Category Archives: Wireless

PLI’s 2017/2018 Telecommunications Law Answer Book by Drinker Biddle Now Available

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Each year since 2014, a wide range of Drinker Biddle lawyers, including Telecom Highlights contributors Laura Phillips, Lee Petro and Anthony Glosson, have written the Practising Law Institute (PLI) Telecommunications Law Answer Book, a 600-plus page comprehensive overview of the legal and regulatory issues faced by the telecommunications industry.  Each year the content is updated to reflect new legal, regulatory and policy developments.  Laura Phillips serves as the publication’s Editor.

The Answer Book is presented in an easy-to-read Q&A format, and offers expert guidance on numerous issues for practitioners, corporate general counsels and senior management, and other professionals in the many areas of the telecommunications industry.  Topics highlighted in this year’s Answer Book include, among others:

  • Pending Proposals to Reclassify Broadband Internet Access Service
  • Spectrum Auctions
  • Regulatory Developments to Support 5G Mobile Services
  • Cybersecurity US Executive Order
  • Repealed Broadband Privacy Rules
  • Executive-Branch Ethics and Gift Rules
  • Recent Antitrust/Sherman Act Claims
  • New Developments with the Connect America Fund
  • Revisions to FCC Foreign Ownership Rules

For more information, please visit the PLI site here

FCC Adopts Notice of Inquiry Seeking Comment on Enterprise Communications Systems’ 911 Capabilities

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In a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) released last week, the FCC sought input on the state of 911 capabilities in office and other enterprise environments (Enterprise Communications Systems, or “ECS”).  The FCC expressed concern about continuing reports of several difficulties in accessing 911 services through ECS, including:

  • Lack of direct 911 dialing – e.g., a requirement to dial 9-911 to dial out to emergency services.
  • Lack of ability to route calls to the closest Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).
  • Failure of some ECS networks to provide PSAPs with detailed information about the caller’s location.

Continue reading FCC Adopts Notice of Inquiry Seeking Comment on Enterprise Communications Systems’ 911 Capabilities →

FCC Acts on Serial Spoofing; Warns that TCPA and Wire Fraud Activities Must Cease

At its monthly Open Meeting on June 22, the FCC voted to issue a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) finding that Adrian Abramovich (Abramovich) apparently perpetrated one of the largest spoofed robocall campaigns that the agency has ever investigated. Through its Enforcement Bureau (Bureau), the FCC concurrently released a separate Citation and Order notifying Abramovich of violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) as well as the federal wire fraud statute by making illegal telemarketing calls to emergency lines, wireless phones, and residential phones, and that the calls included prerecorded messages falsely claimed affiliation with well-known U.S. travel and hotel companies, thus defrauding unsuspecting consumers receiving these calls. Continue reading FCC Acts on Serial Spoofing; Warns that TCPA and Wire Fraud Activities Must Cease →

The New York Police Department’s Use of Wireless Emergency Alert System to Seek Help in Locating Bombing Suspect: A New Use for these Alerts

Following an explosion in September in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City and discovery of other unexploded homemade bomb devices, the New York Police Department identified a suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was sought in connection with the bombings and attempted bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey. For the first time ever in this circumstance, the NYPD used a communications tool initially known as the “Commercial Mobile Alert System” (CMAS) and later renamed to be “Wireless Emergency Alerts” or WEA to function as an electronic wanted poster. This was in contrast to more familiar uses of this emergency communications capability, such as the localized transmission of severe weather advisories or Amber Alerts. Under FCC rules, these alerts are originated by authorized federal, state and local governments, and they currently are used to geographically target 90-character messages that fall into three distinct categories: Presidential, Imminent Threat, and Amber Alerts. Continue reading The New York Police Department’s Use of Wireless Emergency Alert System to Seek Help in Locating Bombing Suspect: A New Use for these Alerts →

FirstNet Issues its Long Awaited RFP to Build and Operate a Nationwide Broadband Public Safety Network

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) on January 13, 2016, issued its Request for Proposals (RFP) to deploy and operate a nationwide public safety broadband network, marking a major step forward in a decades-long effort to modernize communications for first responders and other public safety personnel. The release follows extensive dialogue with public safety and potential vendors in the technology and communications industry on the objectives and scope of the RFP for the FirstNet network, including a consultation and outreach program to engage with the states, territories, federal agencies, tribal governments, among others.

Continue reading FirstNet Issues its Long Awaited RFP to Build and Operate a Nationwide Broadband Public Safety Network →

Update on FCC Proceeding to Remove Cuba from the International Section 214 Exclusion List

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The Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) International Bureau (“IB”) has removed Cuba from the International Section 214 Exclusion List, an index of countries that are not covered by the FCC’s otherwise global “International Section 214” authorizations to carry telecommunications traffic beyond U.S. borders.  Entities seeking to operate lines between the U.S. and countries on the Exclusion List were required to obtain specific authorization from the FCC and the U.S. Department of State (“State Department”).

Continue reading Update on FCC Proceeding to Remove Cuba from the International Section 214 Exclusion List →

FCC Releases 2016 Broadband Progress Report

On January 29, 2016, the FCC released its 2016 Broadband Progress Report (“Report”) pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Section 706 requires the FCC to report annually on whether advanced telecommunications capability “is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion,” and to take “immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market” if the FCC determines that that it is not being deployed in this way. The Report finds that “advanced telecommunications capability is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” This finding comes one year after the FCC revised its standard for broadband, from 10 Mbps/1Mbps to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps. Continue reading FCC Releases 2016 Broadband Progress Report →

Reminder – CPNI Annual Certification Filings Due March 1

Starting out the New Year with its first “enforcement advisory,” the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau on February 5, 2016 issued a Public Notice reminding telecommunications carriers and interconnected VoIP providers that they have until March 1, 2016 to file annual Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) certifications with the FCC. Continue reading Reminder – CPNI Annual Certification Filings Due March 1 →