People have the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C....
People have the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to thank if they lose wireless service this week because a telecom facility doesn’t have backup power, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said on his blog. Feld…
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said the FCC imposed backup power requirements in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and carriers appealed to the D.C. Circuit, which issued a preliminary injunction. “Before the D.C. Circuit could issue one of its inventive results-oriented opinions, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stepped in an[d] disallowed the rules on the grounds that the FCC hadn’t looked carefully enough at the cost,” Feld wrote (http://xrl.us/bnwxgn). “Seizing the opportunity to get away from a potentially devastating precedent, the FCC withdrew the rule and had the case dismissed.” What happened has broader implications, Feld said. “So if your cell phone service fails this week because the local cell tower ran out of power and had insufficient back up, thank Chief Judge David Sentelle and his merry band of judicial activists. No matter what the subject matter, no matter the threat to public safety, these guys know that membership in the Federalist Society confers enough wisdom to cast aside the judgments of some dumb old ‘expert agency.’ Sure not being able to call 911 in the aftermath of a disaster is inconvenient, potentially even life-threatening. But if industry doesn’t like a rule, then the D.C. Circuit has their back.”