Selected portions of the BloostonLaw Telecom Update, and/or the BloostonLaw Private Users Update — newsletters from the Law Offices of Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy & Prendergast, LLP are reproduced in this section with the firm's permission. 
Headlines The Environmental Protection Agency's Contribution To National Preparedness In a nation beset by wide-scale natural disasters of late, the value of gasoline and diesel powered generators in keeping communications and other systems up and running has been stressed by both regulators and industry experts. At the FCC's recent Superstorm Sandy field hearings, witness after witness strongly attested to the importance of backup generators to communications companies, first responders, hospitals, homeowners, and all members of the public. You will be either "pleased" or "exasperated" to learn that the Environmental Protection Agency has now made its unique contribution to the national conversation on preparedness in times of disaster. In the past, "un-permitted" generators (meaning those not requiring an EPA permit) have not been required to comply with EPA emissions rules. Under newly adopted EPA rules, now they must comply. This new requirement applies regardless of whether your state or local air pollution or environmental agency has exempted your equipment (or your entire facility) from state or local emissions requirements. The new rules go into effect on April 1, 2013. For more information see http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-01-30/pdf/2013-01288.pdf. Law & Regulation FCC Announces Proposed USF Contribution Factor for Second Quarter 2013 On March 12, 2013, the Office of Managing Director (OMD) announced that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2013 will be 0.155 or 15.5 percent. The contribution factor is based on projections of industry revenues provided by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). USAC submitted projected collected end-user telecommunications revenues for April through June 2013 based on information contained in the Second Quarter 2013 Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-Q) in the amount of $16 billion. In announcing the contribution factor, the OMD reminds carriers that they may not mark up federal universal service line-item amounts above the contribution factor and thus may not, during the second quarter of 2013, recover through a federal universal service line item an amount that exceeds 15.5 percent of the interstate telecommunications charges on a customer's bill. FCC Enforcement Bureau Warns Purveyors of Robocalls: "Don't call us....(or) we'll call you." The FCC's Enforcement Bureau recently issued citations to Dialing Services, LLC and Richard Gilmore (d/b/a Democratic Dialing) for providing automatically dialed calls using prerecorded or artificial voice messages – "robocalls". Investigations conducted by the Enforcement Bureau's Telecommunications Consumers Division found that these two companies made in excess of one million robocalls to wireless phones without prior authorization from the call recipients during certain months of 2011 and/or 2012. The investigations also revealed that each company failed to provide certain identification information as required under federal law. Robocalls consist of prerecorded voice messages and autodialed calls to cell phones and other mobile services such as paging systems. The calls are generally prohibited, subject to two exceptions:
1) calls made for emergency purposes, and
2) calls made with the prior expressed consent of the called party.
NOTE: Our clients may want to arm their customer service personnel with this information, and how customers complaining about unwanted solicitation calls to their wireless phones can report such activity to the FCC. From the FCC's Do Not Call web page:
You can file a complaint by telephone to 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY, by fax to 1-866-418-0232, via our electronic complaint form, or mail. If mailing a complaint, send it to: Federal Communications Commission
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554 Complaints can also be filed online at: https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action?form_type=1088C. While the FCC cannot award monetary or other damages to consumers, filing complaints allows the Commission to investigate violators. However, in some states you are allowed to file suits against telemarketers and receive monetary damages for violations of these rules. The FCC's Enforcement Bureau indicated that the citations could lead to considerable monetary penalties if violations continue. The citations require each company to certify within fifteen calendar days that it has ceased making all robocalls to wireless phones without prior authorization, and that the calls it makes that are otherwise permissible include the proper identifications. Companies that continue to make the unauthorized calls to wireless phones may be liable for monetary penalties of $16,000 per call, which could lead to fines in excess of tens of millions of dollars, depending on the volume of violations. The FCC reported that consumers have grown increasingly wary concerning these robocalls and often find the unwanted messages to their cell phones to be intrusive. Commercial Mobile Alert System to Be Known Going Forward As "Wireless Emergency Alerts" In a refreshing nod to common sense, the FCC has changed the name of the system that participating commercial wireless service (CMS) providers may use to transmit emergency alerts to the public from the Commercial Mobile Alert System (or "CMAS") to Wireless Emergency Alerts (or "WEA"). The WEA alerting system allows public safety authorities to use FEMA's Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS) Open Platform for Emergency Networks to send geographically targeted, text-like Wireless Emergency Alerts to the public. WEAs will relay Presidential, AMBER, and Imminent Threat alerts