Vonage filed a request with the FCC to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering resource administrators. The 152-page Vonage application and supporting materials came Thursday, the first day interconnected VoIP providers were allowed to seek phone numbers directly under a 2015 FCC order.

The North American Submarine Cable Association supports an FCC proposal to create a "clearinghouse" for information about submarine cable system landings in the U.S. and discussed potential benefits with International Bureau officials, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 15-206. Representatives of Alaska Communications, AT&T, Tata Communications, Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications and Verizon and other undersea cable operators attended the meeting, and NASCA Counsel Kent Bressie said in the filing that the group "emphasized the need for a centralized system of submarine cable deployment and contact information." An NPRM also would allow the creation of an outage reporting system for submarine cable systems (see 1511030019). In its initial filing with the commission about the outage reporting proposal, NASCA called the reporting requirements "needlessly burdensome" but lauded the FCC's focus on submarine cable protection (see 1512040037). During its meeting with the bureau, NASCA cited "overlapping -- and sometimes conflicting" licensing and permitting requirements that "burden" the industry, Bressie said. "The federal permitting process ... overlaps significantly with the state and local reviews." Permitting and licensing requirements tend to be burdensome due to the "logistical challenges inherent to submarine cable installation," the group said. Challenges include "the limited availability of cable ships globally, the expense and difficulty of storing cable when installation is delayed, the need to work around inclement weather and the need to work around seasonal environmental protections for protected species," it said. NASCA also discussed the "importance of coordination and information sharing in order to enhance protection of submarine cable infrastructure during its operational phase." The lack of a central federal government resource for information about installed undersea cable systems, plus a lack of no single point of government contact for undersea cable issues, "often results in agency actions that increase the risk of damage to submarine cable systems," NASCA said.

If President Barack Obama is determined to nominate a black woman to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s vacant seat on the Supreme Court, one viable candidate would be Ketanji Brown Jackson, U.S. district judge in the District of Columbia, wrote Tom Goldstein, founder of SCOTUSBlog.com, Tuesday in a blog post. Jackson is the presiding judge in the recording industry’s complaint that the major automakers have violated the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) by shipping CD-copying hard drives without paying royalties required under the statute (see 1407310086). Jackson held a hearing May 5 on the automakers’ motions to dismiss the case because their products are outside the AHRA’s scope (see 1505060062), but after nine months of taking the arguments under advisement, she hasn't ruled on the pleadings. In Jackson, Obama would have a nominee who previously was confirmed “without any Republican opposition in the Senate not once, but twice,” first for a seat on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, later to her current judgeship, said Goldstein. Jackson’s “credentials are impeccable,” including cum laude graduate honors at the Harvard Law School and being a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, said Goldstein, who has argued more than 30 cases before the Supreme Court. Jackson, 45, also is related by marriage to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., wrote Goldstein.

The FCC fined Calling 10, Telseven and their owner Patrick Hines more than $3.4 million for unauthorized charges they billed to consumers, and other rules violations, said an agency release on Enforcement Bureau actions (here, here) approved under the consent agenda at Thursday's commission meeting. The related companies in Florida "deceived consumers who mistakenly called their toll-free numbers about their purported services and then subsequently billed those consumers for services that were neither provided nor requested, a practice known as 'cramming,'" said the release. "At the direction of Mr. Hines, the companies, based in the Jacksonville area, acquired approximately one million toll-free numbers, some of which were similar to existing working numbers or formerly used by well-known entities such as Chase Bank and other financial institutions. These acquisitions served no apparent purpose other than to increase the likelihood that consumers would dial one of these numbers and reach Telseven or Calling 10 by mistake," the release said. The companies didn't deny the violations, but Hines said he shouldn't be held personally liable, it said. Neither Hines nor a representative of the companies could be reached for comment.

