Iconectiv will have the job of applying and enforcing secure telephone identity (STI) governance authority rules to make operational the signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) framework for call authentication, ATIS announced Thursday. The company will be charged with trying to ensure STI certificates are available only to authorized service providers and that STI Certification Authorities work to maintain the integrity of the Shaken framework. It's "a major milestone in putting SHAKEN into action, a top industry priority critical to restoring trust in the voice network,” said ATIS CEO Susan Miller. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai looks forward to Shaken/secure telephone identity revisited framework deployment by major carriers later this year as a route to cracking down on caller ID spoofing and unwanted robocalls. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted that 5 billion robocalls "is BONKERS" and the agency needs "to bite the bullet and require [call authentication technology] NOW." The FCC previously gave Iconectiv a number portability contract that Neustar previously had.

The FCC new Office of Economics and Analytics has yet to do a full-fledged cost-benefit analysis on any item, officials said Thursday at an FCBA event featuring front-office staff. The order creating OEA requires that level of analysis only on items with an effect on the economy of $100 million or more ( see 1801300026) and none has risen to that level since, said acting Chief Giulia McHenry. Only three items in the past five years rose above that threshold, she said. OEA itself makes the call on the overall economic effects of an item, she said. OEA evaluates commission-level items and has done an analysis of about 100 so far, about a third of which required more in-depth economic analysis, officials said. McHenry said the federal shutdown slowed the hiring of new economists, traditionally hired in January, but two new Ph.D. economists and two auction lawyers are joining the office. About 60 economists were shifted there from elsewhere in the FCC, she said. “We have one central location where economists can work together a little more, there’s a little more sort of cross-cultivation,” McHenry said. “It has empowered the economists a bit more to think independently.” Chairman Ajit Pai’s office has been “supportive” and “helpful,” McHenry said. “We certainly don’t consider ourselves above the fray,” but economists have to remember “they’re economists” and what their role is, McHenry said. OEA published its first white paper (see 1904050030), with another 10 or so in the works, officials said. As long as OEA is engaged early, it shouldn’t slow work on any item, McHenry said.

The FCC should use its upcoming relocation as an opportunity to break up its “siloed” organizational structure, said a joint letter to all five commissioners signed by a collection of former officials, academics and longtime advocates. They included ex-Commissioners Henry Rivera and Deborah Taylor Tate and former General Counsel Henry Geller. “Because companies offering essentially substitutable services are often regulated by different bureaus, and thus receive different treatment, the FCC's legacy 'silo structure' is no longer viable.” The agency should replace the current Media, Wireless and Wireline bureaus with three “function-based” divisions: Economics and Policy, Licensing and Grantmaking, and Engineering, the letter said. They suggested an alternative, incremental plan that would replace the Wireless and Wireline bureaus with one focused on universal service, and another focused on competition, pricing, broadband and network deployment: “This would effectively maintain the current bureau divisions while removing their traditional industry silos.” Function-based bureaus make it tougher for industries to “capture” the agency, since it's more difficult for any one firm to use intense lobbying and “the revolving door” to dominate a pan-industry entity, the ad hoc group said. The reorganization could also aid diversity by applying nondiscrimination regulations across all industries regulated by the agency, the letter said. The FCC's upcoming move to new headquarters is a “a rare opportunity” to reorganize, the letter said. “If past relocations are a guide regarding what we may expect, many employees will use this opportunity to retire or take jobs in the private sector -- thereby creating an opportunity for a relatively painless restructure of the agency.” The agency doesn't have to wait for congressional action to reorganize, but it would be wise to make sure Congress is involved in the process, Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council Senior Adviser and letter signatory David Honig told us. The letter suggests the agency open a rulemaking and seek comment on such an organization, and convene an advisory committee to study the issue. Other signatories include Free State Foundation President Randolph May, former NAB General Counsel Jane Mago, former Cable Bureau Chief Deborah Lathen, and University of Florida Public Utility Research Center Director and Trump transition team member Mark Jamison. The agency and Chairman Ajit Pai's office didn't comment.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau approved limited waiver for the District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) to test its wireless emergency alert system. The test is to start June 22 at 11 a.m. EDT, with a backup of the same time the following day. “In light of the heightened attendance and security expected for the National July 4th Celebration this year, we are persuaded by the HSEMA Letter that the proposed WEA test will help prepare the District of Columbia Government and HSEMA, as well as tourists and residents alike, in the event of an incident or emergency during the festivities,” said a Wednesday order: “We are also persuaded that there is value in allowing the end-to-end WEA test to use a ‘live’ WEA event code, as opposed to the State/Local WEA Test code, because of the importance of ensuring the reliability of WEA as a means of providing critical information in the event of an emergency.”

