Welcome to the latest edition of Arent Fox’s This Week in Telecom, our weekly newsletter designed to keep you apprised of recent developments in telecommunications policy, legislation, and litigation. Follow our Telecom Group on Twitter! Click here.

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FCC Announcements l The Mobile Market l FTC and Privacy Regulation l New Markets: Smart Grid and E-Health l Intercarrier Compensation l Compliance Notes l Broadband News l In the Courts l Legislative Outlook l Events

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Announcements

• The FCC is convening the .Gov Developer Meet Up on April 16, 2012, from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm Eastern. The Meet Up will enable agencies to showcase how they make data available through application program interfaces (APIs) and introduce them to the developer community. For more information, click here.
• The next FCC Open Meeting will be held April 27, 2012, at 11:00 am Eastern. We will provide the Tentative Agenda when it is released.
• The FCC seeks comment on the petition for expedited declaratory ruling of Soundbite Communications that sending one-time, confirmatory messages when a consumer opts out of receiving text messages does not violate the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Comments are due April 30, 2012, and Reply Comments are due May 5, 2012. The petition is available here. The Notice establishing filing deadlines is available here. CG Docket No. 02-278.
  
  Read our Client Alert on this proceeding here.

Please contact Ross Buntrock, Alan Fishel, Michael Hazzard, or Jon Canis (contact information below) for further information.

The Mobile Market

• At its meeting on March 30, 2012, the FCC Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) endorsed short messaging service (SMS) as an interim text-to-911 technology solution. Fifteen EAAC members voted for the recommendation, while six members abstained. Advocates for the disabled urged the EAAC to endorse the technology until more robust next-generation 911 (NG-911) services are fully deployed, while industry representatives argued that SMS technology is not well suited for life threatening situations.
• The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has opened a proceeding to consider whether Canada should begin to regulate retail wireless services. As has the United States, the CRTC previously declined to impose regulations on the wireless market, believing that there was sufficient competition to impose constraints on wireless carriers. But according to the Notice of Consultation released April 4, 2012, "the Commission is seeking comments on whether the conditions for forbearance have changed sufficiently to warrant Commission intervention in the development of a national retail wireless services consumer code." Interested parties must intervene by May 3, 2012, and Reply Comments must be filed by May 14, 2012. The Commission expects to issue a ruling about four months later. The Notice of Consultation is available here.
• The FCC seeks comment on the impact of a public safety network on Commercial Mobile Radio Service by April 30, 2012, with Reply Comments due May 30, 2012. The call for comments was issued in response to a decision to suspend service in San Francisco's subway system last August. The Public Notice asks for comment on several topics, including: past practices and precedents; bases for interrupting wireless service; risks in interrupting mobile communications; scope of interruption; authority to interrupt service; and the legal constraints on service disruption. The notice is available here.

Please contact Ross Buntrock, Michael Hazzard, or G. David Carter (contact information below) for further information.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Privacy Regulation

• On March 23, 2012, a federal judge imposed the largest penalty ever for unlawful calls placed to consumers on the Do-Not-Call Registry. Judge Michael Telesca of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York ordered the defendants behind a deceptive robocall scheme to pay a $30 million civil penalty and surrender more than $1.1 million in ill-gotten gains. The scheme promised "cash grants" to individuals, but then referred them to grant-related websites that charged a fee for providing information about obtaining grants from private sources. The FTC determined that the robocalls violated the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule and filed suit in July 2009 as part of its ongoing campaign against predatory schemes. More information is available here. A copy of the court's order is available here.
• On May 30, 2012, the FTC will host a day-long, public "Dot Com Disclosures Workshop" addressing the need for new guidance for advertisers on appropriate disclosures for the online and mobile environment. The Workshop will concentrate on technological advancements and marketing developments that have emerged since the FTC first issued its online advertising disclosure guidelines known as "Dot Com Disclosures". Revisions will be consistent with the goals of the original guidelines, and will continue to emphasize that general consumer protection laws apply equally to online and mobile marketers. More information on the Workshop is available here.

Please contact Ross Buntrock, Alan Fishel, Stephanie Joyce, or Stephen Thompson (contact information below) for further information.

New Markets: Smart Grid and E-Health

• The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a new "Apps for Energy" competition in partnership with PG&E, Itron, and Gridwise Alliance. The competition challenges application developers to use the Green Button data access program to make residential and commercial utility data more accessible and useful to the consumer. As part of DOE's smart grid initiative, the Green Button program seeks to make energy usage data available in a streamlined and easy-to-understand format. The developers who submit the best apps will win part of a $100,000 cash prize, and submissions are due May 15, 2012 by 8:00 pm EST. Winners will be announced May 22, 2012. The official rules and deadlines are available here. More information regarding the Green Button initiative is available here.
• The Michigan Public Service Commission (MI PSC) has opened an investigation into the deployment of smart meters by electric utilities. Noting that consumers and municipalities have expressed concern about smart meters, the MI PSC ordered all regulated electric utilities to submit information to the MI PSC by March 16, 2012, on a number of issues, including (1) the utility's existing plans for deployment of smart meters in its service territory, (2) any scientific information known to the utility that bears on the safety of smart meters, and (3) an explanation of the steps that the utility intends to take to safeguard the privacy of the information gathered. Comments are due April 16, 2012. The MI PSC order can be found here.

Please contact Stephanie Joyce, Jeffrey Rummel, G. David Carter, or Stephen Thompson (contact information below) for further information.

