NARUC Telecom Committee Co-Vice Chairman Urges Caution in State Use of Section 706
SAN FRANCISCO -- NARUC Telecom Committee Co-Vice Chairman Paul Kjellander, Idaho Public Utilities Commission president, urged state regulators Monday to be cautious about using Communications Act Section 706 as a legal authority for regulating broadband and other advanced communications services at the state level. “In Idaho, if I tried to exercise any kind of regulatory authority under Section 706, I wouldn’t get very far” before state courts would likely rule against such actions, Kjellander said during a panel discussion at a NARUC conference. Kjellander said he believes the ongoing debate over a Section 706 interpretation included in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's decision in Verizon v. FCC could be "put to death" if Congress were to revise the Telecom Act.
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New York Public Service Commissioner Gregg Sayre urged regulators to take a balanced approach to using Section 706, noting that many New York agencies have a role in promoting broadband deployment in the state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, campaigned in his successful bid for re-election on a $1 billion plan to build a 6,000-mile fiber network that would target upstate areas of New York as well as other areas of the state (see 1410310059).
The California Public Utilities Commission has been using Section 706 as a legal basis for its expanded review of Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable, said CPUC Office of Ratepayer Advocates Senior Attorney Lindsay Brown. The CPUC will explore other “appropriate” ways to exercise this expanded interpretation of Section 706 in the future, Brown said.