FCC Robocall Summit

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he expects major phone companies to implement SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication standards this year, and he will host a summit on July 11, 2019 to examine industry’s progress toward meeting this deadline. The summit will focus on the industry’s implementation of the SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication framework and identify any challenges to deployment of the SHAKEN/STIR framework and discuss how best to overcome them.  (The acronym SHAKEN stands for Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs and the acronym STIR stands for Secure Telephony Identity Revisited.)

“Consumers want and need reliable caller ID information. That’s why we must move aggressively to combat spoofed robocalls,” said Chairman Pai. “I’ve repeatedly demanded that major voice service providers implement a strong call authentication framework this year. I want to hear from them on the progress they’ve made toward meeting this goal. We chose this industry-led path because it is the fastest way to help consumers, but I remain committed to taking regulatory action—action for which we’ve already laid the groundwork—if major carriers do not implement the SHAKEN/STIR framework this year.”

The summit will feature stakeholder discussions of (i) lessons learned from major voice service providers that have begun to deploy call authentication technology in their own networks and test inter-carrier call signing; (ii) the technical barriers, if any, to deployment of SHAKEN/STIR by other major voice service providers; (iii) challenges to deployment faced by smaller voice service providers; and (iv) the use of call authentication to reduce spoofed robocalls and improve the consumer experience.

Stakeholders interested in participating in the summit—including voice service providers, equipment manufacturers, consumer groups, entities involved in SHAKEN/STIR governance, state government entities, technologists, and any other parties interested in the implementation of SHAKEN/STIR—are encouraged to contact the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau by June 11, 2019. Interested participants should provide a brief description of their expertise and the topic(s) they propose to address.

The FCC will provide audio/video coverage of the summit with open captioning over the Internet from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live. Further details regarding summit participants, discussion topics, and times will be announced by a subsequent public notice.

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The Regulatory Mix Today:  FCC Robocall Summit, FCC Webinar on Network Resiliency

FCC Webinar on Network Resiliency

The FCC announced it will hold a webinar on June 17, 2019, to discuss available resources and best practices for small and rural communications providers regarding network reliability and security.  The webinar will focus on issues relevant to small and rural providers offering wireline, interconnected VoIP, cable, satellite, and wireless services. Topics will include:

• A review of updates to the small business cybersecurity planner, an online resource to help small businesses create customized cybersecurity plans maintained on the FCC’s website.
• Best practices that small businesses may implement to protect their communications networks to ensure reliability, resiliency, and security.
• Recommendations from the Final Report of the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council VI  on how small and rural carriers can transition to Next  Generation 911 while minimizing risks of the transition, such as preventative measures to avoid service outages.
• Recent updates to the FCC’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) for reporting of communications service disruptions, and to the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) for reporting of communications infrastructure status and situational awareness information during times of crisis, as they relate to small and rural providers.
• A review of updates to the Network Reliability Steering Committee Emergency Preparedness Checklist, which provides general guidance on how to prepare for, and respond to, a wide array of emergency situations.
• The importance of identifying and eliminating potential security vulnerabilities in communications networks and their supply chains, and an overview of the FCC’s proposal to protect Universal Service Funds from being spent on equipment or services from suppliers that raise national security concerns

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.

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