Monthly robocalls to U.S. phones jumped 43 percent in November to 980.8 million, estimated YouMail in its latest National Robocall Index released Thursday. The company said it provides intelligent cloud-based telecom services and compiles the data based on callers blocked and/or reported as spam by millions of its subscribers. New York continued to be the most-targeted city, with 45 million robocalls received, followed by Atlanta (42.1 million), Los Angeles (38.8 million) and Houston (29.7 million), it said. Columbus, Ohio, was the city generating the most traffic with 40.7 million robocalls originating there, followed by Atlanta with 19.8 million. Fifteen of the top 20 robocallers were debt collectors, with a “major credit card company,” and “company trying to collect on student loans” leading the way, YouMail said. Congressional efforts to curb robocalls, including through a Do-Not-Call Registry, “have been largely ineffective,” said the company, which noted robocallers can place thousands of calls in seconds from overseas, outside U.S. jurisdiction. It noted the FCC adopted an order last summer (see 1506180046) that increased potential fines for "spammers and spoofers" and allowed telcos to offer "robocall-blocking services to consumers."

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said “a funny thing is happening on the way to enacting a reverse auction for a key portion of the high-cost Connect America Fund (CAF).” Some people -- he didn't say who -- want commission staff “to select winners and losers with an inappropriate bias against certain technologies,” instead of devising a “program based on competitive forces and free-market principles,” O’Rielly wrote in a Thursday blog post. “Such manipulation would be the surest way to produce greater inefficiency, overpay for service and leave many consumers unserved. Further, this would set bad precedent and undermine future Commission universal service efforts. Accordingly, I suggest that we reject this approach, focus on the sound, broad principles that everyone should support, and then turn to implementing the details.” O'Rielly listed five principles for the auction to follow: "maximize coverage," "no categories," "open to all technologies," "multi-round auction" and "no overbuilding." O'Rielly recently warned against designing the auction -- for CAF Phase II areas where price-cap incumbent telcos didn't accept model-based support -- in a way that would contain a bias for fiber over wireless (see 1511170063). A draft order was circulated among commissioners in late September (see 1509250057).

President Barack Obama said Thursday that he will renominate FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. She has held the position since March 4, 2013. Before then, she served as a commissioner since April 5, 2010.

It's crucial for government, the private sector and others to "regularly engage to understand the impacts of encryption on national security, public health and safety, economic competitiveness, privacy, cybersecurity, and human rights around the world," the White House said in an official response Wednesday to a "We the People" petition signed by more than 100,000 people who said they don't want encrypted devices undermined by back doors. Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Ed Felten and Michael Daniel, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator, wrote that encryption is also part of a larger discussion on fighting terrorism. "That is why, in his address to the nation on Sunday, the President reiterated the Administration’s call for America’s technology community and law enforcement and counter-terrorism officials to work together to fight terrorism. American technologists have a unique perspective that makes them essential in finding new ways to combat it," they wrote. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which said it set up the petition, said Wednesday "really strong encryption" means "without compromises. It means encryption without so-called exceptional access capabilities. It means encryption without backdoors." However, EFF said, FBI Director James Comey and others want law enforcement access to encrypted devices.

Reserving vacant channels for unlicensed use would be “devastating” to low-power TV and translator stations and make aspects of ATSC 3.0 impractical, said the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance Executive Director Louis Libin and Sinclair Broadcast Senior Vice President-Strategy and Policy Rebecca Hanson in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. “Elevating unlicensed (which does not even have an allocation in the broadcast band) to supra-primary status would be arbitrary and capricious absent a full record,” said the filing: “The proposal would severely limit full power stations’ ability to enhance and expand service.”

The Collaboration on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Communication Standards working group of the ITU met Monday to review recent developments in ITS, including ITS-related results of the World Radiocommunication Conference and activities of the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe concerning automated vehicles. Attendees also discussed a report from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), which attempts to provide a taxonomy for the various levels of motor vehicle automation. Barbara Wendling, Volkswagen of America safety regulatory policy manager, said SAE is pushing for widely recognized standards in the ITS space, because “it doesn’t serve the community well to have competing standards.” Representatives of Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) introduced a draft recommendation to increase security measures for remote software updates of ITS devices. Masashi Eto, an NICT researcher, said the remote updating of automated vehicle software poses many security risks, and proposed a structure to limit potential breaches. The structure would include increasing the amount of message filtering and adding additional security protocols and notification measures to ensure tampering can be detected. Russell Shields, Ygomi chairman and ITS World Congress board member, echoed Eto's concerns of software vulnerabilities in connected vehicles, saying it's “one of the most critical security risks” in ITS, and it can be hard to limit the introduction of malware into a car, since it's not difficult to physically access a vehicle. “This is a major, open issue that we are trying to solve," he said. Eto said the draft recommendation is under consideration by the Collaboration on ITS Communication Standards committee.

