The FCC issued an order Wednesday limiting the number of exempted non-telemarketing robocalls to three to any residential phone from any caller within a 30-day period. “Previously, there was no limit on the number of non-telemarketing robocalls that any caller could make to a residence,” the FCC said: “Callers are also now required to allow consumers to opt out of these calls.” The order was approved by commissioners, but none released statements. In a second order, also approved by commissioners without comment, the agency requires terminating voice service providers to take new steps to make sure their networks aren’t used to transmit illegal robocalls. “Voice service providers will now be required to take affirmative steps to stop illegal calls when notified of those calls by the Commission,” the FCC said. “They will also be required to aid FCC and law enforcement efforts to identify providers that originate illegal calls.” The order expands safe harbors for providers to now include network-based blocking of calls considered “highly likely to be illegal and that have been identified using reasonable analytics, including caller ID authentication.” The FCC is staying busy under Chairman Ajit Pai, who will leave Jan. 20 when Joe Biden is sworn in as president and Democrats assume control. “Americans are sick and tired of unwanted and illegal robocalls, and today’s separate actions are like a one-two punch to ward them off,” Pai said.

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel’s dissent from a 3-2 order updating FCC rules for application fees relies on “a misnomer,” Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement released with the order Tuesday. The order, stemming from provisions of Ray Baum’s Act, creates a streamlined schedule of application fees, paring down eight fee categories to five and reducing the total number of fees from 450 to 173. Rosenworcel said the order was largely “thoughtful and smart,” but she dissented in part based on its increasing the cost of filing “a formal consumer complaint” to $540. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks dissented in part as well. “I believe consumers should be able to avail themselves of this process, but a fee of this size is unjust and could easily deter them from doing so,” Rosenworcel said in a statement with the item. In his statement, Pai said the complaint form that she referenced “doesn’t exist.” The FCC has a two-track process wherein consumers file free informal complaints, while formal complaints cost a fee and “create a trial-like process to adjudicate a dispute and are not designed for nor used by consumers,” Pai said. The FCC’s consumer complaint website says consumers unsatisfied with the agency’s response to informal complaints can file formal ones but warns that parties filing formal complaints “usually are represented by lawyers or experts in communications law” and the FCC's procedural rules. Pai said no consumer filed a formal complaint in 2019 or 2020, but thousands of informal ones were filed. “Remember, in taking this step we’re following the law as set forth by Congress,” Pai said. Rosenworcel’s office didn’t comment. Rosenworcel and Pai disagreed about complaint fees in a 2018 order amending the complaint process and in the NPRM phase of Tuesday’s order, when Pai castigated Rosenworcel for not informing his office of her objections to the proposal until late in the process (see 2008260073).

FCC Enforcement Bureau penalties assessed Jan. 15 or later will be adjusted for inflation by multiplying the most recent penalty amount by 1.01182, then rounding the result to the nearest dollar, said an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The adjustments reflect OMB guidance, the bureau said.

CTIA and groups representing small carriers sought reconsideration of the FCC’s October 5G Fund order, approved over partial dissents by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see 2010270034). Recon petitions were posted Tuesday in docket 20-32. CTIA asked the FCC to revise the noncompliance penalty to limit potential recovery of prior funding to the support an eligible telecom carrier failed to spend in compliance with fund requirements. “The Order imposes an unreasonable and unprecedented penalty … on mobile wireless ETCs that do not meet the newly-adopted deployment requirements, or that voluntarily relinquish future support -- even if the ETC’s actual spending complied” with the order's minimum 5G spending requirements, CTIA said: The penalties are “unreasonable and inconsistent with permissible spending rules." The Rural Wireless Association and NTCA jointly asked the FCC to rethink whether funds should be available for areas served by unsubsidized 4G networks. “That an unsubsidized 4G LTE network may be deployed in a particular area provides no guarantee or even reasonable assurance that 5G service meeting the required performance metrics will be deployed there, nor is there any basis for concluding that the deployment of 5G service to such an area is likely to occur,” the groups said: “History consistently instructs that rural areas are almost never served with the latest generation of service unless and until a small rural carrier based in that area begins to provide such service.” Smith Bagley asked the FCC to rethink a decision not to mandate special-case treatment for remote tribal lands. “The Commission denied special case treatment … without considering the substantial evidence placed into the record over many years demonstrating dire demographic and economic conditions” there, the carrier said: “The Commission has no factual basis for its view that conditions in Alaska are so unique that special treatment such as an ‘Alaska Plan’ is not warranted elsewhere.”

