CTIA told the FCC that U.S. networks are secure in comments on a notice from the FCC Public Safety Bureau on providers’ implementation of security counter-measures to prevent the exploitation of vulnerabilities in the Signaling System 7 (SS7) and Diameter protocols to track the locations of consumers through their mobile devices. Comments were due Friday in docket 18-99. Major carriers emphasized that their systems were updated to address risks. That was also the industry message when the agency asked about Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council recommendations on diameter protocol security four years ago (see 2003120030). “U.S. providers’ commitment to security has resulted in U.S. networks being relatively more secure from legacy SS7 and Diameter risks than networks in other regions,” CTIA said. CTIA explained that technology is evolving. Legacy SS7 signaling is used today only in legacy 2G and 3G networks and Diameter in 4G and non-stand-alone 5G networks and “was deployed to help reduce risks associated with SS7 and is less susceptible to attacks,” the group said. Stand-alone 5G networks use HTTP/2 for signaling. Verizon said it knows of no successful attempts to access network user location data on its network using weaknesses in the SS7 or Diameter protocols since CSRIC’s adoption of best practices in 2018. “As Verizon explained in response to previous public notices relating to SS7 and Diameter security, in interviews with Commission staff, and in its responses to the Letter of Inquiry received from the Bureau” in October 2022 “we have implemented the relevant recommendations issued by the CSRIC and GSMA on signaling security,” the carrier said. As noted in previous filings, “AT&T has employed an aggressive, multifaceted approach to SS7 and Diameter security” and “continues to take significant, aggressive steps to protect the SS7 and Diameter networks including implementation of CSRIC’s working group recommendation,” the carrier said.
DOJ supports FCC efforts to lower prices and increase competition for incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS), the department said Monday. “IPCS markets across the country suffer from a lack of competition, which harms both incarcerated people and those who purchase communications services to communicate with them,” the DOJ Antitrust Division said in a filing in docket 23-62. “Incarcerated people and their loved ones face an effective monopoly after the correctional facility selects a provider for its communications services. This process imposes long-term, structural barriers to competition and deprives consumers the benefits of a robust, competitive IPCS market.” Securus and Viapath “have controlled well over half of the overall market for more than a decade,” added the division: The providers’ competitors have failed to “discipline their prices” and there are “significant barriers to entry and expansion.” As a result, "unreasonably high rates, ancillary service fees, and abusive provider practices such as the seizure of unused funds in incarcerated people’s accounts without notice or refund,” characterize the market, it said. The division recommended considering “whether site commissions ought to be included as costs of providing service when determining just and reasonable rates.” Some jails and prisons prefer vendors that pay higher commissions, “but when site commissions serve to increase the rates that incarcerated people and their families pay, they work directly against the FCC’s mandate to ensure that such rates be just and reasonable,” it said. Also, the agency shouldn’t let providers "evade rate regulation by steering customers from regulated to unregulated communications services such as electronic messaging, which would cause competitive harm and dilute the intended benefits of the Martha Wright-Reed Act,” said the division: Messaging rates that incarcerated people pay “are unreasonably higher than the rates paid by people who reside outside of correctional facilities.”
The Senate Communications Subcommittee has plans for following up the Commerce Committee’s Wednesday markup of the draft Spectrum and National Security Act (see 2404250061) with a Thursday hearing eyeing the future of federal affordable broadband programs. Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., released a revised version of her draft spectrum bill Friday night as a substitute amendment that increases funding it would loan the FCC to keep the affordable broadband program running through the end of FY 2024. The new bill offers $7 billion, up $2 billion from the original proposal. That puts Cantwell’s legislation in line with the ACP Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), which also proposes $7 billion in stopgap funding. Cantwell’s revised spectrum bill also includes language from the Improving Minority Participation and Careers in Telecommunications Act to create an NTIA program to distribute money to historically Black, tribal and minority-serving colleges and universities to develop telecom sector job training (see 2108020061). Cantwell's bill proposes loaning NTIA $200 million for the program. Senate Communications’ Thursday hearing will include testimony from New Street’s Blair Levin and Kathryn de Wit, director-Pew Charitable Trusts broadband access initiative. Also set to testify: Economic Policy Innovation Center CEO Paul Winfree and New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion’s Jennifer Case Nevarez. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
The FCC's supplemental coverage from space (SCS) licensing framework that commissioners adopted 5-0 in March (see 2403140050) becomes effective May 30, according to a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. Comments are due May 30 and replies July 1 in a Further NPRM adopted with the order, said a separate notice. The NPRM asks questions about SCS delivery of 911 service and protection of radio astronomy.
A final bipartisan, bicameral bill reauthorizing the FAA includes a provision directing the Government Accountability Office to undertake a study of airspace congestion and DOT's inspector general to audit the FAA's internal processes for communicating civil aviation operators' positions to NTIA when it comes to spectrum reallocation or auctions. The FAA Reauthorization Act, released Monday, says the GAO will examine issues including commercial space launch and reentry activity. The bill directs the DOT IG to "improve internal processes by which proposed spectrum reallocations or auctions are thoroughly reviewed in advance" to ensure civil aviation stakeholders' stances get submitted to NTIA and then the FCC. The IG also must seek ways of improving communication with those aviation stakeholders about proposed spectrum reallocation or auctions that could affect the national airspace system, the bill says. It directs the FAA to conduct R&D in consultation with NTIA and the FCC on "effective and efficient use and management of radio frequency spectrum in the civil aviation domain." The legislation also directs that the FAA, with NTIA and FCC consultation, start an R&D program for development of standards for next-generation radio altimeters.
Tuesday marks the last day that eligible households enrolled in the affordable connectivity program will receive full funding, Miriam Montgomery, chief of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division, noted during a National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors webinar on Monday. The webinar also included an update on the national broadband map.
Wi-Fi advocates and 6 GHz incumbents disagreed sharply on an FCC proposal to expand the parts of the 6 GHz band where very-low power (VLP) devices can operate without coordination, beyond the initial 850 MHz commissioners approved last year (see [Ref:2310190054). In one development of note, tech companies saw support for a proposal to create a geofenced variable power (GVP) device class. Replies were posted Monday in docket 18-295.
HOT SPRINGS, Virginia -- Restoring the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority is a major priority of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Communications & Technology Subcommittee, Democratic and Republican staffers said Saturday at the FCBA annual retreat here. John Lin, House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Republican senior counsel, said while Republicans would consider discussing continuing the affordable connectivity program, changes to it must come first. Speakers also covered next steps for the cyber trust mark and interagency relations on spectrum conflicts.
FCC commissioners approved fines against the then-four national wireless carriers for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations, in orders released Monday. The vote was 3-2. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon plan to appeal.
The FCC should change a draft order on foreign-sponsored content to clarify that the rules on disclosure of foreign sponsorship and certifications that companies aren’t foreign agents apply only to leased programming, not advertisements, NAB said in meetings Tuesday with Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez, according to an ex parte filing in docket 20-299 (see 2403210071. The FCC “need only make clear” that language describing “short form advertising” as exempt from the rules means all advertising, NAB said. The FCC should avoid using language that inadvertently loops in longer infomercials, political ads or public service announcements, the group said. “Trying to provide a specific definition for advertising could easily lead to more problems,” NAB said. “An overlay of new diligence and disclosure rules” on top of the existing sponsorship ID rules “would be beyond the scope of the Notice in this proceeding and otherwise violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the First Amendment, and the FCC’s statutory authority,” the filing said. “NAB also reminds the Commission that no one has filed in support of the FCC proposals.”