Cloud-based telecom company Ooma is looking toward subscription services to drive residential and commercial revenue growth, said Chief Financial Officer Ravi Narula on a Q4 earnings call Tuesday. Revenue for the quarter ended Jan. 31 was up 15 percent year on year to $34.7 million, 89 percent from subscriptions and services. Product revenue, which recently hovered around $12 million-$13 million, is expected to be flat from FY 2019 to 2020, while the company eyes near-term subscription revenue growth from business and residential. CEO Eric Stang said development plans are shifting to new premium services the company can enable through its office platform, and its partnership with Sprint, announced at CES, for a 4G wireless home phone that doesn’t require an internet connection will play a bigger role in the broader company portfolio over time. The company is expanding its Telo residential phone service into home security, and its $149 indoor/outdoor Smart Cam, launched at CES, has had a good "take rate" with additional services on Amazon, said Stang: “We always like it to be higher, but it's gotten off to a good start." Shares closed down 0.1 percent to $16.04.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) sued four Florida health insurance companies for alleged violations of the state no-call law, his office said Tuesday. Health Advisors of America, Duff Insurance Brokerage, America’s Best Insurance and Michael T. Smith Insurance allegedly made robocalls to Missouri residents on the restricted list. The AG office got 262 complaints about the defendants, which allegedly used at least 57 different phone numbers to conceal their identity and avoid call blockers.

NSA’s telecom surveillance program under the USA Freedom Act hasn’t been used for the “past six months,” and the administration might not ask Congress to renew the expiring program, said an adviser for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., during a podcast released Saturday. It’s unclear if the administration wants to activate the program again, said Luke Murry, McCarthy’s national security adviser. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Tuesday NSA’s implementation of phone record dragnet changes has been “fundamentally flawed.” He asked that Congress refuse to reauthorize the program and that the administration permanently end it. NSA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and McCarthy’s office didn’t comment.

If the FCC can protect incumbent C-band video delivery services, it should quickly move on an auction process for freeing up the band and reassigning some spectrum for terrestrial wireless use, Comcast told staffers from the Wireless and International bureaus and Offices of Engineering and Technology and of Economics and Analytics (OEA), according to a docket 18-122 posting Monday. It said the C-Band Alliance (CBA) approach by contrast "runs counter to the public interest" and lacks sufficient detail to show any incumbent protections. Attendees included Wireless Chief Donald Stockdale, OET Chief Julius Knapp and OEA acting Chief Giulia McHenry. Charter Communications also opposes the CBA approach (see 1902250064). T-Mobile continued its criticisms of the CBA plan. It said it's clear there would be widespread participation in an incentive auction for C-band spectrum, creating the mutual exclusivity that triggers the need to conduct an auction under the Communications Act. The carrier said nothing in the act lets the FCC issue licenses based on negotiations among private parties to avoid mutual exclusivity. Adoption of the Auction Reform Act shows Congress "specifically rejected" what the CBA is trying to do, it said. CBA didn't comment.

The Q2 USF contribution factor will fall to 18.8 percent from Q1's 20 percent of carriers' U.S. interstate and international telecom end-user revenue, consultant Billy Jack Gregg emailed Friday. Universal Service Administrative Co. projected USF-applicable telecom revenue will edge down $23 million to $12.27 billion in Q2, which combined with a previous projection of $1.92 billion in quarterly USF demand produces the expected factor drop. The Q2 revenue decline continues a downward trend that places long-term upward pressure on the factor, he noted: USF revenue for the year through Q2 is expected to be $1.9 billion lower than the year ending in Q2 2018, a 3.6 percent decline.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit orders disposing of motions, petitions or appeals in cases of exceptional public interest will be made available for free on the court's website, as well as through Pacer, it said Friday. It said the "orders of public interest" link can be found under the online services banner on the court's home page. It said people subscribed to the court's email notification system for opinions are automatically subscribed to the new service.

Comments are due April 3, replies May 3, on a rulemaking on curbing spoofed robocalls launched by FCC commissioners 5-0 last month (see 1902140039). That's after expected publication in Monday's Federal Register.

The FCC reminded telecom carriers and VoIP providers of Friday's deadline to file annual certifications of compliance with rules prohibiting unauthorized access, use or disclosure of customer proprietary network information. "Protection of CPNI is of paramount importance, as it includes sensitive personal information that carriers collect about their customers during the course of their business relationship (e.g., telephone numbers of calls made and received; the frequency, duration, location, and timing of such calls; and any services purchased by the consumer, such as call waiting and voicemail)," said an Enforcement Bureau advisory Thursday in docket 06-36.

The CableLabs-developed Micronets premises network management system isn't a panacea for possible security threats to IoT devices and networks, but can blunt the effects through real-time threat detection and network segmentation, NCTA blogged Wednesday. CableLabs said Micronets uses device fingerprinting and dynamic identity techniques to organize network-connected devices into "micronet" trust domains and manage their interconnectivity. CableLabs said Micronets is designed for relative ease of use, with "easy onboarding of new devices with minimal know-how" while also allowing users to simply identify connected devices. It said using different micronets allows isolating security threats, like a particular hacked device, from damaging the entire network so attackers can't get easy access to devices in other trust domains. NCTA said the rise of botnet attacks, particularly distributed denial of service attacks, points to the need for systems like Micronets, which could have prevented the Mirai botnet attack in October 2016. CableLabs said beyond Micronets, it's working on better compromised-device detection, DDoS monitoring and IP-address spoofing prevention, and taking part in Open Connectivity Foundation efforts toward an IoT specification standard.

Electric utilities and telecom groups sought further coordination to improve wireless network resiliency and restoration from disasters. "Communications providers should continue hardening their infrastructure and designing networks to avoid single points of failure, said Edison Electric Institute and other utility interests, as replies were posted Tuesday in FCC docket 11-60. They said the FCC "should promote best practices to address communications network back-up power deficiencies" and engage regularly with state and local authorities and other stakeholders, and encourage communications providers do likewise. They want more utility industry seats on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. Most initial commenters (see 1902110034) "agree the best forum for improved coordination between communications providers and power companies is the local emergency operations center [(EOC)] level," said American Electric Power and Southern Co. They disputed wireless pushback to the need to improve back-up power. CTIA said commenters "widely support enhancing cooperative efforts, at the local level and through the BDAC" and Department of Homeland Security. It backs "a flexible approach to resilience" that has "proven effective," though it acknowledged "restoration efforts were challenging" for communications providers and power companies after "recent historic hurricanes." USTelecom said coordination between communications and electric companies "runs deep," and to the extent more is needed, "continue those discussions in existing venues at the Commission and within other government partners." Noting wireline telcos provide wireless backhaul, USTelecom agreed communications companies may be able to enhance coordination with state EOCs but disputed "any suggestion that our sector does not work together in disaster recovery." The American Cable Association said a cooperative resiliency framework for backhaul providers isn't needed. "Modest improvements" in coordination between power and communications providers "would enhance disaster resiliency," ACA said.