SpaceX, not Amazon, is seeking a license modification to allow more than 2,200 of its satellites to operate at altitudes of 540-600 km (see 2012220001).

Transfer of U.S. fiber network operator Telia Carrier's domestic and international authority as part of a purchase of Swedish telco Telia (see 2010160013) is being reviewed by the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector, DOJ told the FCC last week in docket 20-344.

An FCC order transitioning wireless radio service licensing systems to all-electronic filing is effective June 29, says Tuesday's Federal Register (see 2009170062). The order “eliminates existing exemptions to electronic filing in the FCC’s Universal Licensing System and require[s] electronic filing in the Antenna Structure Registration system; requires electronic filing (and delivery of service) of pleadings related to these systems; requires applicants, licensees, and registrants to provide an e-mail address on related FCC Forms; and shifts from paper to electronic delivery of Commission correspondence generated from these systems,” the notice said.

President Donald Trump signed the FY 2021 appropriations and COVID-19 aid omnibus bill (HR-133), which includes broadband funding and other telecom and tech policy provisions (see 2012210055). Trump’s signing Sunday came after he raised objections to parts of the measure last week (see 2012230078). He continued to criticize it in his signing statement, saying he’s “demanding many rescissions.” Congress “has promised” Communications Decency Act Section 230, “which so unfairly benefits Big Tech at the expense of the American people, will be reviewed and either be terminated or substantially reformed,” Trump said. “Big Tech must not get protections of Section 230!” It’s not clear what review Trump was referencing. Both chambers are to vote this week to override Trump’s veto of the conference FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-6395). He disapproved in part because it didn’t include language to repeal Section 230 (see 2012230081). The almost $7 billion in broadband funding included in HR-133 will promote "more ubiquitous deployment of secure high-speed broadband services," Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long blogged Saturday.

GAO found that 11 surveyed DOD IT programs have reduced their cost estimates, while four others increased their life-cycle cost estimates, it said Wednesday. Ten of the programs reported schedule delays of up to five years, GAO said. Ten of the 15 programs reported using commercial off-the-shelf software, which reduces development time and costs, the report said. Fourteen programs use an “iterative software development approach” that “may help reduce cost growth and deliver better results to the customer. However, programs also reported using an older approach to software development, known as waterfall, which could introduce risk for program cost growth because of its linear and sequential phases of development that may be implemented over a longer period of time.” All 15 surveyed programs are “developing cybersecurity strategies, which are intended to help ensure that programs are planning for and documenting cybersecurity risk management efforts,” GAO said. But “only eight” reported “conducting cybersecurity vulnerability assessments.” DOD reported it “continues to evolve its acquisition processes to reduce software development time, allow for faster delivery of capabilities, and lower life-cycle costs,” GAO said. The department said "the report highlighted opportunities for continued improvement in its efforts to acquire IT capabilities,” and it believes “implementation and wider adoption of the software acquisition pathway will assist in reducing risks and challenges, as will continued implementation of the DOD Cyber Strategy, which includes a line of effort aimed at improving the DOD cyber workforce by investing in future talent, identifying and recruiting sought-after talent, and retaining the current cyber workforce.”

With the FCC closed Thursday for the Christmas holiday, all Dec. 24 filing deadlines move to Monday, and Dec. 24 won't count in computing filing periods of less than seven days, the Office of General Counsel said in a public notice Wednesday.