The Federal Communications Commission yesterday clarified that ringless voicemails are considered “calls,” and, therefore, must abide by robocall rulings requiring callers to obtain a consumer’s consent before delivering such a call to a consumer’s mailbox without ringing their cell phone. …
Broadband providers will need to display easy-to-understand labels to allow consumers to comparison shop for broadband services under new FCC rules. The rules were mandated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), adopted late last year. The labels, which…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has stopped Vonage from charging “junk fees” and obstructing those who try to cancel their service, requiring the company to pay $100 million in refunds to consumers harmed by the company’s actions. The company will…
A jury in Austin, Texas said that Grande Communications must pay $46.7 million in damages to several recording companies for copyright infringements made by Grande customers. The recording companies include Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Records and others….
A research report from Carnegie Mellon University recommends that the FCC use a two-layer approach to the consumer broadband labels that the commission is required to implement. The recommendation is based on a consumer survey conducted by the university’s CyLab…
The FCC is getting set to remove seven voice service providers from the Robocall Mitigation Database. The companies are Akabis, Cloud4, Global UC, Horizon Technology Group, Morse Communications, Sharon Telephone Company, and SW Arkansas Telecommunications and Technology. Removal from the…
The Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act introduced in the Senate today would exempt grant funding that network operators receive for rural broadband deployments from taxation. According to the release, broadband deployment grants are currently factored into a company’s income and…
China Unicom (Americas) Operations Limited and Pacific Network Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary ComNet (USA) LLC have been added to a list of companies that are deemed a threat to national security by the FCC Public Safety and Security Bureau….
The FCC has taken a step toward USF contribution base reform. The commission asked Congress to “provide the commission with the legislative tools needed to make changes to the contributions methodology and base” for the Universal Service Fund (USF). The…
Dish and Directv are the latest opponents to issue dueling data about the impact of a proposed rule change for the 12 GHz spectrum band. A proceeding at the FCC is studying opening up 12 GHz spectrum for two-way 5G…
The FCC late Friday proposed fines totaling $4.3 million against 73 companies for defaulted bids in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. More than half of the proposed fines are for a single company — LTD Broadband, which was…
The FCC Enforcement Bureau has ordered phone companies to stop carrying robocalls known to be auto warranty scams. As we covered earlier this month, the FCC says the calls are coming from Roy Cox, Jr., Aaron Michael Jones, their Sumco…
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