Technology, Communications & Media

In this month’s Telephone and Texting Compliance News, we cover FCC deadlines for new voice service provider requirements, pending federal legislation that would give the FCC the authority to initiate litigation to enforce TCPA violations, the FCC’s participation in a federal and state multiagency initiative to combat scam calls, and a Ninth Circuit decision, which held that a phone line subscriber has standing to bring a TCPA case even though she wasn’t the recipient of the text message at issue.

Read about a Ninth Circuit decision holding that the subscriber to a phone line has standing to sue for TCPA violations, even if the subscriber was not the recipient of the text messages at issue and was not using the phone when the text messages were received.

Read about the Commission’s effective date for requirements adopted in May for all voice service providers, legislation pending in Congress that would give the Commission more enforcement authority, and a joint initiative by the FCC, FTC, and state attorneys general to combat illegal robocalls aimed at committing fraud.

Read the latest edition of AI: The Washington Report, a joint undertaking of Mintz and ML Strategies covering potential federal legislative, executive, and regulatory activities related to AI, including a recent FCC and NSF Workshop on AI’s implications for communications networks and consumers.

The wireless industry has revolutionized the way we connect, from facilitating teleworking, distance learning, and telemedicine to allowing the American public to interact virtually in almost all other aspects of their daily lives.  Leading policymakers – federal regulators and legislators – are making it a top priority to ensure that the wireless industry has the tools and resources it needs to keep pace with this evolving landscape.  This blog provides monthly updates on actions by federal regulatory bodies responsible for communications policy and Congressional efforts to support wireless connectivity.  And this month we highlight recent Congressional hearings related to oversight of the FCC with respect to wireless communications policies as well as the confirmation of three FCC Commissioners.  

Read about an FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking aimed at strengthening consumers’ ability to revoke consent to receive robocalls and robotexts.

In this month’s Telephone and Texting Compliance News, we cover an FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with proposed rules designed to strengthen consumers’ ability to revoke consent to receive robocalls and robotexts and a Third Circuit decision affirming an arbitration award of more than $286,000 to a credit card company for its fraud counterclaim in a TCPA case.

Read about a Third Circuit decision affirming an arbitration award of more than $286,000 to a credit card company for its fraud counterclaim in a TCPA case.

The wireless industry has revolutionized the way we connect, from facilitating teleworking, distance learning, and telemedicine to allowing the American public to interact virtually in almost all other aspects of their daily lives.  Leading policymakers – federal regulators and legislators – are making it a top priority to ensure that the wireless industry has the tools and resources it needs to keep pace with this evolving landscape.  This blog provides monthly updates on actions by federal regulatory bodies responsible for communications policy and Congressional efforts to support wireless connectivity.  And this month we highlight President Biden’s nomination of three Commissioners who, if confirmed, will return the FCC to a full five-member agency after nearly two-and-a-half years.

In this month’s Telephone and Texting Compliance News, we cover an FCC Order imposing mitigation and blocking requirements on a broader set of providers, several Commission proposals that would expand requirements to block suspected illegal traffic, an FCC Enforcement Bureau Order requiring voice service providers that are immediately downstream from One Eye LLC to block and cease accepting One Eye’s traffic by June 12, Florida legislation that will reduce the scope and reach of Florida’s Telephone Solicitation Act, and a Florida appellate court ruling limiting the scope of the TCPA.

Read about a bill passed by the Florida legislature and signed by the governor House Bill 761, which will reduce the scope and reach of Florida’s Telephone Solicitation Act, and a state appellate court ruling limiting the scope of the TCPA.

Read about an FCC Order imposing mitigation and blocking requirements on a broader set of providers and FCC proposals that would expand requirements to block suspected illegal traffic.

Read about an FCC Enforcement Bureau action against a gateway provider found to have been transmitting suspected illegal traffic that requires voice service providers immediately downstream from One Eye LLC to block and cease accepting traffic from One Eye by June 12.

The wireless industry has revolutionized the way we connect, from facilitating teleworking, distance learning, and telemedicine to allowing the American public to interact virtually in almost all other aspects of their daily lives.  Leading policymakers – federal regulators and legislators – are making it a top priority to ensure that the wireless industry has the tools and resources it needs to keep pace with this evolving landscape.  This blog provides monthly updates on actions by federal regulatory bodies responsible for communications policy and Congressional efforts to support wireless connectivity.  And this month, we highlight the opportunity for interested parties to obtain up to $140.5 million under the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund for research activities related to wireless network technologies.

The FCC established a new rule requiring mobile wireless providers to block SMS and MMS text messages purportedly from North American Numbering Plan numbers registered on a reasonable Do-Not-Originate (DNO) list and requiring carriers to designate a point of contact to whom senders may report erroneous blocking issues.

The FTC is increasing its efforts to stop illegal robocalls that originate overseas from reaching Americans’ phones. Project Point of No Entry targets Voice over Internet Protocol service providers that serve as “point of entry” or gateway providers. 

In this month’s Telephone and Texting Compliance News, we report on a rule in an FCC Report and Order requiring mobile wireless providers to block SMS and MMS text messages purportedly from certain numbers registered on a Do-Not-Originate list and requiring carriers to designate a point of contact to receive senders’ reports of erroneous blocking issues. We also cover FTC efforts to stop illegal robocalls originating overseas from reaching Americans’ phones.

On April 25, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) released an Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Order” and “NPRM”) that seeks to better safeguard U.S. telecommunications networks and infrastructure through changes to the international section 214 authorization process.  In particular, the FCC adopts a one-time collection of foreign ownership information from current international section 214 authorization holders and proposes rules that would require carriers to renew, every 10 years, their international section 214 authority, among other things.  The deadline for responding to the information collection will be at least 30 days following the effective date of the Order, as announced by the Office of Management and Budget, and comments and reply comments on the NPRM will be due 30 days and 60 days, respectively, after Federal Register publication.

The wireless industry has revolutionized the way we connect, from facilitating teleworking, distance learning, and telemedicine, to virtually digitizing almost all other aspects of Americans’ daily lives.  Leading policymakers – federal regulators and legislators – are making it a top priority to ensure that the wireless industry has the tools and resources it needs to keep pace with this evolving landscape.  This blog provides monthly updates on actions by federal regulatory bodies responsible for communications policy and Congressional efforts to support wireless connectivity.  And this month we highlight something that has never occurred in FCC history:  the expiration of the Commission’s spectrum auction authority. 

In this month’s Telephone and Texting Compliance News, we report on the FCC’s Sixth Caller ID Authentication Report and Order, which added a call authentication requirement for the first (non-gateway) intermediate provider in the path of an unauthenticated SIP call, extended Robocall Mitigation Database filing requirements, and increased the Enforcement Bureau’s tools to combat robocalling. We also cover the Industry Traceback Group’s report on its progress, working together with law enforcement, in combatting robocalling in 2022.