The Federal Communications Commission reached a settlement to resolve its enforcement action against Lingo Telecom, a voice service provider that transmitted spoofed robocalls that used generative AI voice cloning technology to spread disinformation in connection with a presidential primary election in New Hampshire.  The calls were directed by a political consultant named Steve Kramer in an attempt to interfere in the 2024 New Hampshire primary election.  The company will pay a $1 million civil penalty and implement a historic compliance plan—the first of its kind secured by the FCC—that will require strict adherence to the FCC’s STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication rules, including requirements that the company abide by “Know Your Customer” (KYC) and “Know Your Upstream Provider” (KYUP) principles—which allows carriers to vet traffic and ensure it is trustworthy—and requirements that the company more thoroughly verify the accuracy of the information provided by its customers and upstream providers. Kramer was indicted in New Hampshire on state charges of felony voter suppression and misdemeanor impersonation of a candidate.  The New Hampshire Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General is handling that case. In addition to the $1 million civil penalty, Lingo Telecom agrees to, among others, the following KYC and KYUP terms: 

• Applying an A-level attestation, which is the highest level of trust attributed to a phone number, only to a call where Lingo Telecom itself has provided the caller ID number to the party making the call;
• Verifying the identity and line of business of each customer and upstream provider by obtaining independent corroborating records; and
• Transmitting traffic only from upstream providers that have robust robocall mitigation mechanisms in place and are responsive to traceback requests.

Many small and midsized cable and broadband operators are exploring a potential launch into the mobile arena, but other priorities, including fiber network buildouts, are keeping some of them on the sidelines. But the option is there for many operators that want it thanks to the National Content & Technology Cooperative's (NCTC's) mobile partnerships with Reach and AT&T. NCTC is working on new operational and economic initiates designed to make it easier for the co-op's 700-plus members to enter the mobile arena. But some operators are still mulling their options. MCTV, an operator based in Massillon (OH), is "always thinking" about adding a mobile option, but it's not on the short-term roadmap, said CEO Katherine Gessner. Gessner is also wary that MCTV will need to get mobile right from the start, so she's willing to stay off to the side as other operators pursue their respective mobile initiatives.

The carbon footprint of fiber broadband networks is lower than hybrid fiber coax networks on every sustainability metric, from embodied carbon to carbon in the operational phases, including customer premise equipment. The Fiber Broadband Association’s Sustainability Working Group compared the carbon footprint of fiber to the home (FTTH) networks with Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) data over cable system interface specification (DOCSIS) 4.0 networks. The findings are unequivocal: carbon footprint associated with network component manufacturing is 60% less in FTTH networks compared to HFC, installation carbon is 7% less, network operational carbon footprint is up to 96% less, while customer premise equipment is 18% less. Communications service providers seeking to improve sustainability metrics associated with their broadband deployments will find that overbuilding an HFC plant with fiber will initially cause an incremental increase in carbon footprint, but after converting customers to fiber, the annual reduction in operational carbon will provide a break-even payback in six years. With fiber’s ability to scale to nearly unlimited bandwidth speeds, transitioning networks from HFC to fiber provides a far more sustainable option now and for decades to come.

California lawmakers intend to shelve legislation that would have required Google to pay news outlets for distributing their content, and in its place announced a new public-private partnership between the state and Google that will fund programs to research artificial intelligence and bolster local journalism. The plan lays out a commitment of nearly $250 million over the next five years, with just over one-fourth of the money coming from state taxpayers and the remainder coming from Google and possibly other private donors. The money will go toward two new initiatives administered by the University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism: a fund to distribute millions of dollars to California news outlets, and an “AI accelerator” to develop ways for journalists to use the powerful technology. As part of the agreement, the state will put $30 million from next year’s budget into the fund, and contribute $10 million in each of the next four years. Google will put $15 million into the fund next year, and pay another $15 million next year to support other journalism initiatives: $5 million for the AI accelerator and $10 million in direct donations to digital news outlets. In each of the next four years, Google commitments include putting $10 million into the new fund and continuing $10 million in direct donations to news outlets. Money in the fund will be distributed to California newsrooms based on how many full-time journalists they employ. A new nonprofit organization will be formed to administer the programs at UC Berkeley, with a board made up of representatives from across California’s industry.