One Eye Warned, Agriculture Plows $40M into New Mexico, Verizon’s FAA Contract

April 4, 2023 – The Federal Communications Commission announced Tuesday that it has found One Eye LLC in continued violation of its robocall rules and is giving the voice services company 14 days to respond with evidence of compliance or face call traffic termination.

In February, the FCC gave the greenlight to voice service providers that they were allowed to cut traffic to and from One Eye for allegedly allowing robocall traffic on its network. One Eye was warned by the commission, via a cease-and-desist letter, that it was not in good standing.

On Tuesday, the commission said One Eye has not shown compliance and issued an initial determination order that will see the company’s voice traffic forcefully shut off by commission order if it does not respond with evidence of compliance within 14 days.

“We will not tolerate providers who actively support scammers by bringing in illegal calls from abroad. We will strike back with aggressive new tools,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Roseworcel said. “Today, marks the first time we use them—but it won’t be the last.”

The FCC voted last month to require providers that receive and deliver phone traffic to implement call authentication standards mandated under its STIR/SHAKEN robocall regime and to implement basic protections from problematic robotexts.

Agriculture Department plows $40M into New Mexico for high-speed internet

The Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday $40 million will be invested to provide high-speed internet to people from the rural communities in New Mexico, according to a press release.

The funding comes from the department’s ReConnect Program, which aims to provide broadband service to rural communities by offering loans and grants.

“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has given USDA unprecedented resources to close the digital divide in rural America,” Department Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the release. “Connecting rural Americans to reliable, high-speed internet helps farmers and businesses operate more efficiently and break into new markets. It helps build and keep wealth in rural communities. USDA is committed to making sure that people, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet. That’s how you grow the economy – not just in rural communities, but across the nation.”

The projects announced will provide fiber to the premises. The Western New Mexico Telephone Company Inc. will get $23.8 million, the E.N.M.R. Telephone Cooperative will get $2.6 million, and the Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative will get $13.9 million.

The Officer of Broadband Access and Expansion of New Mexico announced last week the state would award four internet service providers $17 million for fiber deployment to unserved areas.

Verizon signs FAA critical infrastructure contract

A 15-year critical infrastructure contract worth $2 billion between Verizon and the Federal Aviation Administration was announced on Friday, according to a Verizon press release.

Under the FAA’s Enterprise Network Services contract, Verizon will be building an enterprise network to “support all of the agency’s mission critical applications across the National Airspace System, which includes providing Air Traffic Management to more than 45,000 flights and 2.9 million airline passengers traveling across the more than 29 million square miles that make up the U.S. national airspace system.”

“This is an incredible opportunity for Verizon to lead the nation’s largest government transportation agency through a telecommunications infrastructure transformation that utilizes the latest advances in technology and networking solutions,” Kyle Malady, CEO of Verizon Business, said in a release. “From dynamic services and bandwidth provisioning, to improved insight and visibility into network service configuration and operation, we are excited to help the FAA with a robust solution that will benefit the National Airspace System and administrative users alike.”