The FCC seeks comment by April 8, replies April 15 on Sprint’s request to recover costs for providing IP relay, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Thursday on docket 10-51. Sprint seeks interim waivers to permit it to be “compensated for specified costs incurred for outreach, indirect overhead, and research and development” and “receive a reasonable operating margin” for providing the telecommunications relay service, the PN said. The carrier seeks a $1.85 per minute rate for the 2019-20 funding year (see 1903220065).

The FCC Wireline Bureau designated eight eligible telecom carriers for Connect America Fund Phase II support. In Thursday’s order in dockets 09-197 and 10-90, the bureau also designated Lifeline ETC status to three of the carriers that additionally sought support for areas adjacent to CAF-eligible census blocks. The new ETCs are BARC Connects, Central Virginia Services, Empower Broadband and PGEC Enterprises in Virginia; Gibson Connect, HolstonConnect and Meriwether Lewis Connect in Tennessee; and NTUA Wireless in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Verizon Wireless is making available to customers a free version of the Call Filter service, offering “spam alerts and more,” the carrier said Thursday. Also this week, Verizon said it started to deploy Stir/Shaken (Secure Telephony Identity Revisited/Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) caller ID technology as part of its network interconnections. “Both tools will offer significant help for consumers who are consistently harassed by unwanted and annoying robocalls,” Verizon said. A full version of Call Filter costs $2.99 a month, per line, Verizon said.

Noting cybercrimes are expected to cost $6 trillion annually by 2021, USTelecom released its guide to such policy. USTelecom’s commitment is to “take cyberthreats seriously,” it said Wednesday. “We are working across different industries and with government partners (at home and abroad) to bolster our defenses and institute smart cybersecurity policy to protect consumers and businesses.”

A December FCC order creating a reassigned phone number database to help combat unwanted and illegal robocalls to people with new numbers (see 1812120026) took effect Tuesday with Federal Register publication. Commissioners approved the order 4-0 Dec. 12, adding a safe harbor giving some protection from Telephone Consumer Protection Act liability to parties using the database. Information collection requirements clearance by the Office of Management and Budget.

Sorenson gave the FCC suggestions for what information users seeking to self-certify should submit to the telephone relay service user registration database, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 03-123. Sorenson met Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Patrick Webre and other staff including from the Office of the Managing Director. “We discussed the possibility of implementing a quarterly process requiring users of certain enterprise accounts to verify that the account is still being used or supervised by the person or department who it was assigned,” the company said.

Consumer groups for the deaf and hard of hearing want the video relay services access technology reference platform open-source user software and interoperability profile for relay user equipment (RUE profile) to continue, provided that “concerns about process and direction have been addressed.” In a Friday filing in docket 03-123, the groups told the FCC it's “essential that the process follow inclusive design practices, further to the principle of ‘nothing about us without us.’” The FCC last year gave VRS providers another year, until April 29, to implement the RUE profile with certain VRS devices (see 1804270020). The letter’s signers include Telecommunications for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, National Association of the Deaf, American Association of the DeafBlind, Deaf Seniors of America, Cerebral Palsy and Deaf Organization, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the Hearing Loss Association of America.

Sprint wants the FCC to waive existing telephone relay service rules that preclude the carrier from being compensated for expenses, including R&D. It has been the only IP relay carrier since 2014, providing with the “expectation that the Commission would restructure the IP Relay compensation structure to be sustainable over the longer term,” it filed, posted Friday in docket 03-123. The company requests interim waiver allowing $1.85 a minute for the 2019-20 funding year.

Delays to California Camp Fire restoration efforts mean AT&T needs the FCC to renew emergency authorization to suspend wireline telecom services until May 31, 2020, the carrier requested, posted Thursday in docket 19-13. Since Jan. 28, AT&T restored service to 12 more distribution areas in Butte County, bringing the total to 38 (27.7 percent) of 137 DAs, it said. “Restoration has been delayed in some areas due to contamination issues and road closures caused by heavy rains and mud slides the past 45 days and the local highway departments have been unable to restore road access,” the telco said: The California Office of Emergency Services says "it may take more than a year to complete an estimated 13,000 properties that need to be cleared and soil-tested before utilities crews will be allowed to enter some areas.” AT&T asked in docket 18-306 to extend another emergency discontinuance authorization, related to Carr Fire restoration in Trinity and Shasta counties, until this May 31. Since Nov. 26, the company has restored service to four more distribution areas in Shasta County, bringing the total to 89 (95.7 percent) of 93 DAs in the two counties affected by the Carr Fire. The carrier reported in docket 19-14 that it restored service to all customers affected by Woolsey and Hill wildfires in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, so it no longer needs emergency authorization there.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai extended the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee's term by six months to Sept. 24, the agency said Wednesday: It account for "the expansion of the IAC during the course of its two-year term from 15 to 30 members, and will allow the expanded IAC to complete tasks that were assigned during its October 2018 meeting.” The FCC decided in December to double membership of the group representing local, state, and tribal interests; the change took effect in January (see 1801050034).