The FCC and FTC were upbeat about interagency coordination on reducing robocalls, saying Tuesday that the effort "appears to have had a significant impact in protecting consumers." They cited a "decrease in the volume of apparently illegal robocalls reportedly transmitting the networks" of seven gateway providers that received warnings: Telstar Express, Bandwith, CenturyLink, iDentidad Advertising Development, Tata Communications (America), Telco Connection and TeleCall Telecommunications. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement that the effort proves "we are stronger in our efforts to protect American consumers." FTC Chair Lina Khan vowed that the agency will "continue to crack down on upstream actors that facilitate fraud."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Association of Business and the Longview, Texas, Chamber of Commerce sued the FCC in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over the agency's rules defining "digital discrimination of access." The rules were adopted by a 3-2 vote during a November agency meeting (see 2311150040). The order "purports to implement" part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act "by adopting a definition of 'digital discrimination of access' to broadband internet service that encompasses '[p]olicies or practices, not justified by genuine issues of technical or economic feasibility,' that result in disparate treatment or disparate impact," the groups said in the filing. Filed Friday, the suit was posted Monday.
Labor contributed on average to 73% of underground build costs and 67% of aerial costs for fiber broadband providers in 2023, said a Fiber Broadband Association report Monday. Conducted by Cartesian, the report included regional cost variations and the cost differential between deployment methods. “As broadband providers across the country look to leverage public and private funding to connect communities to high-quality broadband services, understanding the cost variables of deployment remains a vital component to broadband plans and proposals,” said Deborah Kish, FBA vice president-research and workforce development. Respondents to the group's survey expected deployment, engineering and permitting costs to decrease in 2024 while material prices were expected to increase. The group will present the report's findings in a webinar Wednesday at 11 a.m. EST.
APCO Monday unveiled a $29 annual membership rate for students, interns and teachers at high schools and colleges. The initiative “opens up awareness of public safety telecommunications as a career option and helps develop leaders for the future by reaching students with an aptitude for related careers early,” APCO said. The current listed full membership rate for individual public safety practitioners is $104 annually, with a partial membership rate of $79.
At least 47 municipal broadband networks launched services since Jan. 1, 2021, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance said Thursday. Many others are in planning or preconstruction stages, ILSR said. The institute counts nearly 450 muni broadband networks in the U.S., it said. “Instead of pleading with or giving additional handouts to the monopoly ISPs,” the cities with muni broadband networks “decided to invest in themselves,” said Ry Marcattilio, ILSR associate director for research.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness continues to lobby the FCC on routing calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. In a docket 18-336 filing Wednesday, NAMI recapped a meeting with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office at which it urged the agency to require 988 calls to be routed to the call center closest to the call's physical location and not based on area code. It also pushed for the agency to convene relevant stakeholders to discuss solutions to outstanding issues. It has repeatedly pressed the FCC on these items (see 2301180030 and 2304280046).
The FCC's precision ag task force will convene Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. EST in person for its first meeting of its rechartered term, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 19-329. The task force will meet to introduce members, review the group's duties, and begin discussing strategies to advance broadband deployment on agricultural lands and promote precision ag. The notice also announced task force membership. Michael Adelaine, South Dakota State University chief information officer emeritus, was appointed chair. The previous chair was Teddy Bekele, Land O'Lakes chief technology officer.
Verizon warned in an SEC filing Wednesday it will take a $5.8 billion impairment charge in Q4 reflecting "secular declines" in its Business Group. An “impairment test determined that the fair value of the Business reporting unit was less than its carrying value," Verizon said. The carrier is slated to release Q4 results Tuesday.
NTCA and ACA Connects urged the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Tuesday to adopt the FCC's proposal to amend a 2017 rule simplifying the historic preservation review process for communications providers. Streamlining the review process will give providers more flexibility when seeking to deploy federally funded broadband infrastructure, the groups said in a news release. The will ensure providers can "utilize game-changing broadband funding" to "more effectively and efficiently" close the digital divide, ACA Connects President-CEO Grant Spellmeyer said. It's "critical to balance important historic preservation considerations and minimizing burdens and delays in network construction," said NTCA Executive Vice President Mike Romano.
The rule requiring covered 988 service providers and originating service providers to report outages that potentially affect the 988 suicide and crisis Lifeline becomes effective Feb. 15, according to a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. Notifications must go to the FCC network outage reporting system, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the 988 Lifeline administrator. The FCC approved a 988 outage reporting order 4-0 in July (see 2307200041).