The FCC asked states to file by Oct. 1 if they want to continue running their own telecom relay service (TRS) programs. Current five-year certifications will expire July 25, 2018, and while there's no deadline for seeking recertification, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau requested applications be filed by Oct. 1 to give the commission time to review them, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 03-123. The PN said the bureau would seek comment on applications.

Wireless deployment will raise tough regulatory issues in the months ahead, Raymond James' Frank Louthan said Thursday in a regulatory update. “One of the most important issues facing the industry is the deployment of fiber-based small cells for growing wireless infrastructure demand,” he wrote. “This has been complicated with a lack of regulatory rules for these systems. We believe the FCC will be weighing in as well and will have little tolerance for local hold ups, with no hesitation to use preemption in states that are unreasonable.” The mergers before regulators “seem to be moving in the right direction, and we continue to view cable's need for a wireless solution as a very long-term decision,” the analyst said. Little has changed on net neutrality, Louthan said: “We believe the industry is waiting for the chairman of the FCC to take action and this is likely to be in the late summer to early fall time frame.”

The FTC won't challenge Cisco’s acquisition of Viptela, a software-defined wide-area network company, said an early termination notice. Cisco announced the $610 million deal in May and expected to close in second half of 2017 (see 1705010064).

AT&T denied Randall Stephenson is planning to no longer be CEO after the company buys Time Warner. The company said in a statement Friday that Stephenson will remain chairman and CEO post-close, and that no other decisions on organizational structure or leadership are finalized. It said Stephenson and TW CEO Jeff Bewkes "are working through that." Wells Fargo's Jennifer Fritzsche wrote investors that in the reported post-deal structure, it makes sense that Stephenson would become executive chairman overseeing co-CEOs John Stankey and John Donovan as heads of its media business and wireline and wireless businesses, respectively. The analyst cited different customer bases the company will serve.

AT&T and the Communications Workers of America said they reached a tentative deal, with a federal mediator's help, covering about 17,000 workers. CWA members earlier this month voted down a proposed four-year contract that would have been the first for employees of DirecTV, which the telecom company bought in 2015, and reportedly included pay raises, increased job security, retirement benefits and healthcare measures (see 1706050026 and 1707070043). The union and company had agreed to mediation, a CWA spokeswoman said. Neither side released details. "The agreement was reached after extensive discussions between the Company, the CWA, and a federal mediator provided through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service," AT&T said. Next, union members will vote on the deal, both sides said.

Nine of 26 tech and telecom companies earned credit for policies that defended users' privacy against government data requests and national security letter gag orders, said the annual Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Who Has Your Back" report released Monday. EFF said Credo, Lyft and Uber were among those that fulfilled all five categories, while Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft and Yahoo earned four stars. AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile and Verizon were given one star for the category of following industry best practices such as having a policy requiring the government to get a warrant for data, publishing transparency reports and explaining how it responds to government demands for data. Those four companies didn't comment. The other four categories were providing notices to users when there's a government data request; ensuring such data isn't given to governments via third-party vendors; standing up to gag orders (see 1612010071); and committing to changes in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act (see 1706270052). EFF said companies are becoming more transparent since the report was first issued seven years ago, in part due to more public attention.

ViaSat disputed a Rural Coalition's procedural and substantive criticisms of its proposals for the FCC's Connect America Fund Phase II auction of fixed broadband subsidies (see 1706160018). It noted a suggestion that ViaSat’s input proposals constitute an untimely petition for reconsideration. "To the contrary, those inputs were provided to inform the Commission’s efforts to further define the structures and procedures to be used in [the] upcoming CAF II reverse-auction -- including through the development of an auction procedures public notice," said a filing Thursday in docket 10-90. "The Commission is free to consider ViaSat’s inputs for those purposes, or any others the Commission deems suitable." The filing also contained a white paper by Paul Milgrom of Auctionomics responding to an analysis by David Salant submitted by the Rural Coalition. Milgrom called Salant's analysis "incomplete," with conclusions that "rely on incorrect statements and misleading examples."

Comments are due July 21 and replies July 31 on an NCTA petition for the FCC to reconsider pole-attachment provisions of an order streamlining telco Part 32 accounting rules (see 1706260040), said a summary of a commission public notice published in the Federal Register Thursday. The FR also published two FCC summaries requesting Paperwork Reduction Act comments by Sept. 5 on two information collections: one revising telco reporting requirements under an April business data service order (see 1704200020), and the other revising reporting requirements of covered 911 service providers that must certify implementation of best practices or reasonable alternative measures (see 1312130062 and 1507310010). A summary of another FCC item published in the FR said the Office of Management and Budget approved an information collection from an order giving railroad police access to public safety interoperability channels, and it set Thursday as the effective date of related rules (see 1608230036).

A North American Numbering Council report identified issues and made recommendations to the FCC on possible foreign ownership of interconnected VoIP (i-VoIP) providers seeking direct access to telephone numbering resources. The June 29 report -- which the FCC requested after it received two i-VoIP numbering applications involving foreign ownership -- was made available to us Thursday. NANC said foreign-owned i-VoIP applicants raise many of the same issues as domestic applicants -- on number exhaust, rule enforcement, tax and fee assessment, and security and law enforcement -- many of which "may be adequately covered" under existing law and regulation. But the "use or misuse of [North American Numbering Plan] resources outside of the U.S. and any costs to U.S. consumers would be of significant concern," the report said. "The FCC should consider whether to condition and monitor such activities to prevent any unintended consequences, including fraud where relevant." NANC further recommended the commission "consider vetting non-numbering related concerns (e.g., call completion requirements, Caller ID or anti-spoofing provisions) before granting foreign-owned interconnected VoIP providers authority to obtain numbering resources directly" from administrators. It also recommended foreign-owned i-VoIP numbering applicants follow all the same requirements applied to domestic i-VoIP applicants, including by providing contact information for personnel reachable during U.S. business hours.

A draft FCC slamming and cramming NPRM seems to imply existing rules apply to providers of commercial mobile radio services (CMRS) and interconnected VoIP services, said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. The draft (see 1706300042) doesn't say whether proposed rules should apply to CMRS and interconnected VoIP services, but it seeks comment on why the commission receives fewer slamming and cramming complaints for those services than it does on legacy telco services. "This implies that the Commission believes that the existing rules apply to CMRS and interconnected VOIP, since the natural answer is 'there are fewer complaints because the Commission’s rules do not expressly cover'" either service, he said in filings posted Wednesday in docket 17-169 on meetings with General Counsel Brendan Carr and aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Mignon Clyburn. "The current state of the law is complicated," he said, citing agency actions in 2009 and 2012 and calling the draft proposals unclear, particularly for interconnected VoIP. He recommended the FCC clarify that it intends to impose its proposed rules on traditional LEC, CMRS and interconnected VoIP services, or at least solicit comment on whether it should do so. The FCC didn't comment.