Court Denies Minn. PUC Motion to Dismiss Charter Complaint
A federal court said it will hear Charter Communications’ complaint challenging state authority over interconnected VoIP services. In a Tuesday ruling (in Pacer), the U.S. District Court in Minnesota denied a motion by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to dismiss…
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the challenge. Charter’s complaint alleged the PUC overstepped its authority by imposing state regulations for traditional phone services on VoIP services. The case began in March 2013, when Charter transferred 100,000 Minnesota customers to an affiliate that provided VoIP phone service that wasn't certified by the PUC. The agency said interconnected VoIP is a telecom service subject to state regulation, but Charter and intervenor the VON Coalition said it’s an information service and subject only to FCC regulation (see 1605200015). Judge Susan Nelson said the case involves “questions of fact” that are inappropriate for resolution on a motion to dismiss. The PUC’s “attempt to have these issues resolved as a matter of law by comparison to judicial decisions and FCC orders addressing other services ignores the FCC’s case-by-case approach regarding particular services,” she said. Nelson said FCC decisions cited by the PUC -- including the net neutrality order and its USF order requiring interconnected VoIP to contribute to universal service -- didn’t settle the question of whether interconnected VoIP is a telecom or information service, nor did the Supreme Court’s 2005 Brand X ruling. The judge said her ruling Tuesday “simply determines that -- in this highly fact-dependent and complex field -- Defendants have not shown as a matter of law that, taking the allegations of the Complaint as true, Charter Phone is necessarily an ‘offering’ of telecommunications. Any such determination must await further proceedings.” The PUC will “vigorously defend its positions” as the case moves forward, a commission spokesman said. VON Coalition Executive Director Glenn Richards called the order “the necessary first step in what we hope will ultimately lead to a decision that the Minnesota PUC has no jurisdiction over interconnected VoIP." VON advocates for VoIP providers including AT&T, Vonage, Google and Microsoft/Skype. State officials have said that the recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision affirming the FCC net neutrality order may help the PUC fend off the Charter lawsuit (see 1606170049). Charter declined to comment Thursday.