The Regulatory Mix, TMI’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 a TMI Briefing.

FCC Enforcement Bureau

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau (EB) entered into a Consent Decree with Telecom House, Inc. to resolve the EB’s investigation into whether Telecom House, Inc. violated the Communications Act and the FCC’s rules by failing to comply with the terms of a 2006 Consent Decree and failing to timely pay TRS and regulatory fees, file annual CPNI certifications and file annual reports on international telecommunications traffic.  To settle this matter, Telecom House admitted to the violations described above, will implement a compliance plan to ensure that future payments and filings are made on time, and pay a $75,000 civil penalty. Upon an Event of Default, as defined in the Consent Decree, Telecom House will be liable for an additional $175,000 civil penalty.  Events of default include failure to pay the civil penalty in accordance with the agreed-upon schedule, failure to timely pay regulatory fees or TRS contributions, failure to timely file its CPNI certifications or international traffic reports. 

Telecom House violated the terms of the 2006 Consent Decree by failing to pay the entirety of the $170,000 civil penalty within the time frame set forth in that agreement.  The EB said that this was an egregious violation that demonstrates a lack of regard for FCC authority.

FTC Workshop "Putting Disclosures to the Test"

The FTC announced the agenda for a September 15, 2016, workshop, Putting Disclosures to The Test, which will include 22 presentations covering a wide variety of topics on how consumers think about, notice, understand, and act on disclosures made to them in advertising and other materials.  The day-long event will begin with a presentation on the cognitive models that govern how consumers process disclosures.  From there, the presentations will be divided into six major topic areas: methods and procedures to evaluate the effectiveness of disclosures; whether and when people notice or pay attention to various types of disclosures; how much people understand or comprehend the information presented in disclosures; disclosures’ impact on consumers’ decision making processes; case studies; and a look at the future of research on disclosures.  The research that will be presented covers disclosures in a wide variety of environments, from online games to mobile platforms to nutrition labels. The researchers represent a number of institutions, including universities from across the U.S., government agencies, think tanks, testing firms, and private industry. 

FirstNet Draft PEIS

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) announced the availability of the draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Central Region (PEIS).  Comments on the draft PEIS are due on or before October 11, 2016.  It evaluates the potential environmental impacts of the proposed nationwide public safety broadband network in the Central Region, composed of Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.  FirstNet also announced a series of public meetings to be held throughout the Central Region.  Click here for more details. 

California Public Participation Hearings

The PUC scheduled Public Participation Hearings to allow the public to comment on issues that have arisen following the Frontier/Verizon acquisition.  Click here for information on dates and locations of the meetings to be held in August and September 2016.