Communications providers should be part of the pre-disaster planning alongside power companies and emergency operations center personnel, and also need flexibility to adapt to changing conditions during emergencies, Charter Communications and Comcast representatives told an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, per a docket 11-60 posting Wednesday. They discussed collaboration work with electric companies and other communications providers via NCTA, Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers and Department of Homeland Security working groups about service restoration best practices after natural disasters.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, on a trip this week to Montana and Wyoming, said his time on the road supports the conclusions in the 2018 broadband deployment report that the digital divide is narrowing (see 1905290017). “What I see on the road is the same thing that we found in our report, which is that we’re making tremendous progress, and that’s good news,” Carr told us. “Nobody is declaring mission accomplished. Anybody that spends time outside of D.C. can see the work that remains. We need to acknowledge reality.” Carr said “the digital divide is closing” and “more fiber is being built out than ever before.” But a “significant number of Americans, millions of Americans, still need connectivity,” Carr said. Congress doesn’t ask the FCC to look at in its Section 706 report whether 100 percent of Americans have broadband, he said: “That wouldn’t, frankly, be a very helpful report if that’s all we did.” Carr said he's still sorting through the next steps on wireless infrastructure rules: “I think there’s more to do.” Several ideas have made it in the record lately on “additional infrastructure reforms that I’m taking a close look at,” Carr said: “I’d like to make some more progress.”

FCC claims that its broadband job is done "shows a cruel disregard for so many communities the digital age has left behind," Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted Tuesday, citing the agency's revised broadband deployment draft report she said is to be released this week. Asked when the report will be released, the FCC didn't comment. The FCC early this month said the report -- revised due to "drastically overstated" deployment data from one company -- still shows a narrowing digital divide, with notable broadband deployments particularly in rural areas (see 1905010205).

Comments on FCC-proposed competitive bidding procedures to auction certain toll-free numbers in the 833 code are due June 3, replies June 10. In its notice in the Federal Register for Tuesday, the FCC says it plans to auction the more than 17,000 numbers in the 833 code that have received competing requests. Rules authorizing the auction took effect last fall (see 1811260030). The agency plans to offer online tutorials on the bidding procedures for bidders unfamiliar with its application process, it says. Citing antitrust concerns, the notice says bidding rules would prevent certain communications between competing bidders.

The C-Band Alliance plans for protecting fixed satellite service earth stations from 5G interference, while representing "a great deal of thoughtful effort," could be improved, AT&T said in an FCC docket 18-122 posting Friday. Its lengthy list included designating as unrestricted most of the spectrum reallocated for 5G use; letting terrestrial mobile licensees deploy facilities without any FSS coordination obligations; setting up "adjacent licenses" between unrestricted mobile terrestrial 5G and FSS where terrestrial users would have to use mitigation methods or coordinate with close earth stations; looking into less-restrictive alternatives for protection than 150-meter radiuses around registered earth stations; developing a better record on the satellite viewable arc required for FSS C-band operations after transition, including possible post-transition repacking of users; and developing better user device out-of-band-emissions limits than those proposed by the CBA. AT&T said its work with CommScope points to routes for better spectrum efficiency than what CBA has proposed by allowing some terrestrial use of all of the spectrum not retained for FSS use. It said the size of the adjacent licenses block -- which would replace the 20 MHz guard band CBA has proposed -- would depend on the out-of-band emissions protection levels adopted as well as filter performance. The CBA emailed that AT&T "certainly presents some interesting ideas that should be considered" and that it would analyze whether C-band services would be fully protected under the proposal.

U.S. broadband coverage maps are deeply flawed and cannot be used to "burn the bridge to broadband," Incompas CEO Chip Pickering blogged. The FCC uses broadband maps to help inform deployment and competition policy, he said, but its reliance on Census block data "has created an inaccurate fairy tale of broadband availability." Pickering argued Thursday "the FCC must immediately reject any proposals based on the current broadband maps' flawed data," starting with a USTelecom petition for forbearance from requirements that ILECs sell transport network services to competitive LECs as an unbundled network element (UNE). Incompas says competition in the business-to-business market would be especially threatened in rural markets without facilities-based competition (see 1905140012). A USTelecom spokesperson said that the 1996 unbundling rules are obsolete, noting the group and members "are leading the charge to help improve the FCC's Form 477 broadband data collection process, particularly for rural areas where current data can be upgraded." The telco group said in a recent filing that Form 477 census block data "is more than adequate for assessing the presence and feasibility of competition for last-mile facilities without reliance on UNEs" (see 1905220066). USTelecom said it has proposed limiting forbearance relief to census blocks that are less than a square mile on average, "where the so-called 'bridge to broadband' has already been built by facilities-based providers and/or our cable competitors."