John Leibovitz, deputy chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau and a key policymaker in pushing the envelope on wireless issues at the commission, is leaving the agency effective Wednesday. Leibovitz was a holdover from the Julius Genachowski FCC. Leibovitz, who also was a special adviser to Chairman Tom Wheeler on spectrum issues, led Wireless Bureau development of the rules for the AWS-3 and TV incentive auctions. He was also a leader of the spectrum team on the National Broadband Plan. He played a major role on such issues as the reallocation of the 3.5 GHz band as a shared spectrum band. Industry officials said he is viewed as a one-man spectrum think tank within the agency. Leibovitz announced his departure Tuesday in an email to FCC staff. “Most of you know me as a ‘spectrum guy’ and I am very proud of the many ways we have evolved wireless policy to meet future needs,” he said. “I am also proud that we have been able to work across bureaucratic lines as one team. We have not always agreed on every detail, but by and large folks have listened, debated, and deliberated to develop practical, forward-thinking policies. And we have implemented them!” Every FCC rule “was drafted by practical people who grappled with the challenges of new technologies, new industries, and new ideas,” Leibovitz reminded colleagues. “You are continuing a proud tradition if you respect the past and engage with it, but are not captive to it. A spirit of innovation and occasional daring (tempered with humility and modesty) is essential if the FCC is fulfill its public interest mission in an ever-changing world. Also, it helps to have a good sense of humor.” Leibovitz did not say where he is headed after he leaves the FCC.

The FCC Wireless Bureau said Monday communications tower companies must comply with revised tower guidelines released Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration. New towers that use several lighting styles and are higher than 350 feet above ground level (AGL) now must deploy flashing obstruction lights. That change kicks in immediately. The notice has a similar requirement for towers between 151 and 350 feet AGL, though that requirement doesn’t begin until Sept. 15. “Under Commission rules, each new or altered antenna structure subject to the antenna structure registration requirement must conform to the painting and lighting specifications set forth in the FAA’s final determination of ‘no hazard’ and the associated FAA study for that particular structure,” the bureau said in its public notice. The changes are intended to curb deaths of migratory birds, which sometimes crash into steady-burning lights, but are less attracted to flashing lights, the bureau said.

The power and out-of-band emissions limits in FCC rules for the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band are a nonstarter, representatives of the Wireless Innovation Forum’s Spectrum Sharing Committee told officials of the Office of Engineering and Technology in a meeting, said a filing posted Monday in docket 12-354. A wide group of industry companies was represented, including Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Federated Wireless, Google, Motorola Solutions, Nokia Networks, Qualcomm and Verizon. Among the FCC officials at the meeting was OET Chief Julius Knapp. Achieving the power and emissions limits in the rules “will require so much power back off as to render the devices virtually unusable,” the filing said. “After additional review, the diverse set of organizations participating in this filing agree that the required measurement procedure is a major impediment to fulfilling the promise of Part 96.” The companies also said no other licensed mobile broadband service is subject to similar requirements and the rules “do not properly reflect the impact of aggregate interference.” It's likely other wideband systems, including Wi-Fi and WiMAX, will be unable to meet the emissions limits, the companies said. The commission approved creating the new Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) in the 3550-3700 MHz band at its April meeting, after years of debate (see 1504170055). CTIA earlier sought changes to the power and emissions limits in the rules (see 1510210020). The Satellite Industry Association opposed many of the changes sought by CTIA and others, saying they're an interference risk to fixed satellite service earth station use of the spectrum (see 1510200061).

Correction: What CTA Government Affairs Director Jamie Boone said on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2015 (S-356) was that the Consumer Technology Association supports the bill, but hasn't taken a position on the Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad Act (S-512) (see 1512030036).