The FCC Wireline Bureau extended service delivery and invoicing deadlines for certain schools and libraries receiving Emergency Connectivity Fund support. Six schools and libraries that sought ECF support for equipment and nonrecurring and recurring services during the first and second application filing windows petitioned the FCC for an extension due to "problems with their service providers, challenges posed by personnel changes and departures, new applicant confusion, and other procedural and administrative issues," said the bureau order in docket 21-93 Tuesday.
The FCC has issued a cease and desist letter and K4 order against Texas-based Lingo Telecom over robocalls to voters before the New Hampshire primary last month. The calls used voice-cloning tech and spoofed phone numbers to seem to be from President Joe Biden, urging recipients not to vote in the primary, said a news release. “What a bunch of malarkey. We know the value of voting Democratic when our votes count,” the calls allegedly said in Biden’s voice, spoofed to appear to come from a number connected with a Democratic super political action committee. “It’s important that you save your vote for the November election,” the deepfaked Biden voice said. Lingo “is alleged to have originated robocall traffic using AI-generated voice cloning to spread misinformation to voters,” said an FCC news release Tuesday. The cease and desist letter orders Lingo to stop supporting illegal robocall traffic on its networks and the K4 public notice “strongly encourages other providers to refrain from carrying suspicious traffic from Lingo,” the release said. The FCC is acting alongside the Office of the New Hampshire State Attorney General, which also sent a cease and desist Tuesday to another company involved with the calls, the Life Corporation. The Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force also sent a cease and desist letter to the Life Corporation. The New Hampshire letter targets Life over violations of voter suppression laws, the FCC release said. “Each of these parties have been warned about apparent illegal robocall violations in the past,” the FCC release said. “Consumers deserve to know that the person on the other end of the line is exactly who they claim to be,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in the release. “That’s why we’re working closely with State Attorneys General across the country to combat the use of voice cloning technology in robocalls being used to misinform voters and target unwitting victims of fraud.” Law enforcement and regulatory agencies “are working closely together to monitor and investigate any signs of AI being used maliciously to threaten our democratic process,” said New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella in the release. The action stems from an investigation launched last month by the New Hampshire AG, the FCC Enforcement Bureau, the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, and USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group, the release said. Lingo didn’t comment, but the FCC’s letter says the company didn’t dispute the calls' illegality.
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson urged leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees Monday night to “provide additional funding” for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program before its original $14.2 billion allocation runs out in April. Lawmakers are eyeing how to allocate as much as $7 billion in stopgap funding to keep ACP running through the end of this year (see 2401250075). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel confirmed last week that the Wireline Bureau will freeze new ACP enrollments Thursday as part of winding down the program (see 2402010075). “As more cooperatives, and other internet service providers, work to build broadband networks in hard-to-reach rural and low-income areas, affordability will become increasingly critical to adoption of these essential services,” Matheson said in a letter to Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and their ranking members. “Should programs supporting affordability fail, it could jeopardize access to broadband services for millions of customers.” Ensuring “that there is a consistent, dependable, and effective low-income broadband program, such as the ACP, will allow rural providers to deliver the highest quality broadband service to their communities at an affordable price,” said Matheson, a former House Commerce member who represented Utah as a Democrat. Enacting the ACP Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), which would infuse $7 billion into the program for FY24 (see 2401100056), “or similar legislation would provide important short-term clarity and certainty ... while Congress works to address questions around the future of the program and develop a permanent funding solution.”
Expect continuing friction at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference and the WRC-31 between geostationary and non-geostationary orbit satellite operators over interference protections, River Advisors CEO Katherine Gizinski said. She and other panelists Tuesday at the SmallSat Symposium in Silicon Valley said those equivalent power flux density (EPFD) protection items were a hot-button issue at WRC-23. The FCC has seen constellation operators post-WRC-27 joust over EPFD limits (see 2401300032). Several panelists also discussed the changing availability of financing that helped launch numerous space startups in the past nine years.
Loft Orbital hopes to have its YAM-7 microsatellite launched as soon as June, it said in an FCC Space Bureau application posted Monday. It asked the bureau for permission to launch and operate the satellite in low earth orbit, with the satellite carrying a payload for customer Hydrosat intended to provide earth exploration satellite services. Its YAM-6 is scheduled to launch March 1, it said.
Echoing its decision on a Verizon complaint (see 2401310009), the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Review Board sided with T-Mobile against Comcast advertising. The board said Monday that, as with Verizon, it agreed with T-Mobile that Comcast's use of "10G" in its Xfinity 10G Network product name and description was misleading.
Dish Wireless representatives spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau staff about a 2021 petition to serve as an eligible telecom carrier (see 2111290051), and in particular, an amended petition last week to serve as an ETC in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Washington, D.C. Through retail wireless offerings under the Boost Mobile and Gen Mobile brands, “DISH serves a significant number” of affordable connectivity program subscribers, the filing said.
The FCC is investigating AT&T's 2022 complaint against granting T-Mobile additional mid-band licenses in the 2.5 GHz band because of the carrier’s already huge position in the band (see 2211100066) and plans to include data from carriers in its investigation, said a Monday notice by the Wireless Bureau. T-Mobile has asked the FCC to dismiss the complaint (see 2211150017). The bureau said it plans to include a Numbering Resource Utilization and Forecast (NRUF) report, carrier-specific local number portability (LNP) data and other information in the record in the proceeding, subject to a protective order. Companies have until Feb. 15 “to oppose the limited disclosure of their NRUF and LNP data pursuant to the protective order,” the bureau said.
A coalition of advocates for incarcerated individuals urged the FCC to adequate oversight of alternative payment structures and pilot programs that providers of incarcerated people's communications services offer. The Wright Petitioners, United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry and Worth Rises told Wireline Bureau and Office of Economic and Analytics staff that consumers should have "sufficient information in a clear format that enables them to make informed choices," according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 23-62 (see 2401120067). The groups also urged that the commission "not permit alternative pricing structures that include non-IPCS services, which lack visibility and transparency in their pricing."
The FTC should deny a petition for a right-to-repair rulemaking because the proposal would chill innovation and undermine market-based solutions, tech and telecom groups told the agency in comments due Friday (see 2401040020). U.S. Public Interest Research Group and iFixit filed a petition in November for an FTC rulemaking seeking rules making independent repair easier and more widely available.