President Dan Berger and others from National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions met Chairman Ajit Pai about the future of FCC rules implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. “Credit unions are still struggling to establish communication with their members for fear of violating the TCPA,” NAFCU said in a docket 18-152 filing. The discussion included the definition of "capacity" as it applies to autodialers and of called party "as it applies to reassigned numbers and the Commission's efforts to establish a reassigned numbers database,” the group said. “NAFCU reiterated its previous request for an expanded data security and fraud exception for credit unions trying to contact their members following a data breach.” The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is asking for comment on interpretation and implementation of the TCPA in light of a court decision reversing some rules (see 1805150014).

Ford autonomous commercial vehicle efforts will start “city by city,” Chris Brewer, chief engineer of its autonomous-driving program, told an Evercore ISI investment conference Tuesday, standing by the company's forecasts to begin commercial deployments in 2021. In each city, “we’ll have a geo-fenced area that we feel comfortable we can operate in safely,” said Brewer. Ford on day one won’t “pop a hundred thousand vehicles” on the road. Once demonstrated the technology works, “you have to feel comfortable that you can safely deploy,” he said. “You need to have a regulatory environment that’s ready to accept it, and you have to have customers who believe it’s going to work.” The plan is to run an autonomous-driving “pilot” next year in Miami, where the automaker is “mapping the geo-fenced area" and working with partners like Domino’s and food-delivery service Postmates, the engineer said.

Fox Sports, with Fox Innovation Lab and partners AT&T, Ericsson and Intel, will stream 4K video over 5G for “potential broadcast” nationwide at the U.S. Open Championship June 14-17 in Southampton, New York, it said Tuesday. Fox will use 5G wireless technology to transmit 4K HDR images from two cameras at the seventh hole through the network’s production truck, making it available to Fox Sports viewers through DirecTV, it said. The 5G technology, deployed for the first time at broad scale earlier this year by Intel and partners at the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, could, in the future, deliver “disruptive abilities” to broadcasters and consumers, including real-time virtual reality views, Fox said. A network goal is to “aggressively explore evolving technologies as part of our live sports production,” said Michael Davies, Fox Sports senior vice president-field and technical operations, “in preparation for what will become the industry standards.” Intel is providing its 5G mobile trial platform device to deliver the 5G to IP translation. AT&T will use millimeter-wave spectrum to deliver the 5G connection, and Ericsson is providing the 5G radios, baseband, simulated network core and 4K video encoder and decoder.

The FCC plans to place a confidential version of a report by RolkaLoube Associates on the telecom relay service in the record, available subject to protective order provisions, said a public notice in docket 03-123 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. RolkaLoube earlier found the fund needs $1.62 billion in net cash for FY 2019, which starts July 1 (see 1805080021). The report provides recommendations for TRS provider compensation rates, the funding requirement and the carrier contribution factor from this July 1 through June 30, 2019, the FCC said. “The Commission intends on examining the confidential portions of the 2018 TRS Rate Report to assist it in its open rulemaking to address the appropriate compensation methodology for Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service,” the PN said: The confidential part “includes Fund Year 2018-19 estimates for minutes, revenue, revenue requirements, profit, expenses, and the operating margin for each IP CTS provider. The Commission has recognized that such detailed data generally should be treated as confidential and exempt from public disclosure.”

Ninety percent of respondents to a Metova survey said they own a connected home device such as an appliance, TV, Amazon Echo or Google Home, said the company Monday. Nearly 70 percent said they had an Amazon Alexa- or Google Assistant-controlled device; 74 percent said they think connected home devices are the way of the future; 30 percent of those who don't own a connected home device plan to buy one within a year; and 58 percent of those who own a connected device are concerned about privacy. The survey was administered to more than 1,000 U.S. consumers covering a range of demographics and geographies, said the strategic services company.

The FCC Technological Advisory Council meets June 12. The meeting starts at 12:30 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC headquarters. “The TAC is helping the Commission to continue the momentum spurred by the National Broadband Plan to maximize the use of broadband to advance national interests and create jobs,” said a Monday public notice.

Xcite Satellite and New Star Communications are combining in a deal that will create the second-largest AT&T reseller, they said Friday.

An FCC public notice Thursday said affected parties have until May 21 to oppose FCC disclosure to DOJ, as Justice reviews T-Mobile buying Sprint, wireless numbering resource utilization and forecast reports from December onward and wireless local number portability data from October. "In general, the Commission may share information it has collected with another government agency" even when that information was given to the regulator in confidence, the PN noted. Justice may cast a skeptical eye on T-Mobile and Sprint (see 1804300055).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Gulf Coast "digital opportunity" road trip through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida is recapped here, spokeswoman Tina Pelkey tweeted. In 10 stops, starting in New Orleans and ending in St. Petersburg, Pai met with government officials, industry representatives and residents as he visited numerous communications facilities and deployment projects along the way.

Rolka Loube Associates projected the FCC telecom relay service fund needs $1.62 billion in net cash for FY 2019 starting July 1 (up 23 percent from $1.32 billion in FY 2018), and an industry contribution factor of 3 percent (up from 2.3 percent), said filings by the TRS fund administrator posted Monday in docket 10-51. It projected total demand of almost $1.8 billion from the six relay services and additional requirements: $5.4 million for interstate traditional TRS, $7.8 million for interstate captioned telephone service, $713,429 for interstate speech-to-speech (including outreach), $495 million for video relay service, $7.9 million for IP relay service, $998.7 million for IP captioned telephone service and $279.9 million in "non-provider" requirements. The latter include an FCC-mandated two-month budgetary reserve of $252.6 million for FY 2019, $10 million for a deaf-blind equipment distribution program, $8.65 million for TRS research, and smaller administrative and other expenses. The projected net cash need was lowered by offsets from the projected $172.2 million surplus as of June 30 (from a current reserve) and $1.2 million in estimated interest on invested funds. Rolka Loube said the best available estimate is that the relevant annual interstate and international telecom end user (minus reseller) revenue base will be $53.5 billion (down from $58 billion); that, combined with the $1.62 billion cash need, produces the 3 percent projected contribution factor, which most providers pass on to consumers on phone bills.