indirect and induced employment, the average labor income per consumer tech-supported job is about $72,000, or 19 percent higher than the average for the overall economy.” CTA President Gary Shapiro said tech's "effects go beyond just the products our industry sells -- we drive productivity for virtually every sector."

The court trustee for liquidated tech products supplier Wynit Distribution is going after CTA to recover $33,000 the association collected from the company a month before it filed for bankruptcy. She alleges the payment qualifies as an improper “preference” action. Wynit paid CTA the money it owed in August 2017 from a Wells Fargo account, said trustee Nauni Manty in an “adversary proceeding” complaint (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis. Wynit sought chapter 11 protection the following month, and the case was converted to a chapter 7 liquidation in January 2018, it said. It isn't clear what goods or services CTA as a trade association would have provided and for what purposes to product distributor Wynit, whose still-active website (its phones are disconnected) lists dozens of “recognizable top brands” it once supplied to independent retailers. A CTA spokesperson declined comment Friday. The $33,000 debt Wynit owed CTA was minuscule compared with the claims of top creditors listed in the bankruptcy (in Pacer). It shows Wynit owed Fitbit $31.5 million when the petition was filed 19 months ago. Others in the top 20: Symantec (owed $9.3 million); Canon USA ($6.4 million); McAfee ($3.5 million); Western Digital ($2.3 million); and Amazon Fulfillment Services ($1.7 million).

Netgear is looking to Wi-Fi 6 to reverse declines in its 802.11ac router business, said CEO Patrick Lo on a Wednesday Q1 call. Shares closed down Thursday 15 percent at $29.68. Revenue dropped 7.5 percent to $249.1 million on sagging consumer sales after the holiday season and reduced service provider sales in North America. In the U.S., retail Wi-Fi sales dropped 8 percent year on year, Lo said. Two major service providers scaled back demand for 4G mobile hot spots and are balancing inventory in preparation for the 5G rollout, he said. Netgear predicts Q2 service provider revenue will be down $13 million from Q1 due to seasonality and the “Wi-Fi market slowdown,” said Chief Financial Officer Bryan Murray. The company projected Q2 revenue to be $215 million-$230 million. Deceleration in the 802.11ac router market at a higher-than-expected rate poses “significant risk” to second-half growth, said Lo. Netgear leads the U.S. Wi-Fi market with 50 percent share, he said. Growth in mesh products and gaming routers couldn't offset the decline in 11ac routers in Q1: “It’s up to us to reverse this trend,” he said, by “stimulating demand with new technology.” The company plans to refresh its entire line of the 11ac routers with Wi-Fi 6 “at all price points” in the second half, he said. The gearmaker “aggressively introduced” new Wi-Fi 6 routers at the end of Q1, Lo said. It's looking to 4K broadcasts of the 2020 Olympics from Tokyo to accelerate the global transition from 1080p to 4K.

Forty-two percent of U.S. broadband households are interested in augmented reality-enhanced navigation applications, and 36 percent in artificial intelligence-enhanced price comparison, blogged Parks Associates Wednesday. AR familiarity among heads of households is 12 percent, 24 percent for millennials and 33 percent, Generation Z. Many unknowingly interacted with AR features through apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and iMessage, while Pokemon Go was the first AR mobile game to receive widespread attention and adoption, said analyst Kristen Hanich. Most current residential use centers on apps for smartphones and handheld devices; AR head-mounted devices are mostly used in enterprise applications, Parks said, though in pilot stages. It anticipates AR HMDs will face "headwinds” in the enterprise space until 2025 “when improvements in technology, applications, and execution trigger widespread adoption.” About 48 million U.S. broadband households have access to Apple’s ARKit platform via iPhone, and out of all tested AR platforms, consumers are most familiar with Google Glass, which left the retail market four years ago.

The FCC will stop performing the functions of an accounting authority for international maritime mobile communications on April 22, 2020, said a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Commissioners voted 4-0 last year for the FCC to no longer be accounting authority of last resort for those customers in maritime mobile and maritime mobile-satellite radio services who haven't otherwise designated one (see 1812210015). “Users that have relied on the FCC as an accounting authority need to affirmatively select a different accounting authority,” the FCC said. “Failure to do so could render users unable to transmit maritime communications other than distress messages.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has openings on its advisory committee on admissions and grievances and its advisory committee on procedures, it said Monday. The three-year terms start July 1. Interested members of the bar should submit a resume by May 20 to Circuit Executive Elizabeth Paret at VacancyCommittee@cadc.uscourts.gov.

Promoting STEM learning and career development is the goal of a CTA collaboration with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington to address the worsening U.S. tech-talent shortage, said the association Friday. CTA wants to help local students “better understand the career opportunities the tech field offers and learn the skills they'll need in the workforce of today and tomorrow,” it said. CTA hopes through the partnership to “demystify STEM and create a rich pipeline for future tech jobs,” said Tiffany Moore, senior vice president-political and industry affairs. U.S. demand for skilled tech workers is rising, but tech company optimism for finding the right talent is waning, a CTA survey last year found (see 1810150005).

Various parties reached consensus on parts of the process as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers challenges to FCC infrastructure orders, said a joint report Thursday (in Pacer) on a case management conference. In earlier orders, the court consolidated challenges by Sprint and 11 others to a September order restricting local fees and reviews of small-cell siting applications (see 1903200045) under Sprint v. FCC, No. 19-70123. The September order case will be assigned to the same merits panel that reviews Portland and American Electric Power Service challenges to an August ruling/order barring local infrastructure moratoriums and revising pole-attachment processes. The latter two also were consolidated under Portland v. FCC, No. 18-72689. “The parties agree that it makes sense to have the AEP Appeal briefing proceed separately from the Portland Appeal and Small Cell Appeals,” the report says. “The parties also agree that there should be consolidated briefing for the Portland Appeal and Small Cell Appeals. The parties agree that, unless matters are held in abeyance, the record would be filed for all appeals within 20 days of the conclusion of the case management conference.” There was also agreement the schedule for the AEP appeal should require principal briefing about 15 days after the date scheduled for the principal briefs in the Portland and small-cell appeals, “unless the Portland and Small Cell Appeals are stayed or held in abeyance, in which case the AEP Appeal petitioners request that the briefing in their case move forward,” the report said. The parties discussed, but didn’t agree on, the briefing schedule for the Portland and small-cell appeals “and possible expedited calendaring for all appeals,” the document says: “Local government petitioners and intervenors and publicly-owned utilities and petitioners on the AEP Appeal also wish to briefly discuss the relationship of the schedule and a possible motion to stay the effectiveness of the orders on appeal.”