Carriers should give public safety answering points an initial notification of 911 service outages “as soon as they can offer a ‘strong maybe’ that there is an outage taking place -- in other words, even before an outage can be confirmed with complete certainty,” the FCC Public Safety Bureau said Tuesday. The bureau released recommendations from a Sept. 11 FCC workshop on best practices for improving situational awareness during 911 outages (see 1709110067). The notification should include “a description of affected network elements, geographic scope, expected duration, and any other information that could have an impact on 911 service,” the bureau said. An outage notification also should get “to everyone who needs it” and be “provided in an effective format,” the notice said.

The FCC rollback of net neutrality regulations "may adversely impact the spread of telehealth as patients and providers may be unable to afford a connection that can sufficiently support a telehealth interaction," said a release from the nonprofit Center for Connected Health Policy Tuesday. It said the developments could "encumber" Veterans Affairs Department policies helping patients "receive services via telehealth in the home and any potential remote patient monitoring efforts." When the FCC adopted its deregulatory order Dec. 14, CCHP Interim Executive Director Mei Wa Kwong reportedly said that allowing differentiated internet access lanes "could hurt telemedicine since it requires a 'pretty robust connection.'" An FCC spokesman responded: "The Restoring Internet Freedom order will support the delivery of broadband-enabled health care by reversing the ban on paid prioritization on the Internet. With Internet-enabled health care apps and services, paid prioritization could be the difference between life and death for patients who require very reliable and fast connectivity for health monitoring, consultation, and service delivery. And we expect that the combination of our transparency requirements, consumer expectations, market forces, and the presence of antitrust and consumer protection laws will protect against potential harms." Kwong told us questions remain about how paid prioritization would work in providing healthcare at home, one of the main benefits of telehealth. "How do you tell [if] the patient is using their connection for health purposes only if they get a set rate for that?" she emailed. "Does someone monitor that usage and aren’t you getting into privacy issues then if it is being monitored? Are separate lines needed in the home, one for health and the other for all other uses? Then are patients required to pay for two lines instead of one?"

NTIA renewed the Digital Economy Board of Advisors charter, it said in a Federal Register notice Friday. The Commerce Department formed the board in 2015 to generate recommendations for the secretary and NTIA administrator on the digital economy and internet policy issues (see 1511240034). It saw controversy in August when a majority of board members resigned over President Donald Trump’s response to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (see 1708180058).

The FCC said it wrapped up consent decrees with five carriers that allegedly violated the commission’s Lifeline rules. Each of the companies also agreed to put in place a compliance plan. Telrite agreed to pay the biggest fine, $1 million. The other carriers and their fines are i-wireless ($750,000); Global Connections ($425,000); Easy Wireless ($100,000) and Cintex Wireless ($55,000). None commented. “Noting that the companies have already repaid the program for improper payments, the FCC found that the public interest would be served by adopting the Consent Decrees, which resolve the Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeitures issued to the companies,” the FCC said in a news release. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn approved in part and dissented in part on each of the orders. “While I believe the Commission should have taken strong and decisive action, the Enforcement Bureau under this Chairman continues to show bias,” Clyburn said. “It essentially gives hall passes to large, well-known corporations when wrongdoing is found, while it fines little-known small businesses and individuals substantial sums of money for harms which are often substantially narrower. When a company or an individual violates our rules, they should be punished, but that punishment should fit the offense.”

A trio of Florida, California and Swiss businesses using spam emails made unsubstantiated earnings claims, misrepresented the nature of their products and falsely promised an easy money-back guarantee when marketing different software products and services to people wanting to work from home, the FTC said Thursday in a lawsuit to be filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The suit alleges violations of the FTC Act and Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act and seeks an injunction to prevent future violations and unspecified amounts for restitution, refunds and "the disgorgement of ill-gotten monies." Defendants Montano Enterprises, JK Marketing and GSD Master and their owners couldn't be reached for comment.

The DOJ is asking U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia to amend the protective order in the agency's lawsuit to block AT&T's buy of Time Warner. In an unopposed docket 17-cv-2511 motion (in Pacer) Wednesday, Justice said the amended order would add protections covering the use of confidential information and also extend the existing order's protections to some materials that the U.S. agreed to produce about the 2011 Comcast/NBCUniversal consent decree. DOJ said the additional protections include a requirement parties notify some non-parties when using their confidential information in particular circumstances. Leon earlier this month denied a motion (in Pacer) by third-party Fox also asking for an amended protective order.

With Thursday the deadline for states to opt out of FirstNet, the authority and AT&T got an opt-in notice from the District of Columbia. That makes 48 states and territories to opt in. Oregon and Washington state said yes on Tuesday (see 1712260035). New Hampshire is the only state to say it would opt out, but opt-in arguments for that state haven’t subsided (see 1712200043). Still unannounced are California, Florida, Mississippi and New York, plus the three Pacific territories, which have until March 12 to decide.

VTDigger wants to appeal a district court decision that FirstNet is exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests (see 1712200043), the local news organization said in a Friday memo (in Pacer) to the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont in Burlington. VTDigger asked the district court to certify interlocutory appeal of its order to the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

ITTA said the FCC shouldn't require nationwide number portability (NNP) of mobile and traditional wireline numbers. Comments are due Thursday on an NPRM and notice of inquiry on NNP (see 1710240062), but ITTA filed early. “While the Commission’s aims are laudable, the realities of implementing NNP may, for many carriers, cause more harm than yield competitive benefits,” ITTA said “Furthermore, carriers will be forced to pass along implementation costs to consumers, which, in turn, dilutes the consumer benefits of NNP. ITTA cautions the Commission to keep this in mind as it evaluates the record in response to its proposal to implement NNP.” NNP would force carriers to upgrade their equipment, but the money would be better spent on transitioning to IP-based networks, ITTA said.

FirstNet got opt-ins from Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts and North Dakota Friday (see here, here, here and here). The decisions make 45 of 56 states and territories to opt in, and come after Rivada urged all states to opt out in protest of a late FirstNet change to its draft spectrum manager lease agreement (see 1712210039). The deadline to opt out is Thursday.