Telecom Alert: $1 Million for Robocall Violations; $96,000 for NORS Violations; Louisiana Launches BEAD Funding; BDC Filing Violations [Volume XXI, Issue 35]
$1 Million Penalty for AI Robocall Violations
The FCC announced a settlement to resolve an enforcement action against Lingo Telecom (“Lingo”), a voice service provider that transmitted robocalls that used generative Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) voice cloning technology to spread disinformation in New Hampshire regarding a presidential primary election. Voice cloning technology used in robocall scams targeting consumers is illegal absent the prior express consent of the called party or an exemption. Lingo will pay a $1 million penalty and implement a compliance plan requiring strict adherence to the Commission’s Secure Telephone Identity Revisited and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (“STIR/SHAKEN”) caller ID authentication rules. Lingo must abide by Know Your Customer (“KYC”) and Know Your Upstream Provider (“KYUP”) principles and thoroughly verify the accuracy of the information provided by its customers and upstream providers as part of the settlement. For more information, please contact Wes Wright (wright@khlaw.com; 202.434.4239) or Tim Doughty (doughty@khlaw.com; 202.434.4271).
$96,000 Penalty for NORS Violations
The FCC entered into a consent decree with CSC Wireless, LLC, d/b/a Altice Mobile (“Altice”) to resolve an investigation into whether Altice violated the Commission’s rules requiring the submission of network outages filings. The Commission’s outage reporting rules require communications providers, including wireless service providers such as Altice, to report certain disruptions to their networks to the FCC. As part of the consent decree, Altice admits that it violated the network outages reporting rules related to reportable outages it experienced on March 18 and July 19, 2023. Altice will implement a three-year compliance plan and pay a $96,000 penalty. For more information, please contact Wes Wright (wright@khlaw.com; 202.434.4239) or Tim Doughty (doughty@khlaw.com; 202.434.4271).
Louisiana Launches BEAD Application Portal
Louisiana opened its grant application portal for pre-qualified providers seeking funding from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (“BEAD”) program. Louisiana, which was the first state to receive National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”) approval for its BEAD proposal, received $1.355 billion in federal funding through the BEAD program, the eighth largest award in the nation. The funding will be used to further Louisiana’s Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities (“GUMBO”) grant program. For more information, please contact Sean Stokes (stokes@khlaw.com; 202.434.4193), Casey Lide (lide@khlaw.com; 202.434.4186), or Jim Baller (baller@khlaw.com; 202.434.4175).
Citations Issued for Failure to File in BDC
The FCC issued citations to 11 companies for their failure to file broadband availability and subscription data in the Commission’s Broadband Data Collection (“BDC”) system. The Broadband DATA Act requires the FCC to collect broadband service availability twice per year from all facilities-based providers of fixed or mobile broadband internet access service. The Commission also collects subscription data for broadband and voice services using the Form 477, which is also submitted through the BDC system. The 11 companies that received citations must submit the required data within 30 days or be subject to a monetary forfeiture of $24,496 per day up to a maximum forfeiture of $183,718. For more information, please contact Sean Stokes (stokes@khlaw.com; 202.434.4193).
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