Today:  Arizona Blockchain Law, FCC Commissioner Clyburn to Leave FCC, FCC Settles Rural Call Completion Investigation for $40 Million 

Arizona Enacts Blockchain Law

Arizona enacted a law prohibiting a city, town, or county from restricting an individual from running a node on blockchain technology in a residence. Running a node on blockchain technology is defined as providing computing power to validate or encrypt transactions in blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is separately defined in the law as a distributed ledger technology that uses a distributed, decentralized, shared and replicated ledger, which may be public or private, permissioned or permissionless, or driven by tokenized crypto economics or tokenless. The data on the ledger is protected with cryptography, is immutable and auditable and provides an uncensored truth. The law goes into effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns sine die. 

FCC Commissioner Clyburn To Leave FCC

At today’s FCC Open Meeting, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn announced that today would be her last FCC meeting as a Commissioner.  All of the other FCC Commissioners issued statements in response to this news.

 Chairman Pai said, “I congratulate Commissioner Clyburn on her distinguished tenure at the FCC. She has been a tremendous leader and a committed public servant throughout her time here. As the first woman to head the agency, she led skillfully through a transition and put her stamp on the Commission, including through her steadfast leadership in telehealth, media diversity, and digital inclusion. I have enjoyed working with her and, even when we have not seen eye-to eye on policy, I have always held her candor and thoughtfulness in the highest regard. She’s been a wonderful colleague and friend. I wish her nothing but the best and sincerely thank her for her service.

Commissioner Rosenworcel said, in part: “Commissioner Clyburn has been a forceful advocate for change, for equal opportunity, and for closing the digital divide. It was a privilege to support her history making leadership as Acting Chairwoman…I am proud to have worked together with her to support net neutrality and grateful to have been her partner in her unwavering work to remedy the grave injustice of exorbitant prison phone rates…In short, Commissioner Clyburn is a dynamo. She represents the best of public service. I am proud to call her both a colleague and a friend.”

Commissioner Carr said, in part: “Commissioner Clyburn has been a strong and dynamic member of the Commission... In my time as a Commissioner, I have been consistently struck by her passion and commitment to the work of the FCC, her professionalism, and her willingness to reach across the aisle to get things done. It has been a privilege to serve with her, and I wish her all the best on her future endeavors.”

Commissioner O’Reilly said: “I am saddened to hear my friend and colleague, Commissioner Clyburn, announce her intention to leave the Commission in the very near future…Even when we disagreed, we found a way to work through it and get to the next issue. Suffice it to say, Commissioner Clyburn epitomizes the term ‘public servant.’ I wish her well in her next endeavor, whatever it may be.”

FCC Settles Rural Call Completion Investigation For $40 Million

The FCC announced entered into a consent decree with T-Mobile to settle the FCC’s investigation into whether T-Mobile violated: (1) the FCC’s rural call completion rules by failing to correct ongoing problems with delivery of calls to rural consumers; and (2) the FCC’s rule that prohibits providers from inserting false ring tones with respect to hundreds of millions of calls.  In addition to the paying the $40 million to the US Treasury, T-Mobile agreed to a implement a compliance plan to ensure that it does not violate the rural call completion rules in the future, including development of a compliance manual and a compliance training program, and ongoing compliance reports to the FCC.  Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers watch for our Briefing with more details.

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 The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s daily 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.