A spike in unlawful robocalls since January might be due to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals striking down part of the FCC's 2023 robocall and robotext order (see 2501240067), Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawyer Eric Troutman of Troutman Amin wrote Tuesday. Illegal robocalls are at their highest level to start the year since 2019, after a significant decline in 2024, Troutman said. "Just a massive (and sudden) turn around," he said. "The bad actors out there are plainly winning," meaning "heavy-handed (and misguided) action from Congress or the regulators" is coming. The increase in unlawful robocalls eliminates any hope of tort reform to rein in "the insane number of frivolous TCPA suits against small businesses."

Representatives of Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment (REACH) met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on the group’s proposal that the FCC revise its robocall/robotext safe harbor rules (see 2501290033).

AT&T and Palo Alto Networks announced an offering Tuesday that delivers secure connectivity for business customers. AT&T Dynamic Defense “will provide real-time threat prevention, automated risk response, AI-driven operations, and cloud-delivered security, providing robust protection for data, applications, and users,” said a news release. The solution “will also enable protection for AT&T wireline and wireless connections within a unified, singular security framework across all devices, offering comprehensive security for businesses with a dispersed network.”

The Edison Electric Institute asked the FCC to act on its petition for clarity on a requirement that utilities have prior express consent under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to send demand response calls and texts to their customers (see 2503100047). “As EEI explained in the Petition, demand response programs are a ‘crucial strategy for utilities’ to help keep the electricity grid stable ‘given the dramatic increases of both energy demand, and the costs borne by customers associated with meeting that demand,’” said a filing last week in docket 02-278.

Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment (REACH) asked the FCC to clarify that calls made with a called party's consent are not solicitations and not subject to time restrictions under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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%.”