to mobile phones using cell broadcast technology that will not get backlogged during times of emergency when wireless voice and data services are highly congested. According to the FCC, the name change was necessitated to avoid confusion because an increasing number of carriers that participate in the voluntary service have been referring to it as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) in the information that they provide to their subscribers. Major carriers that have already adopted the WEA terminology include Verizon Wireless , AT&T , T-Mobile and Sprint . Because the required amendments to the Commission's Part 10 Rules are purely ministerial, non-substantive and editorial, and because no substantive rights or interests of any licensee are affected, the FCC was able to effective in the FCC rules upon publication in the Federal Register yesterday. Clients Who Developed CMAS Point-of-Sale Notifications and Revised Service Agreements Last Year Using the FCC's Recommended Language Need Not Make Further Changes. Most of our law firm's mobile wireless and paging clients filed election notifications with the FCC back in 2008 indicating that they did not wish to participate in the CMAS system at that time, due to uncertainty about the technical requirements and costs for a system that had yet to be designed. However, when the system became operational last Spring, FCC Rules required service providers electing not to participate to provide clear and conspicuous notice to new subscribers of their non-election or partial election at the point of sale. The point of sale includes stores, kiosks, third party reseller locations, web sites, and any other venue through which the CMS provider markets and sells its devices and services. FCC rules also required non-participants to provide clear and conspicuous notice to existing subscribers of their non-election or partial election by means of an announcement amending the existing subscriber's service agreement. Because the FCC's recommended minimum subscriber notification language already referenced the term "wireless emergency alerts" prominently, our clients should not find it necessary to modify their web site or other point-of-sale notifications if they used the FCC's language. Likewise, they should not find it necessary to adopt further amendments the language of existing subscribers' service agreements just to note the name change. Industry Senator Urges FCC to Cut Prepaid Wireless Providers From Lifeline Program In the wake of the recent revisions to the FCC's Lifeline program to curb rampant fraud and wasteful spending, Senator Mark Pryor sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski urging that more be done. In the letter, Senator Pryor noted that "the manner in which some wireless companies provide and aggressively market these prepaid phones to vulnerable consumers is cause for concern." Citing to recent reports suggesting 41 percent of current Lifeline recipients served by the top five wireless Lifeline providers have not been properly certified, Senator Pryor called for the entire elimination of participation by prepaid wireless providers and other mobile virtual network operators. Last November, Fox 45 News interviewed a Baltimore woman who had obtained 33 free phones under the Lifeline program, and estimated that tens of millions of dollars were being wasted under the free phone program. Senator Pryor also called for a hard cap on the amount of Lifeline support made available each year, a freeze on new eligible telecommunications carrier certifications for participation in the Lifeline program, a full-scale investigation by the FCC's Inspector General, and a study of the actual effectiveness of the Lifeline program. Calendar At-A-Glance Mar. 25 – Comments for Interstate Inmate Calling Rate Proceeding are due. Mar. 27 - Comments on Revised E-Rate Forms are due. Mar. 28 - Comments on NECA Modification of Average Schedule Formulas are due. Apr. 1 – FCC Form 499-A due. Apr. 1 – International Circuit Status Reports due. Apr. 1 - Annual Access to Advanced Services Certification due. Apr. 8 – Electronic filing deadline for Form 497 for carriers seeking support for the preceding month and wishing to receive reimbursement by month's end. Apr. 8 - Reply Comments on Revised E-Rate Forms are due. Apr. 8 - Reply Comments on NECA Modification of Average Schedule Formulas are due. Apr. 9 – Reply Comments for Next Generation 911; Text-to-911 (Other Sections) are due. Apr. 12 - State Commissions must notify the FCC of their intent to file shapefile study area boundary maps on behalf of Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs). Apr. 16 - Comments on Petition filed by a group of competitive carriers asking the FCC to Reverse Forbearance for Special Access are due. Apr. 22 – Reply Comments for Interstate Inmate Calling Rate Proceeding are due. Apr. 29 - State Commissions can begin submitting shapefiles on behalf of ILECs. Apr. 29 - ILECs may begin submitting shapefiles on their own behalf. May 13 - Comments on Options for Disposition of UHF T-Band (470-512 MHz) are due. May 23 - final deadline for ILECs to have shapefiles submitted and certified. May 31 - FCC Form 395, Employment Report, is due. May 31 - Reply Comments on Petition filed by a group of competitive carriers asking the FCC to Reverse Forbearance for Special Access are due. June 11 - Reply Comments on Options for Disposition of UHF T-Band (470-512 MHz) are due. June 28 - deadline for State Commissions to submit and certify the data included in shapefiles. | 
CLICK HERE
Edward John Andrew, 77, died peacefully at home on March 8 in Naples, FL. Born on December 4, 1935 in Ft. Worth, TX, Ed was flown to Chicago at the then record-setting age of ten days to join his adoptive parents Victor John and Aileen Sharkey Andrew in a bungalow near Midway Airport.
David George and Bill Noyes
Hi, I want to let you know about an amazing offer and service that I'm really excited about. Check this out — 
