The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, ordered a telemarketing company and its owners to pay $28.7 million and permanently banned them from participating in or assisting in telemarketing. Day Pacer, EduTrek and the companies' owners, Raymond Fitzgerald, Ian Fitzgerald and David Cumming, "knowingly violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule," the FTC said in a news release Wednesday. The telemarketing scheme included unsolicited vocational and post-secondary education services to about 40 million consumers on the do not call registry. The order said Cumming "died after the parties had fully briefed summary judgment and his Estate has been substituted as a defendant."

Small businesses find broadband outages can cripple their operations, yet many lack the choice of a more reliable primary ISP, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson said in a Wednesday blog post. “The most realistic option” is a second or even third connection, though that's expensive, Dawson said. As many as 10% of the small businesses he talks to “have gone to a two-ISP solution for redundancy,” he said: “A company may only get the amount of bandwidth they need from the local cable company, but DSL, fixed wireless, or satellite as a backup is better than going totally dead.”

The FCC Wednesday extended deadlines for four carriers to remove, replace and dispose of Huawei and ZTE equipment from their networks. The deadline for Mediacom Communications was extended from Jan. 15 to April 15, for NfinityLink Communications from Feb. 15 to Aug. 15, for Vitelcom Cellular from Jan. 11 to July 11 and for Country Wireless from Feb. 24 to Aug. 23. The Wireline Bureau evaluated the need for an extension as presented in each petition. In the case of Country Wireless, the provider said completing the process by the deadline was “materially affected by the lack of full funding for the required work, coupled with its status as a small rural provider with limited financial resources to spare for this work," the notice said. The FCC encouraged submitting petitions as soon as providers realized they needed an extension: “Recipients should fully explain and support their assertions with specific facts showing why they cannot meet their existing removal, replacement, and disposal term, so that the Bureau can review the sufficiency of the request.” Lawmakers are evaluating legislative vehicles to allocate an additional $3.1 billion, ensuring full reimbursement of rip-and-replace participants' costs (see 2401240001).

The FCC and FTC were upbeat about interagency coordination on reducing robocalls, saying Tuesday that the effort "appears to have had a significant impact in protecting consumers." They cited a "decrease in the volume of apparently illegal robocalls reportedly transmitting the networks" of seven gateway providers that received warnings: Telstar Express, Bandwith, CenturyLink, iDentidad Advertising Development, Tata Communications (America), Telco Connection and TeleCall Telecommunications. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement that the effort proves "we are stronger in our efforts to protect American consumers." FTC Chair Lina Khan vowed that the agency will "continue to crack down on upstream actors that facilitate fraud."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Association of Business and the Longview, Texas, Chamber of Commerce sued the FCC in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over the agency's rules defining "digital discrimination of access." The rules were adopted by a 3-2 vote during a November agency meeting (see 2311150040). The order "purports to implement" part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act "by adopting a definition of 'digital discrimination of access' to broadband internet service that encompasses '[p]olicies or practices, not justified by genuine issues of technical or economic feasibility,' that result in disparate treatment or disparate impact," the groups said in the filing. Filed Friday, the suit was posted Monday.

Labor contributed on average to 73% of underground build costs and 67% of aerial costs for fiber broadband providers in 2023, said a Fiber Broadband Association report Monday. Conducted by Cartesian, the report included regional cost variations and the cost differential between deployment methods. “As broadband providers across the country look to leverage public and private funding to connect communities to high-quality broadband services, understanding the cost variables of deployment remains a vital component to broadband plans and proposals,” said Deborah Kish, FBA vice president-research and workforce development. Respondents to the group's survey expected deployment, engineering and permitting costs to decrease in 2024 while material prices were expected to increase. The group will present the report's findings in a webinar Wednesday at 11 a.m. EST.

APCO Monday unveiled a $29 annual membership rate for students, interns and teachers at high schools and colleges. The initiative “opens up awareness of public safety telecommunications as a career option and helps develop leaders for the future by reaching students with an aptitude for related careers early,” APCO said. The current listed full membership rate for individual public safety practitioners is $104 annually, with a partial membership rate of $79.

At least 47 municipal broadband networks launched services since Jan. 1, 2021, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance said Thursday. Many others are in planning or preconstruction stages, ILSR said. The institute counts nearly 450 muni broadband networks in the U.S., it said. “Instead of pleading with or giving additional handouts to the monopoly ISPs,” the cities with muni broadband networks “decided to invest in themselves,” said Ry Marcattilio, ILSR associate director for research.

The FCC's precision ag task force will convene Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. EST in person for its first meeting of its rechartered term, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 19-329. The task force will meet to introduce members, review the group's duties, and begin discussing strategies to advance broadband deployment on agricultural lands and promote precision ag. The notice also announced task force membership. Michael Adelaine, South Dakota State University chief information officer emeritus, was appointed chair. The previous chair was Teddy Bekele, Land O'Lakes chief technology officer.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness continues to lobby the FCC on routing calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. In a docket 18-336 filing Wednesday, NAMI recapped a meeting with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office at which it urged the agency to require 988 calls to be routed to the call center closest to the call's physical location and not based on area code. It also pushed for the agency to convene relevant stakeholders to discuss solutions to outstanding issues. It has repeatedly pressed the FCC on these items (see 2301180030 and 2304280046).