Beyond SMS texting, no other texting formats have been implemented or requested to be implemented with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Friday (docket 18-336). The bureau annually provides notification about what texting formats are required or seeks comment on parameters for any additional text message formats transmitting to 988.
The New York Senate voted 45-14 Thursday to approve a bill that would address junk fees. S-363 would require businesses, such as ISPs and cable providers, to display certain mandatory fees and the total price of their services. In addition, it would exclude "any tax, duty, fee or custom levied by any local, state, federal or other governmental or quasi-governmental entity" from its list of mandatory fees. Fourteen Senate Democrats introduced the legislation, the New York Junk Fee Prevention Act, in January. Providers would be deemed in compliance if they're abiding by the FCC's consumer broadband label rules. The bill accounts for the possibility of the FCC's rules no longer being applicable and establishes similar provisions for providers. Such mandatory fees would include surcharges that are "not reasonably avoidable" to make a purchase or require action by a consumer to remove them.
The FCC ordered Asian Touch Spa of West Palm Beach, Florida, to identify steps the company will take after it was found to be operating a Qiangyin Bluetooth speaker that was causing interference to AT&T FirstNet’s network. After FCC agents notified the company of the interference from a signal centered on 795 MHz, the speaker was shut down, said a notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. “You have ten (10) days from the date of this notice to respond concerning your operation of this part 15 device,” the notice said. “Your response should describe the steps you are taking to avoid operating on unauthorized frequencies and preventing future interference.”
NextNav reported Friday on meetings at the FCC urging the agency to launch an NPRM on its proposal for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) in the lower 900 MHz band. NextNav representatives met with an aide to Commissioner Anna Gomez and staff at the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology.
The Ecommerce Innovation Alliance had meetings at the FCC concerning the group’s pursuit of a declaratory ruling that people who provide prior express written consent to receive text messages can't claim damages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for messages received outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. (see 2503030036). The group is being represented on the issue by former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and met with staff from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Wireless bureaus, said a filing Thursday in docket 02-278.
Numerous groups filed in support of Verizon's request that the FCC delete the unlocking commitment it stipulated as a condition of approving the company’s purchase of Tracfone (see 2505200051). Among those on the filing were the American Consumer Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, Citizens Against Government Waste, the American Association of Senior Citizens, the 60 Plus Association, the Institute for Technology and Network Economics and Less Government.
The FCC Wireline Bureau Friday approved a temporary waiver of TKC TeleCom's deadlines to comply with the commission’s video incarcerated prison calling services rules. “We find that TKC has demonstrated that its waiver request presents special circumstances that warrant a deviation from the Commission’s rate cap compliance deadlines and per-minute pricing rule for video IPCS,” the bureau said. “As TKC explains, despite its best efforts to complete the necessary engineering and software upgrade work on its billing platform, its platform is not presently capable of applying the correct fees and taxes for video IPCS needed to comply with the Commission’s rules.” The new compliance deadline is April 1, 2026. The bureau noted it had previously approved a similar waiver for Securus. TKC sought the waiver last month.
The Office of International Affairs intends to terminate the international Section 214 authorization of First Technology Development because it changed its contact information and dissolved its enterprise without informing the FCC or DOJ, according to a notice of intent in Friday’s Daily Digest. The company could face enforcement action, the notice said. First Technology’s letter of agreement required it to establish points of contact for the DOJ and FCC and inform them of changes to that contact info, said the notice. However, the company hasn’t responded to multiple contact attempts from the FCC and DOJ going back to 2021, including efforts by phone, email and certified mail, the notice said. Letters and emails were returned as undeliverable, the notice said. “In light of First Technology’s failure to respond to the DOJ’s and FCC’s communications, it appears that First Technology has discontinued service without providing prior notification as required by the Commission’s rules,” the notice said. The notice gives First Technology 30 days to respond.
Consumers’ Research and other conservative interests are once again asking the FCC to zero out the USF contribution factor, this time for Q3 2025. The group filed the day after the FCC Office of Managing Director proposed a contribution factor of 36% for Q3 (see 2506110058). The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in coming days on an appeal of a 5th Circuit en banc decision last summer, which found that the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.” Justices heard oral argument in that case in March (see 2503260061).
Liberty Latin America (LLA) will pay a $24,000 fine for violating the 25% cap on foreign ownership of holders of common carrier radio station licenses, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Friday. Bermuda-based LLA provides broadband, video, mobile and telephony services in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and across the Caribbean and Latin America. The bureau said it discovered a discrepancy between the amount of foreign ownership the FCC approved for LLA and the actual ownership interest of LLA subsidiary LiLAC Ventures.