USTelecom backed a Sprint petition to lift a payphone call tracking audit duty and asked that the relief be extended to all covered carriers. "Given the continuing decline in the number of payphone calls over the past decade, this audit requirement has become unnecessary and unduly burdensome," said a filing Friday in docket 96-128. Sprint said requiring providers to certify there have been no material changes to carriers' payphone audit compliance essentially requires them to complete an audit every year, which the company said should be waived in light of the costs and industry trends (see 1704070067). "Given that for years USTelecom’s member companies have consistently shown compliance with the compensation rules, despite the declining nature of the payphone regime, coupled with the exorbitant cost of an annual audit, they agree that a waiver of the audit requirement is not only justified but also in the public interest," USTelecom wrote. It also said it supports Cincinnati Bell's comments in a telecom biennial review proceeding, "which echo the need for deregulatory measures with respect to the payphone compensation rules."

Mobile internet and voice services continue to grow but the fixed service picture is mixed, said two FCC reports released Friday. The reports issued by the Wireline Bureau's Industry Analysis and Technology Division examine the status of internet access and voice telephone services as of June 30, based on Form 477 data collected from industry parties. There were 369 million U.S. internet connections, an increase of 8 percent from June 30, 2015, said the internet access report. It said mobile internet connections were up by 10 percent to 265 million and fixed internet connections were up 4 percent to 104 million. There were 59 million fixed connections with speeds of at least 25 Mbps (18 million of which provided at least 100 Mbps), up from 50 million, it said. The number of mobile voice subscriptions increased from 326.6 million to 337.8 million, said the voice telephone services report. Interconnected voice subscriptions grew from 56.7 million to 60.3 million, and retail switched access lines dropped from 68.1 million to 62.3 million, it said.

Dish Network's buying of reserved spectrum in the broadcast incentive auction doesn't unduly limit the company's options, said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker in a note to investors Wednesday. Reserve spectrum comes with six-year limits on assignment, transfer or lease of licenses, but Dish has options for some kind of deal with incumbent operators like Verizon or T-Mobile, Wells Fargo said. It said the reserve requirement wouldn't come into play in a total company transaction since the FCC usually looks at total spectrum holdings, not the origin of the spectrum unless the seller is a designated entity. Wells Fargo also said a deal could be structured so the reserved spectrum sits in a holding company unused for six years.

Dish Network's spectrum holdings could be "too much of a good thing," reducing its strategic options, Macquarie analyst Amy Yong said in a note to investors Tuesday. Macquarie said in a merger or acquisition, Dish's spectrum holdings -- including the $6.2 billion worth gained in the broadcast incentive auction (see 1704130056) -- could carry some baggage, as near-term carrier spectrum supply and demand is balanced, with AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint seemingly having ample spectrum assets. A Dish/carrier merger "would likely generate regulatory uncertainty," it said. Meanwhile, 5G is using fiber and densification, and much AT&T and Verizon focus has been on fiber and millimeter wave spectrum, not on the 600 MHz auction, it said.

An FCC draft order would modernize the fee payment system used by carriers filing for relief from any new Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) requirements, an agency spokesman told us Monday. The item amending Part 1 of the FCC's rules was on the agency's circulation list, which was updated Friday.

The phone network needs to be modernized to help consumers block unwanted calls while facilitating legitimate calls, said Gus Hurwitz, an American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar. Until the "outdated" Telephone Consumer Protection Act is updated, the FCC needs to apply the law in a more effective way because its "largely laudable" efforts have been "too limited," Hurwitz said in a blog post Friday. The agency efforts "place too much emphasis on those making these calls and too little on how the architecture of the phone network makes these calls possible," he wrote. "They simultaneously are only incomplete solutions to stopping the problem of 'bad calls' and also unduly burden 'good calls,' subjecting companies with legitimate need to call consumers that want to play by the rules in making those calls to substantial liability for simple and honest mistakes. A better approach would be to update the telephone network from its current 1980s protocols to give consumers greater control over who can call them." Caller ID technology was "bolted on top of the 1980s architecture -- but because they were add-on technologies, they were designed in a way that allows callers to hide or lie about their information," he wrote, citing the increasing dominance of mobile phones as another complication for TCPA enforcement.

AT&T blocked its billionth unwanted robocall using a program that detects unwanted calls through network data analysis. AT&T’s fraud management team and big data scientists created the system, it said in a Thursday news release. “It examines more than 1.5 billion calls each day for patterns that indicate robocallers. It then drills down on suspicious activity that may be illegal or forbidden. One example is multiple short-duration calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call list.” The company said it's averaging 12 million blocked calls every weekday.

NTIA will hold the next meeting April 26 of its multistakeholder process on IoT security upgradeability. The process, which convened in October (see 1610190051), is now divided into working groups focused on existing standards and tools, technical capabilities, communicating security upgradeability and adoption incentives and barriers. Participants aim to use the meeting to “share progress from the working groups and hear feedback from the broader stakeholder community,” NTIA said in a notice to have run in an upcoming Federal Register. “Stakeholders will also discuss their vision of the timing and outputs of this initiative, and how the different work streams can complement each other.” The meeting is to run 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the American Institute of Architects’ offices in Washington.

The Federal Aviation Administration will release the first set of informational maps April 27, aimed at speeding drone operators' applications to get controlled access to airspace near airports, said the agency in a Monday news release. The FAA said the "facility maps" will help remote pilots customize requests "to align with locations and altitudes that the maps indicate are likely to be approved for small [unmanned aircraft systems] operations." The maps don't guarantee approval for a request, but could help simplify the process and improve an application's chances, said the FAA. The first set will contain about 200 maps, with more planned for release over the next year, it said.

APCO is seeking signatures on an electronic petition to the White House asking that 911 call takers be classified as part of a “protective” occupation, in the same category as police, firefighters and other public safety professionals. “As the federal government nears a final decision on whether to update its classification system describing occupations in the United States, APCO has launched a White House petition entitled 9-1-1 Professionals Should Be Recognized for Protecting and Saving Lives,’” APCO said in a release. “The goal of this petition, timed with National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, is to draw attention to the need to classify Public Safety Telecommunicators as Protective Service Occupations.” The petition states: "9-1-1 Professionals Should be Recognized for Protecting and Saving Lives."