For the life of me, I cannot figure out why Pai would act on behalf of the American public.

His entire history has shown him to be the big telco’s bitch:

The Federal Communications Commission will consider “regulatory intervention” if major phone companies fail to adopt a new anti-robocall technology this year.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been pressuring phone companies to implement the “SHAKEN” and “STIR” robocall-blocking protocols, which perform Caller ID authentication. Most major providers have committed to doing so, but Pai issued a warning to laggards yesterday.

“I applaud those companies that have committed to deploy the SHAKEN/STIR framework in 2019,” Pai said in his statement yesterday. “This goal should be achievable for every major wireless provider, interconnected VoIP operator, and telephone company—and I expect those lagging behind to make every effort to catch up. If it appears major carriers won’t meet the deadline to get this done this year, the FCC will have to consider regulatory intervention.”

………

“STIR and SHAKEN use digital certificates, based on common public key cryptography techniques, to ensure the calling number of a telephone call is secure,” telecom software provider TransNexus explains. “In simple terms, each telephone service provider obtains their digital certificate from a certificate authority who is trusted by other telephone service providers. The certificate technology enables the called party to verify that the calling number is accurate and has not been spoofed.”

SHAKEN and STIR will work best when it’s adopted by all major phone providers.

For the life of me, I cannot think of a single corrupt reason for Pai to take this action, and I cannot imagine him taking actions to further the public good.

My question therefore is, “Cui bono?”