By the end of next year, 30% of all medical appointments in the U.S. will be conducted via telemedicine, tech provider ScienceSoft projected in a Friday report. Among the findings, mental health will lead the way, with 38.3% of sessions already done remotely in 2023. “Notably, 78.6% of hospitals in the United States reported having installed a telemedicine solution, which means the necessary technology is already in place,” the report said.
Members of the Cross-Sector Resiliency Forum briefed aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about the group’s most recent work, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 11-60.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' reported plans to eliminate 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline services specifically catering to LGBTQ+ users -- part of an array of cost-cutting steps -- are "grotesque," FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez wrote Friday on X. The FCC "is committed to mental health support for all -- no matter who you love or how you identify," she said. "That’s why we made it easier to call/text 988. Stripping LGBTQ+ Americans of this lifesaving tool is cruel and will lead to preventable deaths." HHS didn't comment.
The FCC's equipment authorization authority can be used to fight the security vulnerabilities that equipment on the agency's "covered list" can pose, Charter Communications executives told the commission. In a docket 21-232 posting Friday recapping a meeting with FCC Council for National Security Director Adam Chan, Charter advocated that the agency require device manufacturers seeking certification to show that their devices securely authenticate with a network owner or operator before the device can connect. Alternately, they should show that their devices communicate a unique, unchangeable and cryptographically assured device ID number to the network anytime it connects, Charter said. Such a requirement would let connectivity providers identify vulnerabilities in their networks, including the originating devices, and isolate them, it added.
While the Trump administration has paused the most extreme of its proposed tariffs for now, they're still having a negative effect on the economy, S&P Global Warnings said Thursday. “We expect the PC and smartphone sectors will be most affected … while hardware issuers that focus on server, storage, and networking equipment products will be less affected,” S&P said. IT spending growth “will slow to 5%-7% in 2025 compared to our previous forecast of 9%.”
The American Bankers Association urged FCC commissioners to approve a draft robocall NPRM that seeks to close a gap in the commission’s Stir/Shaken authentication rules. The NPRM, which addresses the caller ID authentication gap resulting from non-IP networks, is set for a vote April 28 (see 2504070054). “Voice calls that impersonate banks and other legitimate businesses harm consumers and undermine those businesses’ ability to communicate with their customers,” the group said in a filing posted Tuesday (docket 17-97). “If a call passes through a non-IP framework, the STIR/SHAKEN attestation is dropped,” it said: “There is evidence that criminals exploit this gap in our caller ID authentication framework to perpetrate fraud on consumers.” The FCC is also seeing lobbying regarding the 37 GHz draft order (see 2504220011) and the geostationary orbit/non-geostationary orbit satellite spectrum sharing NPRM (see 2504220006) on Monday's meeting agenda.
New Street’s Blair Levin told investors that the broadband implications of President Donald Trump's recent executive order on permitting reform remain to be seen (see 2504180036). The order “says that the purpose is to improve the permitting processes for ‘infrastructure projects of all kinds, such as roads, bridges, mines, factories, power plants, and others,’” Levin said last week: “While broadband is not mentioned, it could be included in the category of ‘others.’”
The Coalition for IP Transition continues to raise issues unrelated to Verizon's proposed takeover of Frontier, Verizon said Friday in docket 24-445. Verizon and the coalition have been jousting over proposed interconnection conditions (see 2504080061). The carrier said the coalition wrongly asserts that Verizon policies violate Section 251 of the Communications Act, which governs interconnection. Verizon said it's following FCC guidance when it negotiates in good faith in response to requests for IP interconnection and enters commercial agreements to exchange traffic in IP format.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau wants letters of intent by May 23 from entities interested in leading the industry consortium for robocall traceback efforts, said a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest. USTelecom's Industry Traceback Group currently holds the position. Comments on submitted letters of intent are due by June 11, replies June 18, in docket 20-22.
Beyond dropping the proposed $4.5 million fine against Telnyx, the FCC should halt altogether its "effective measures" rule on blocking illegal calls, Free State Foundation President Randolph May wrote Thursday. The Telnyx notice of apparent liability (NAL) for allegedly violating the effective measures rule would ultimately create unspecified requirements that are at the same time more stringent than anything the FCC previously established in notice-and-comment rulemakings, May said. The proposed fine "smacks of 'regulation by enforcement' ... because regulated entities are deprived of the ability to know and follow the law." FSF previously called for rescinding the Telnyx NAL (see 2503120071).