Today:  FTC Swears in New Commissioner, FCC NAL Issued to Company for Alleged Spoofing of Marketing Calls, FCC Issues Staff Presentation on CAF II Results 

FTC Swears in New Commissioner

Christine S. Wilson was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a recent announcement.  Wilson previously served at the FTC as Chairman Tim Muris’ Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush Administration, and as a law clerk in the Bureau of Competition while attending Georgetown University Law Center.  Wilson graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Florida. 

Commissioner Wilson replaces commissioner Maureen K. Ohlhausen.  The FTC announced her departure from the Federal Trade Commission upon the expiration of her term.  Ohlhausen was sworn in as a Commissioner on April 4, 2012, and served as Acting Chairman of the agency from January 25, 2017 to May 1, 2018.  Commissioner Ohlhausen previously served the FTC in various capacities, including four years as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning. 

FCC NAL Issued to Company for Alleged Spoofing of Marketing Calls

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL), proposed a more than $37.5 million fine against Affordable Enterprises of Arizona for apparently making millions of illegally-spoofed telemarketing calls that appeared to originate from consumers and other numbers not assigned to the company.  In determining the proposed forfeiture in this case, we apply a $1,000 base forfeiture to each of the 37,525 spoofed calls evaluated by the Bureau, for a total proposed base forfeiture of $37,525,000.  This is the FCC’s first major enforcement action against a company that apparently commandeered consumers’ phone numbers, an oft-complained about nuisance for Americans.

The Tucson-based company made more than 2.3 million maliciously-spoofed telemarketing calls to Arizonans during a 14-month span starting in 2016 to sell home improvement and remodeling services. The company apparently manipulated the caller ID information so that many calls appeared to come from consumers who were unconnected to the operation. Calls also appeared to come from unassigned phone numbers and numbers assigned to pre-paid “burner” phones.  In each case, the caller ID was spoofed, and consumers were unable to identify from the caller ID that the call was from Affordable Enterprises.

Illegal spoofing occurs when a caller maliciously falsifies the information transmitted to a consumer’s caller ID display.  The Truth in Caller ID Act prohibits anyone from transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongly obtain anything of value.  More information on spoofing rules is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/spoofing.  Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefings dated 01/12/2011 and 07/26/2011.

FCC Issues Staff Presentation on CAF II Results

The FCC released the staff presentation on the Connect America Fund Phase II auction results.  Among other things, the report listed that:

• CAF II has a $1.98 billion budget;
• Each bid in the auction was a commitment to offer broadband and voice services in a particular area for an amount of support;
• Weighted tiers encouraged participation from a range of companies and technologies; and
• There were 220 qualified bidders, 173 placed bids.

 Results of the auction include:

• 103 winning bidders
• WISPs, electric co-ops, cable operators, local exchange carriers, satellite company
• Service to 713,176 homes and small businesses in 45 states
• 99.75% at speeds of 25/3 Mbps or higher
• $1.49 billion over 10 years won

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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.