Telecommunication

The Federal Communications Commission, under Chairman Ajit Pai, recently limited the number of providers that can offer Lifeline service in tribal areas (though that decision was struck down in court on Feb 1).

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit overturned the Federal Communications Commission's attempt to take broadband subsidies away from tribal residents. The Ajit Pai-led FCC voted 3-2 in Nov 2017 to make it much harder for tribal residents to obtain a $25-per-month Lifeline subsidy that reduces the cost of Internet or phone service. The change didn't take effect because in Aug 2018, the court stayed the FCC decision pending appeal.

Phone calls are sometimes the only comfort for families who live far from the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center, run by the Hampden County Sheriff's Department, where prisoners are held both before trial and while serving sentences. But the calls are costly because they must be made through an outside company — much more costly than for people outside jails. Calls at the jail cost 12 cents per minute.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the February Open Commission Meeting has been rescheduled and will take place on Thursday, February 14, 2019. Chairman Pai also announced the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the February Open Commission Meeting. These items were originally circulated for the January meeting but were withdrawn due to the lapse in appropriations.

The Justice Department announced criminal charges against Huawei, the world’s largest communications equipment manufacturer, and one of its top executives — a move likely to intensify trade tensions between the US and China. A 13-count indictment filed in New York City against Huawei, two of its affiliated firms, and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, accuses Huawei and an affiliate of bank fraud and wire fraud. The company is also charged with violating US sanctions on Iran and conspiring to obstruct justice related to the investigation.

The Trump administration has banned contractors from using Huawei tech, and major carriers do not use Huawei equipment that could compromise that contract work. But the same isn’t true for smaller companies without those contracts. In the face of the unfolding controversy, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed rules that could prevent companies from using agency funds to buy equipment from businesses deemed a security risk — or possibly from using equipment from companies like Huawei at all.

Jan 15, reports surfaced that Voipo, a California voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) provider, exposed millions of consumer call logs and text messages stored on an “improperly secured” ElasticSearch database for several months before security researcher Justin Paine located them. Public Knowledge demands that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai enforce existing Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) rules that protect the privacy of information related to telephone calls.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce filed an investigative report on Frontier Communications with the Minnesota Public Utilities Committee. The report says it found Frontier has failed to provide adequate, reliable phone and internet service to its Minnesota customers. The report, which the Connecticut-based company disputed, recommends Frontier be required to refund or credit customers for service outages and unauthorized charges, add staffing to improve customer service and increase investments in infrastructure and equipment.

Some residents and businesses in rural America face a perplexing problem: They know people are trying to call their phones and sometimes failing, but they don’t know why. Landline customers have logged hundreds of complaints with the Federal Communications Commission in recent years about calls that don’t reach them. When a call is dropped, the caller hears a phone ringing endlessly or gets dead air. Telecom experts say the failed calls are most often bound for landlines served by small rural phone companies, though the calls’ origin can be a cellphone, office line or automated system.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the Jan Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, January 30, 2019. Should the current lapse in funding end before Jan 9, additional items may be added to the tentative agenda: