The FCC said initial comments on a Form 477 Further NPRM are due on Oct. 10, clarified a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest. The deadline had been extended to Oct. 9 (see 1709190068), but that falls on Columbus Day, the PN noted.

That autonomous vehicles will make lives safer, more “affordable” and more “enjoyable” are reasons to “get excited,” CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a Wednesday opinion piece. He noted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 94 percent of U.S. traffic accidents are caused by human error. Self-driving cars “will cut the costs of insurance, licensing and repairs, and will free up time spent in traffic or searching for parking spaces,” he wrote for U.S. News & World Report.

Hamilton Relay urged the FCC to consider all IP captioned telephone service (CTS) issues in a new Further NPRM, given the time that has passed since a 2013 NPRM and "numerous pending rate proposals." For now, the agency should "continue to employ the Multistate Average Rate Structure (MARS) for calculating IP CTS rates, because MARS is the only market-based [telecom relay service] rate mechanism ...[and] has proven to produce predictable rates that reasonably compensate IP CTS providers" for costs, said a Hamilton filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-24 on conversations with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr. It asked the FCC, as it did on video relay service rates, to release for comment any IP CTS draft order before a vote. CaptionCall and parent Sorenson Communications opposed a ClearCaptions proposal for a four-tier rate structure, and they urged the FCC not to propose any rate tiers in an FNPRM. Although the FCC has adopted VRS rate tiers, "the IP CTS market is fundamentally different" and such an approach could be disruptive, they said Tuesday. CaptionCall said Sept. 7 it believed all the rate issues should be considered in an FNPRM, but it understood the FCC was considering setting a transitional rate; if the commission does so, the company urged regulators not to prejudge issues. CaptionCall agreed with Sprint that "service quality standards" must be considered with long-term rates. "We also agree with Sprint and Hamilton that the MARS methodology has avoided dramatic swings in the IP CTS rate, allowing providers to invest in their services with reasonable certainty that they will recover their investments," said a filing it and Sorenson made on a meeting with a Pai aide.

Industry regulatory fee payments for FY 2017 are due by Tuesday, said an FCC order to be published in Friday's Federal Register, though entities in areas affected by hurricanes Irma or Harvey have until Sept. 29 (see 1709150046). The order collectively assessed regulated industry parties $356.7 million and hiked satellite-TV provider fees (see 1709060050).

Parties must register soon with a new Number Portability Administration Center to ensure seamless access to related data and services, said iconectiv, the incoming local number portability administrator. It said service providers must register by Oct. 31 whether they're testing their NPAC interfaces or not. Law enforcement agencies and "wireless do not call users" have until Nov. 30 to register if testing their interfaces, and until Dec. 31 if not testing them, said iconectiv, which is currently scheduled to complete its takeover of LNP administrator duties from Neustar next May. More information is available at the NPAC transition website.

Comments are due Nov. 6 on revised implementation rules for the 911 grant program, said a notice to be published in Thursday Federal Register. NTIA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed the revised rules. The 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act made $115 million available from the Public Safety Trust Fund for the program, which funds improvements to 911, E-911 and Next-Generation 911 services and applications. The NTIA and NHTSA earlier said they planned to award NG-911 grants in FY 2018 (see 1701200026).

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions and Neustar said testing of caller authentication standards “is well underway” and 19 telecom companies signed on to tests in the ATIS testbed. “This industry interoperability testing is taking place through a virtualized testbed and software implementation at a facility exclusively hosted by the Neustar Trust Lab,” said in a Tuesday news release. The testbed was launched to support efforts of the Industry Robocall Strike Force (see 1610260053) to curb unwanted robocalls, a news release said. On Monday, FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry said curbing illegal and unwanted robocalls is a top FCC consumer focus (see 1709180015). ATIS said participation in the testbed shows commitment to the Secure Telephone Identity Revisited Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs approach to call authentication. “The growing number and variety of participants using the testbed -- communications service providers, network manufacturers, solution vendors and government agencies -- speaks to the urgency and the industry’s overall commitment to combatting unwanted robocalling and caller fraud,” said Hank Skorny, Neustar senior vice president.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau plans to “develop and publish performance goals and measures for enforcement practices” to implement GAO recommendations for improving the bureau, Chief Rosemary Harold said in a letter responding to the recommendations that went public last week. House Commerce Committee Republicans sought the GAO audit in 2015 (see 1510230068). The GAO found the FCC had improved the bureau’s efficiency over the past five years but that there needed to be clear “performance indicators, targets, and timeframes” to effectively measure that progress. Lack of metrics also makes it hard for Congress to do effective oversight, the GAO said. This week, the regulator issued an NPRM OK'd by commissioners to harmonize certain bureau complaint procedural rules (see 1709180055).

Digital Realty completed a takeover worth about $7.8 billion of data center owner DuPont Fabros, as expected (see 1706090025), the buyer announced Thursday. The acquirer is adding two of the acquiree's directors to its board (see personals section in this issue).

The FCC-proposed USF contribution factor for Q4 is 18.8 percent of net carrier revenue from interstate and international telecom service end users, said an Office of Managing Director public notice in docket 96-45 in Wednesday's Daily Digest, as expected (see 1709050050). Up from Q3's 17.1 percent factor, it takes effect in 14 days absent further action.