Many urged the FCC to limit business-oriented caller exposure to Telephone Consumer Protection Act liability, after partial court reversal of a 2015 commission decision targeting unwanted robocalls (see 1803160053). Financial and other corporate interests, including some telecom groups, said the commission should narrow its key definition of "automatic telephone dialing systems" (ATDS) subject to TCPA wireless restrictions and give parties more protection when making inadvertent calls to reassigned numbers. Consumer groups, class-action parties and a few others resisted such pleadings, which they said would further open the floodgates to unwanted robocalls. Comments were included in docket 18-152 on a public notice inviting input on the remand and other TCPA interpretations (see 1805150014).

Many urged the FCC to limit business-oriented caller exposure to Telephone Consumer Protection Act liability, after partial court reversal of a 2015 commission decision targeting unwanted robocalls (see 1803160053). Financial and other corporate interests, including some telecom groups, said the commission should narrow its key definition of "automatic telephone dialing systems" (ATDS) subject to TCPA wireless restrictions and give parties more protection when making inadvertent calls to reassigned numbers. Consumer groups, class-action parties and a few others resisted such pleadings, which they said would further open the floodgates to unwanted robocalls. Comments were included in docket 18-152 on a public notice inviting input on the remand and other TCPA interpretations (see 1805150014).

An FCC proposal for a reassigned-number database drew a fair amount of backing and some resistance, in comments posted Thursday and Friday in docket 17-59 on a March Further NPRM (see 1803220028). Comcast, retailers, financial interests and an electric company group were among those supporting the proposal to create a database of reassigned numbers to help businesses reduce unwanted robocalls and liability under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Most telecom entities and some others were more skeptical or less enthusiastic, citing cost and other concerns, and backing market-based solutions and commission actions to address TCPA issues. There was much support for giving callers an effective TCPA liability safe harbor.

An FCC proposal for a reassigned-number database drew a fair amount of backing and some resistance, in comments posted Thursday and Friday in docket 17-59 on a March Further NPRM (see 1803220028). Comcast, retailers, financial interests and an electric company group were among those supporting the proposal to create a database of reassigned numbers to help businesses reduce unwanted robocalls and liability under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Most telecom entities and some others were more skeptical or less enthusiastic, citing cost and other concerns, and backing market-based solutions and commission actions to address TCPA issues. There was much support for giving callers an effective TCPA liability safe harbor.

Major parties urged the FCC to end two remaining rural call completion duties of providers covered by a 2013 order, after the agency ordered in April that their data reporting requirements be eliminated. CTIA, ITTA, NCTA, Sprint and USTelecom said the data recordkeeping and retention obligations should be scrapped, and Verizon said they should be reduced. NTCA opposed that. Parties offered various views on implementing the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act, in comments posted Monday and Tuesday in docket 13-39 on a Further NPRM attached to the April order, which made covered originating long-distance providers accountable for intermediate carrier performance (see 1804170025 and 1804180025).

The 12 items on Thursday's FCC meeting agenda are the most in almost 10 years, bringing Chairman Ajit Pai's average to more than seven monthly agenda items, far outpacing recent predecessors. Pai is pursuing free-market, deregulatory policies aggressively, said most we queried, though some believe Pai is trying to overload critics. Pai pitched the commissioners' meeting as a "summer blockbuster" on high-band 5G spectrum, cable leased-access reversal, satellite broadband, intercarrier compensation, rural broadband, telecom legacy discontinuance streamlining aimed at spurring wireline broadband, and other items (see 1805160051).

The 12 items on Thursday's FCC meeting agenda are the most in almost 10 years, bringing Chairman Ajit Pai's average to more than seven monthly agenda items, far outpacing recent predecessors. Pai is pursuing free-market, deregulatory policies aggressively, said most we queried, though some believe Pai is trying to overload critics. Pai pitched the commissioners' meeting as a "summer blockbuster" on high-band 5G spectrum, cable leased-access reversal, satellite broadband, intercarrier compensation, rural broadband, telecom legacy discontinuance streamlining aimed at spurring wireline broadband, and other items (see 1805160051).

All signs point to an easy Senate confirmation vote for FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks, but his lack of a clear public track record on many high-profile telecom policy issues likely portends tough questions from lawmakers in both parties in the weeks ahead, communications officials and lobbyists told us. President Donald Trump at our deadline Monday formally nominated Starks, an Enforcement Bureau assistant chief, to succeed outgoing Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for a term ending June 30, 2022. Chairman Ajit Pai and some other commissioners lauded Starks’ selection Friday, though only some directly received a White House announcement about the nomination then (see 1806010072).

All signs point to an easy Senate confirmation vote for FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks, but his lack of a clear public track record on many high-profile telecom policy issues likely portends tough questions from lawmakers in both parties in the weeks ahead, communications officials and lobbyists told us. President Donald Trump at our deadline Monday formally nominated Starks, an Enforcement Bureau assistant chief, to succeed outgoing Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for a term ending June 30, 2022. Chairman Ajit Pai and some other commissioners lauded Starks’ selection Friday, though only some directly received a White House announcement about the nomination then (see 1806010072).

Incompas defended its motion to dismiss a USTelecom forbearance petition for incumbent telco relief from wholesale network-sharing "unbundling" discounts and related duties. The CLEC/competitor group welcomed the ILEC group's decision not to oppose motions for extending comment deadlines (see 1805220056), and said such an extension is needed because USTelecom plans to file additional confidential data after a protective order is issued. But USTelecom "is wrong that it complied with the Forbearance Procedures Order, which clearly states that parties must 'include in the petition the facts, information, data, and arguments on which the petition intends to rely to make the prima facie case for forbearance. It simply did not provide the data," said an Incompas reply posted Wednesday in docket 18-141. "Insisting that parties actually comply with the complete-as-filed rule does not -- as USTelecom erroneously suggests -- create a conflict between confidentiality and forbearance. That is a false choice." U.S. TelePacific, which uses unbundled copper loops to provide Ethernet broadband service, backed Incompas' motions.