FCC Should Pre-empt State Net Neutrality Rules, O'Rielly Suggests
The FCC has to challenge California and other state net neutrality rules, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s ruling last week, to keep the internet from being shaped by “the lowest common denominator,” said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on the C-Span’s The Communicators taped hours after the ruling Tuesday. The episode was scheduled to have been shown Saturday. O’Rielly also discussed 5G, media ownership and FCC pre-emption of state and local rules to promote nationwide deployment of broadband infrastructure. “Saying that a particular boundary of a state which may have been decided decades or hundreds of years ago based on geography or some military conflict ... it’s just artificial,” O’Rielly said.
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The ruling requiring state net neutrality rules be pre-empted case by case is going to lead to “more litigation, more lawyers, and probably more legal challenges,” said O’Rielly. The networks behind the internet “aren’t something you offer in one particular area,” he said. The GOP commissioner's criticisms (see 1909260034) of what he noted are only a small slice of localities has upset many of them, we've found in recent conversations (see 1909240055). NATOA and California didn't comment now. NARUC declined to comment.
States that seek to impose their local rules on companies seeking to set up small cells and broadband infrastructure are seeking “power or money,” O’Rielly said. “We will need to pre-empt those situations,” O’Rielly said. The FCC may need to “push localities that aren't doing the right thing out of the way,” for the U.S. to have a preeminent position in wireless technology, O’Rielly said. “I have difficulty when people fight on the issue of aesthetics,” he said: That’s “not acceptable behavior.”
"It is past time to stop looking at localities as enemies of deployment and to start looking at them as allies," emailed Public Knowledge's Senior Vice President Harold Feld. The FCC should "stop looking at legitimate concerns about redlining or historic preservation or other local issues as obstacles to be steamrolled rather than issues to address." The FCC's majority "are sending a clear message that they want carriers to act like bullies," Feld said. “All spectrum issues are contentious,” he said of objections to FCC spectrum auction plans raised by agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “I found their studies were lacking and troubled."
There’s “no amount of data” the FCC could provide that would satisfy the 3rd Circuit as providing enough evidence for changes to media ownership rules, O’Rielly said: Multiple administrations from both parties have failed to get past the court’s threshold. “There’s no path,” he said. The FCC should pursue either an en banc appeal or seek certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, he said. “The world has changed, and they haven’t” he said of the 3rd Circuit. He thinks the case could eventually wind up before the high court.
Asked if he was “frightened” by Chinese company Huawei, O’Rielly said he isn’t scared by any provider. He has concerns based on the company’s relationship with its government. O’Rielly condemned China’s government as totalitarian, when asked about the race to 5G. “They don’t worry about a locality or state stepping in their way, they just run over that situation,” O’Rielly said. “Their totalitarian structure is awful."