The number of U.S. robocalls jumped 55 percent to 2.3 billion in January compared to December, a new monthly high, said YouMail in a release Thursday noting its latest National Robocall index. That's 858 robocalls per second on average and is roughly three times the rate from four months ago, said the company, which bases its estimates on calls blocked and/or reported as spam by subscribers using its intelligent telecom answering services. “Having answered billions of calls for its users, YouMail uses algorithms to detect any automatically dialed calls and then aggregates that call data into the Robocall Index," it said. Atlanta was the most-targeted city, receiving 99.6 million robocalls, followed by Dallas, Chicago, Houston and New York City. Columbus, Ohio, generated 71.6 million robocalls, the most of any city for the third straight month, said the firm, noting credit card debt collectors remained the most prolific robocallers, occupying 18 of the top 20 spots. YouMail said the presidential campaign may have contributed some to the increase in January, as the number of robocalls in Iowa grew 46 percent; New Hampshire 55 percent; and in South Carolina 79 percent in Charleston, 83 percent in Columbia.

The FCC fined "DSM Parties" $1.84 million for sending unsolicited fax ads to consumers of chiropractic supplies in violation of agency "junk fax" rules, said an agency release of an Enforcement Bureau order approved as a consent agenda item at Thursday's meeting. The commission received 350 consumer complaints about Scott Malcolm, sole corporate officer of DSM Supply and Somaticare, collectively, the DSM Parties, the release said. A DSM representative had no comment.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act is a continuing cash cow for lawyers and the FCC has only added to the problem, Adonis Hoffman, chairman of Business in the Public Interest, said in a blog post on The Hill website. The FCC offered clarity on TCPA last year, but Hoffman, former chief of staff to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, said the agency got the balance wrong (see 1506160056). “The party-line vote signaled a deeper fissure between consumer protection and reasonable business practices at the FCC, with business on the short end of the compromise,” he wrote. The FCC’s ruling actually tightened the restrictions on companies, he said. TCPA’s status as a strict liability statute, in which companies can have to pay for even a single misstep “has found special favor with aggressive plaintiffs' attorneys who have exploited the loopholes to reap extraordinary financial gain,” Hoffman wrote. “To date, thousands of class action lawsuits have been filed against businesses because they either have called a consumer in error, or have called many customers using automatic dialing systems but failed to obtain the necessary consent required by the law. Often these communications are designed to alert us about fraud and identity theft; to confirm transactions; to remind us of appointments or due dates; to help avoid overdraft fees; or generally to facilitate better customer service or relations.”

Rural interests called for Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II reverse auction rules that "promote smart investment in high-speed networks that are future proof, scalable, and will be able to withstand the ever increasing" FCC definitions of broadband service. "We urge the Commission to ensure that our rural citizens benefit from best available technologies with scalability for the long term in the reverse auction -- not simply the network that is cheapest to deploy initially," three dozen rural-oriented groups said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The auction should help ensure rural broadband services are reasonably comparable to those found in urban areas, and don't fund technologies that could become obsolete before long. "We are concerned that if the Commission structures the reverse auction so that short-term deployment cost is the primary consideration as compared to better measures of efficiency for consumers and over the lives of the funded networks, it would unfairly give preference to lower-capacity, less robust networks and effectively prevent the deployment of networks comparable to those deployed in urban areas," said the groups, which recognized the need for fiscal responsibility.

Members of the ad hoc Governance and Reliability working group, led by the National Emergency Number Association, reported on a meeting with FCC staff on a previously submitted consensus proposal by the group on improving 911 reliability, said a filing posted Tuesday to docket 14-193. Members of the group discussed its vision on the collaborative management of roles and responsibilities in the changing 911 market, the filing said. Members from associations including the National Association of 911 State Administrators, National Emergency Number Association and USTelecom took questions from staff on the proposal, the group said. Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson was among the attendees from the FCC.

Spoofing the FBI's real phone number on victims' caller ID, scammers posing as federal agents have been calling international students and others and demanding "immediate" payments for school loans, back taxes and parking tickets, the Philadelphia division said in a news release. It said FBI offices in 12 states have received reports in which the scammer knows a victim's name, background and personal cellphone number. The bureau said it doesn't call or email people to demand money or threaten arrest.