Messaging app Telegram hasn't published any data disclosures because it hasn't disclosed any data to third parties, including law enforcement (see 2004060064).
The FCC asked for nominations for new members of its Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, representing the “interests of the public and consumers.” It sought nominations for CSRIC’s five active working groups, due May 25. The agency also wants members for its World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee, to prepare industry contributions to the 2023 WRC. Nominations are due May 29. The agency will add more members on a “rolling basis,” said Wednesday's notice. The WRC-23 panel's charter was renewed last week for another two-year term, the agency noted now.
The Department of Commerce should implement all practices for transitioning its telecom systems to next-generation enterprise infrastructure before General Services Administration phaseout of existing contracts in 2023, GAO reported Tuesday. GSA's goal is for agencies to have switched 50% by March 31, 2021, fully by Sept. 30, 2022. Commerce is among 11 agencies that reported they won’t meet the 2022 deadline but will fully switch before contracts expire in 2023. Commerce plans to complete its move by December 2022. The department needs to update its telecom inventory to include all assets and services it uses, identify future needs and finalize responsibilities for information security management, GAO said. The report noted similar recommendations to the departments of Health and Human Services, State and Veterans Affairs, and NASA. Commerce “concurred with our five recommendations to the agency and stated that it will take steps to implement them.”
U.S. courts have used technology to maintain public access and continue their core operations even during the pandemic, but the Supreme Court "has been more vague," blogged R Street Resident Fellow-Governance Anthony Marcum. It's unknown how future oral arguments will be handled and made publicly available, he said Monday: If SCOTUS doesn't explore tech opportunities here, Congress might act on the 21st Century Courts Act. HR-6017 would create a code of conduct, mandating real-time oral argument livestreaming.
CTIA questioned the legality of proposed backup power rules and other resiliency measures Friday. The California Public Utilities Commission proposed requiring 72-hour backup for all essential communications equipment (see 2003090026). The wireless industry thinks that's “overly prescriptive, unmoored from the record, impossible to achieve, and places the burden on wireless carriers to maintain power to their networks regardless of the severity of adverse conditions, such as those that prevent electric utilities from maintaining commercial power,” said comments in docket R.18-03-011. Santa Clara County supported requiring 72-hour backup power. In October, the county had one 66-hour outage and another was 94 hours, and Pacific Gas and Electric has promised future outages will be shorter, the locality said. The requirement could be longer than 72 hours, suggested a rural counties group. “It cannot be acceptable for 9-1-1 or emergency notification services to go dark for any period.” The Communications Workers of America said voluntary commitments aren’t enough.
Lawyer Russell Lukas of Lukas LaFuria appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit a lower court's dismissal of his lawsuit against the FCC over a Freedom of Information Act request, per a court entry Friday (docket 19-cv-00465, in Pacer). Lukas sued in 2019 after a FOIA request netted most of a Windstream filing with Universal Service Administrative Co., not a redacted exhibit. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in March in favor of FCC motions to dismiss. The agency didn't comment Friday.
The FCC and FTC told USTelecom gateway providers facilitating robocalls preying on COVID-19 fears would have all calls blocked to U.S. phone network traffic if they don't stop transmitting the robocalls within 48 hours, in a letter Friday to CEO Jonathan Spalter. The USTelecom Industry Traceback Group identified VoIPMax from the Philippines and Oberlo Peer BPO from Pakistan as originators, the letter said. The FTC sent cease and desist letters to SipJoin, Connexum and VoIP Terminator/BL Marketing. In a statement Friday, Spalter said, “Robocall scammers are out in force during this public health emergency, using COVID-19 to prey on vulnerable consumers. As soon as these scams started popping up, we began aggressively tracing them -- literally around the world." Gateway providers have a choice, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "Move forward as responsible network providers or see themselves cut off from the phone system. ... To any other service provider that’s carrying or is thinking of carrying such traffic, be warned: If you do so, you too will find yourselves excluded from our phone system.” The FTC "will not stand for illegal robocallers that harm the public, particularly in the middle of a health crisis,” said Chairman Joe Simons. The number of robocalls "is INSANE," tweeted Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "It shouldn’t have taken this crisis for the FCC and FTC to join forces to do something about it. But it’s a good thing it’s happening. Because scam calls are multiplying during this pandemic and stopping them at the source is vital."
An FCC draft says advanced telecom capability is deployed to Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion, an agency official told us Friday. An FCC spokesperson declined to comment. The annual broadband report circulated March 30, the circulation list said Friday. In comments last fall on a notice of inquiry for the 15th Communications Act Section 706 report, industry asked the FCC to stay the course (see 1911250002). Under statutory guidelines, the report should be issued by April 20. Last year's report missed its deadline due to bad data (see 1903060034) that was later corrected but not without controversy.
U.S. communications networks are holding up under increased demand during a pandemic, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday, after a conference call with industry groups and companies. He said providers report network usage up 20-35% for fixed networks and 10-20% for cellular networks in recent weeks, with increased demand in suburban, exurban and residential areas and during daytime. He said no providers expressed concern about their networks' capacity. Pai said the resilience is "in part to networks being designed to handle ever-higher peak traffic loads and in part to a market-based regulatory framework that has promoted infrastructure investment and deployment." He said the agency will "continue to closely monitor the situation." The FCC said the call was with ACA Connects, the Cloud Communications Alliance, Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, Incompas, NCTA, NTCA, Rural Wireless Association, Satellite Industry Association, Wireless ISP Association, Western Telecommunications Alliance, Altice, AT&T, CenturyLink, Charter, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, Comcast, Cox, Dish Network, Frontier, Hughes, Mediacom, Northwest Fiber, Sprint, T-Mobile, TDS, TracFone, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, ViaSat and Windstream. President Donald Trump spoke similarly this week with major ISPs (see 2003310070).
FCC-proposed Media Bureau reorganization (see 2003300052) will likely be approved on circulation before the May meeting, an agency official said in an interview this week. That and other officials said the reorganization is an administrative formality, combining the Engineering Division with the Industry Analysis Division, after last year's creation of the Office of Economics and Analytics resulted in IAD economists and analysts moving to OEA. Employees' roles won't change, but the two MB divisions have some natural symmetry in who they report to, we were told. The agency emailed us that the changes would "integrat[e] MB’s technical expertise with its adjudicatory matters and policy making proceedings. The consolidation would serve the public interest and improve the Commission’s operations to streamline the organization of the Media Bureau." Fewer MB personnel post-OEA creation is emblematic of longer-term staffing trends. The agency's FY 2020 budget request estimated 133 full-time equivalents for the bureau. Two years before, it was 153, and in 2013, it was 181.