Moving most of the FCC’s economists under the Office of Economics and Analytics, a controversial step taken on a Republican 3-2 commissioner vote in 2018 (see 1801300026), has proven helpful to the commission, OEA Chief Giulia McHenry said at an FCBA Engineering and Technical Committee lunch on Thursday.
FCC commissioners moved quickly to approve 5-0 a declaratory ruling prohibiting voice-cloning technology in robocall scams. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated the ruling a week ago. The agency issued a notice of inquiry exploring the issue in November (see 2311160028).
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announces leaders of U.S. AI Safety Institute, to be established at the National Institute for Standards and Technology: White House National Economic Council’s Elizabeth Kelly as director and NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory Elham Tabassi as chief technology officer (see 2402070069) … Slingshot Aerospace, satellite tracking and space modeling platform, hires Dun & Bradstreet’s Tim Solms, also former Microsoft, as CEO ... Cybersecurity vendor SoSafe names Andrew Rose, ex-Proofpoint, chief security officer ... Digital communications company IDX hires Scott Paterson, ex-Trend Networks, as chief financial officer.
Comments are due March 8, replies April 8, on an FCC proposal requiring refunds for consumers when blackouts occur due to failed retransmission consent negotiations, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. The blackout NPRM was adopted 3-2 on circulation in January (see 2401100026).
The Virginia Senate passed a junk-fees bill Tuesday that the wireless industry raised concerns about last month. Also on that day the Senate approved an AI bill and the House passed a kids privacy bill. State senators voted 28-11 for SB-388, which would prohibit businesses from displaying prices that don’t include mandatory added fees other than taxes. CTIA opposed including the wireless industry in the bill. The FCC’s 2023 broadband labeling rules already protect consumers from surprise or unfair fees, the association said in a Jan. 24 letter. Wireless providers also follow the FCC’s truth-in-billing requirements, CTIA said. “Any new law should expressly exempt services already regulated by the FCC.” The Virginia Senate voted 39-0 for SB-487, which would set guardrails on public bodies’ use of AI. The House voted 98-0 for HB-707, which would add children-specific protections to the state’s comprehensive consumer privacy law. It would prohibit data controllers from selling a child’s personal data or using it for targeted advertising or profiling (see 2401310071).
The FCC Wireless Bureau Wednesday rejected a request by the North Shore Emergency Association (see 2401290030) to extend by two months the deadlines to comment on a request from Garmin International (see 2310060031) for a waiver of rules concerning certification of the hand-held general mobile radio service (GMRS) devices it manufactures. Comments remain due Feb. 12, replies Feb. 27 (see 2401120031). The group “has not shown that an extension is warranted,” the bureau said.
The FCC updated a notice on deadlines for responses to a CTIA petition seeking a 12-month extension (see 2401090026) to the FCC's current six-month deadline for carriers to implement rules protecting consumers from SIM swapping and port-out fraud. Intended for Thursday’s Federal Register, the notice adds a date for replies to oppositions -- Feb. 23. Oppositions are due Feb. 13 (see 2401260054).
Google asked the FCC for an emergency waiver of rules requiring environmental sensing capability systems to protect federal incumbent users in the citizens broadband radio service band as storms sweep through parts of California. Operations in one dynamic protection area (DPA) lost commercial power while another “suffered physical damage” due to high winds, Google said. In another DPA, the power provider “is currently unable to provide an estimated time for restoration of commercial power,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-319.
Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen and others from the company met with all FCC commissioners, except Anna Gomez, for discussions focused mostly on spectrum, said a filing posted Wednesday in 20-443 and other dockets. The executives urged that the commission “unleash 500 MHz of spectrum in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band for fixed 5G broadband services,” Dish said: “Substantial evidence in the record shows that fixed 5G services can provide broadband to tens of millions of Americans, while fully protecting existing non-geostationary orbit Fixed-Satellite Service and Direct Broadcast Satellite customers.” In addition, the executives discussed the need for a modernized spectrum screen, a proposed 5G Fund and “the benefits of proposals to maximize the efficiency” of the citizens broadband radio service, among other issues.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., backed the FCC’s NPRM that would make voice-cloning technology in robocall scams illegal (see 2401310082), telling Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel it’s needed because the use of AI to “impersonate trusted voices threatens to expose ... even greater harm” to consumer confidence in U.S. telecom systems. The FCC issued a cease-and-desist letter and K4 order Tuesday against Texas-based Lingo Telecom over robocalls to voters before the New Hampshire primary last month with an AI-generated voice impersonating President Joe Biden (see 2402060087). “We commend you for moving forward with this proposed Declaratory Ruling to clarify that existing statute already prohibits robocalls using AI-generated voices to wireless customers,” Lujan and Kelly said in a letter to Rosenworcel released Wednesday. “This ruling is particularly important given the increasing ease of access to generative-AI tools. Such tools can be used to clone a person’s voice with high levels of accuracy, and there are alarming cases of this technology being used to harm vulnerable families across the country.” The proposed ruling “is aligned with Congressional intent for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act,” which should empower consumers “to provide consent on whether to receive AI generated calls,” the senators said: The FCC should also “exercise its lawful enforcement authority to stop the use of generative AI for fraudulent misrepresentation, particularly in critical sectors like public safety, election integrity, and consumer protection.”