Developments in Intercarrier Compensation

• On March 30, 2012, Cox California Telcom, LLC and Vaya Telecom, Inc. filed a joint motion with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to extend the statutory deadline for the CPUC to resolve Cox's complaint against Vaya. Cox filed its complaint in September 2011, alleging that Vaya was refusing to pay tariffed intrastate access charges for traffic sent to Cox. Vaya, however, stated that all of the traffic it sent to Cox was IP-originated traffic and therefore such traffic is jurisdictionally interstate and subject to reciprocal compensation rules. Vaya also argued that, because the traffic at issue was sent prior to the FCC's November 18, 2011 Intercarrier Compensation Reform Order and Cox declined to enter into a interconnection agreement, a default bill-and-keep arrangement exists between the carriers. In their joint motion to extend the statutory deadline, the carriers stated that it will be impossible to resolve Cox's complaint by the September 9, 2012 statutory deadline due to delays in discovery. The carriers requested that the CPUC extend the deadline by at least six months. Docket No. 11-09-007.

Please contact Ross Buntrock, Jon Canis, Michael Hazzard, Stephanie Joyce, or Adam Bowser (contact information below) for further information regarding intercarrier compensation matters.

Compliance Notes

• On April 2, 2012, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) announced that completed FCC Forms 499-A that are filed before tomorrow, April 10, 2012, will be considered to be filed on time due to difficulties with USAC's electronic filing system. They may be filed either electronically or in hard copy. The original filing deadline was April 2, 2012 (see March 29 Client Alert). More information about this extension can be found here.
• The Maryland Public Service Commission (MD PSC) has ordered all facilities-based Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) operating in Maryland to file reductions to their intrastate switched access rates in accordance with the Connect America Order (FCC 11-161) by May 1, 2012. These filings should bear an effective date of July 1, 2012. The MD PSC is also requiring facilities-based LECs to update their intrastate tariffs to reflect the implementation of the Connect America Order's Internet-protocol (IP) traffic provisions by July 1, 2012. These provisions allow LECs to charge switched access charges for all IP-related traffic at interstate rates. The MD PSC warned that LECs that do not make these filings in a timely manner may be out of compliance and will not be allowed to charge intrastate switched access charges until their revised tariff is approved by the MD PSC. A copy of the MD PSC notice can be found here. The Connect America Order may be found here.
• Form 499-Q is due May 1, 2012 for all filers that are not considered to be de minimis for Universal Service filing purposes. This filing encompasses historical revenues from the first quarter of 2012 and projected revenues for the third quarter of 2012. A copy of the current FCC Form 499-Q can be found here. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) providers who rely on traffic studies to report interstate revenues on FCC Form 499-Q must submit these studies by May 1, 2012 to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) and the Chief, Industry Analysis and Technology Division of the FCC.
• The Universal Service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2012 is 17.4%. A copy of the Public Notice announcing the rate can be found here. (DA-12-396).

Please contact Ross Buntrock, Jon Canis, Michael Hazzard, or Katherine Barker Marshall (contact information below) for further information regarding compliance matters.

Broadband News

• On April 2, 2012, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, an initiative set up by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), released a report titled "The Broadband Bridge: Linking ICT with Climate Action." It finds that "[b]roadband can help transition the world towards a low carbon-economy and address the causes and effects of climate change," and that broadband can address climate change by reducing the need to travel and helping develop "energy lean" products. The report is available here.
• On April 2, 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced April 30, 2012 as its target date to release the list of applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) which will specify who has applied for which gTLDs. The application window closes April 12, 2012. If ICANN receives an "overwhelming number of applications," it may postpone publication of the list of strings. ICANN's announcement is available here.
• On April 4, 2012, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) requested comment on its proposal "to add 12 questions to the U.S. Census Bureau's October 2012 Current Population Survey (CPS) in order to gather reliable data on broadband (also known as high-speed Internet) use by U.S. households." The questions are intended to gauge progress on President Obama's goal of universal, affordable broadband access for all Americans and to identify problem areas. Comments are due June 4, 2012. The Federal Register notice is available here.

Please contact Ross Buntrock, Alan Fishel, Michael Hazzard, Jeffrey Rummel, or Jason Koslofsky (contact information below) for further information.

In the Courts

• On April 4, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico dismissed Pan-American Telephone Co.'s putative class action antitrust suit against the Municipality of San Juan and others on statute-of-limitations grounds. Pan-American alleged that San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini improperly awarded monopoly control over the city's payphones to Phoneworks because of his relationship with Phoneworks' president, son of former Puerto Rico Governor Carlos Romero Barcelo. The suit alleges that payphone users were overcharged more than $60 million by Phoneworks. The problem, the court found, was that the allegedly tainted bid process occurred in 2003, and Pan-American's suit was not filed until 2009, well after the four-year statute of limitations elapsed. Pan-American Tel. Co. v. Municipality of San Juan, et al., No. 3:09-cv-01256 (D. P.R.).

Please contact Ross Buntrock, Jon Canis, Michael Hazzard, Stephanie Joyce, or Joseph Bowser (contact information below) for further information.

Legislative Outlook

• Congress is in recess. The House and the Senate are scheduled to return April 16, 2012.

Please contact Stephanie Joyce (contact information below) for further information.

Upcoming Events

• Jeffrey Rummel, a Partner in our Group, will give a speech titled "FCC Licensing/Regulation of the Manufacture, Development & Testing of Military Communications Systems" at the Military Wireless Conference to be held May 15-17, 2012, at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, VA. For more information, click here.
• The FCBA Annual Conference will be held May 4-6, 2012, at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay. For more information, click here.

Please contact Jeffrey Rummel or Stephanie Joyce (contact information below) for further information.