Telecommunication

We have had what appears to be the world’s most expensive and ineffective universal service program. Until now. The Federal Communications Commission is taking significant steps to dismantle the traditional system and replace it with something world class. In 2018, the FCC launched a new approach that uses a reverse auction to force companies to compete for subsidies. A reverse auction begins with a maximum subsidy the FCC is willing to pay for someone to expand broadband service in a rural area. Companies compete by bidding the amount down.

Using new authority granted by Congress, the Federal Communications Commission took additional steps to combat the persistent problem of long-distance calls placed to rural America failing to reach their destination. Under the Improving Call Quality and Reliability (RCC) Act of 2017 and rules set by the FCC in 2018, “intermediate providers” must register with the FCC, and certain carriers that originate long-distance calls, called “covered providers,” may not hand off calls to an unregistered intermediate provider.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved an application by AT&T Ohio to end its participation in the federal Lifeline program.

In response to questions from Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR), T-Mobile has revealed another case of abuse, in which a “bad actor” acquired location information without consumer consent. “It is now abundantly clear that you have failed to be good stewards of your customers’ private location information,” Sen Wyden wrote in another letter March 13 addressed to all of the major telecoms. In the newly revealed incident, in Aug 2014, LocAid—a company that aggregated location data from the telecoms and then sold it onto other clients—informed T-Mobile it was suspending the account of a particular customer

On January 17, 2019, Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón (D-Puerto Rico) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai expressing concerns with a USTelecom petition requesting forbearance from the certain requirements of the section 251 (c) of the Communications Act. She is concerned that the level of competition in the Puerto Rico telecommunications sector is not similar to that of the rest of the United States and she wants to ensure that any relief did not impede network restoration and reconstruction efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

John Oliver took a swipe at HBO's new parent company AT&T during a segment on March 10''s "Last Week Tonight", which saw him decry the increasing amount of robocalls being made in the US and the Federal Communications Commission's unwillingness or inability to do anything about them. "Everybody is annoyed by robocalls; hatred of them might be the only thing everyone in America agrees on now," he said.He cited statistics that said the number of calls increased by 57 percent last year to nearly 50 billion in total. He also showed a news clip noting that robocalls are the No.

The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on the subjects listed below on Friday, March 15, 2019:

Spectrum Horizons – The Commission will consider a First Report and Order that would adopt rules to make available 21.2 GHz of spectrum above 95 GHz for unlicensed operations and create a new class of experimental licenses for the 95 GHz to 3 THz spectrum range (ET Docket No. 18-21; RM-11795)

Cellphone numbers have become a primary way for tech companies like Facebook to uniquely identify users and secure accounts, in some ways becoming a proxy for a national ID. That over-reliance on cellphone numbers ironically makes them a less effective and secure authentication method. And the more valuable the phone number becomes as an identifier, the less willing people will be to share it for communication.

The Federal Communications Commission offered an additional $67 million in annual support to certain rural broadband providers that could bring improved service to nearly 110,000 homes and businesses in rural communities across 43 states. Carriers that accept the offer must expand the availability of broadband service delivering at least 25 Mbps downloads/3 Mbps uploads to their rural customers. Carriers have 30 days to decide whether to accept the additional funding.

On March 15, we’ll aim to make progress on many of the issues core to the Federal Communications Commission’s mission: promoting US leadership on 5G, closing the digital divide, advancing public safety, modernizing our media rules, helping rural consumers, and more.