Medicare Advantage plans can include additional telehealth benefits, beginning in plan year 2020, said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Monday. “These additional telehealth benefits offer patients the option to receive health care services from places like their homes, rather than requiring them to go to a healthcare facility.” This "will improve health & reduce cost," tweeted FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on an application by TracFone to expand areas where it’s designated as eligible telecom carrier in the Lifeline program to certain tribal areas in Alabama, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina and Virginia. Comments are due April 22, replies April 29, said a public notice Thursday in docket 09-197.
Viacom content will be a cornerstone for a planned T-Mobile video offering to roll out later this year, the two companies said Wednesday, They said the video service will include live linear feeds of Viacom channels, plus on-demand content. T-Mobile said work on the service -- aimed at "replac[ing] cable" -- started with its 2018 acquisition of Layer3 (see 1801230009).
Public Knowledge made its case on why the FCC should reconsider a 3-1 decision in December clarifying that text messages are a lightly regulated Communications Act Title I service (see 1812120043). The order “failed to adequately address new arguments submitted to the Commission after it circulated its draft order,” PK replied, posted Tuesday in docket 08-7. “By introducing new legal and procedural errors in the final order that were not present in the draft, and not present in any previous notice in the record, the Commission deprived commenters of a meaningful opportunity to respond.” In January, PK and other parties filed a petition for reconsideration of the order (see 1901280042). CTIA and AT&T said the FCC should reject the petition.
Avaya announced self-service automation capabilities in a contact center business, from Nuance’s conversational artificial intelligence technology. AI interactions “significantly improve the accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness of self-service automation,” said Eric Rossman, Avaya vice president-partnerships, developers and alliances, Monday. Nuance’s Tony Lorentzen, senior vice president-intelligent engagement solutions, said the company’s AI-powered, enterprise-grade speech technologies enable automated, intelligent, contextual conversations “that feel almost human.” Popularity of virtual assistants and smart homes are leading consumers to “expect to control their experiences with technology simply by talking,” Lorentzen said. By 2023, customers will prefer to use speech interfaces to initiate 70 percent of self-service experiences, said Avaya, citing Gartner.
The FCC is warning consumers of reports scammers are spoofing its consumer call center number as part of an alleged Chinese-language robocall scam. “Chinese-language calls that refer to, or display, 1-888-225-5322 (1-888-CALL-FCC) on caller ID are fraudulent, and you should hang up immediately,” it said Friday. “The FCC also does not work with foreign consulates to collect civil or criminal fines from individuals.”
The FCC seeks comment by April 8, replies April 15 on Sprint’s request to recover costs for providing IP relay, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Thursday on docket 10-51. Sprint seeks interim waivers to permit it to be “compensated for specified costs incurred for outreach, indirect overhead, and research and development” and “receive a reasonable operating margin” for providing the telecommunications relay service, the PN said. The carrier seeks a $1.85 per minute rate for the 2019-20 funding year (see 1903220065).
The FCC Wireline Bureau designated eight eligible telecom carriers for Connect America Fund Phase II support. In Thursday’s order in dockets 09-197 and 10-90, the bureau also designated Lifeline ETC status to three of the carriers that additionally sought support for areas adjacent to CAF-eligible census blocks. The new ETCs are BARC Connects, Central Virginia Services, Empower Broadband and PGEC Enterprises in Virginia; Gibson Connect, HolstonConnect and Meriwether Lewis Connect in Tennessee; and NTUA Wireless in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
Verizon Wireless is making available to customers a free version of the Call Filter service, offering “spam alerts and more,” the carrier said Thursday. Also this week, Verizon said it started to deploy Stir/Shaken (Secure Telephony Identity Revisited/Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) caller ID technology as part of its network interconnections. “Both tools will offer significant help for consumers who are consistently harassed by unwanted and annoying robocalls,” Verizon said. A full version of Call Filter costs $2.99 a month, per line, Verizon said.
Noting cybercrimes are expected to cost $6 trillion annually by 2021, USTelecom released its guide to such policy. USTelecom’s commitment is to “take cyberthreats seriously,” it said Wednesday. “We are working across different industries and with government partners (at home and abroad) to bolster our defenses and institute smart cybersecurity policy to protect consumers and businesses.”