Congress, not courts, should decide net neutrality, said a federal judge Tuesday, ruling from the bench denying ISPs a preliminary injunction against California’s law (see our bulletin). “I don't find that the plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits at this stage of the litigation,” said Judge John Mendez on the motion by ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom in case 2:18-cv-02684. This paves the way for the law to take effect, cheering fans of using Communications Act Title II to regulate broadband service, while industry plaintiffs agreed with the judge that Congress must step in.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
A federal judge Tuesday questioned ISPs’ commitment to voluntarily follow net neutrality principles. ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom at the teleconferenced hearing urged the U.S. District Court in Sacramento to support their preliminary injunction motion against California in case 2:18-cv-02684. Judge John Mendez repeatedly asked plaintiffs about what harm the 2018 California law (SB-822) would cause if allowed to take effect. The hearing was still going at 6 p.m. EST.
The cable industry resisted a California open-access plan for middle-mile infrastructure funded by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). That mandate would be "a fundamental and unlawful shift away from the program the Legislature authorized,” which requires funding for cost-effective broadband projects in unserved areas and allows middle-mile funding if “indispensable” to last-mile connections, said California Cable and Telecommunications Association comments emailed Monday to the service list for docket R.20-08-02. An open-access mandate will increase competition and choice, said the CPUC Public Advocates Office. The proposal properly includes pending CASF infrastructure applications, “because the open access benefits to surrounding communities will outweigh costs,” said The Utility Reform Network. The National Diversity Coalition urged the CPUC to “be consistent and clear,” requiring grant recipients to post pricing and other details.
A tough 2020 for emergency call takers shows the need for more federal funding, said three local call center heads on an NG-911 Institute webinar Tuesday. Current funding is “grossly inadequate” to build facilities with sufficient technology, security and interoperability, said Orleans Parish Communication District Executive Director Tyrell Morris. “I don’t know of a single federal resource that is available today for construction of a 911 center to really meet these needs.” There are grants for technology improvements, "not the true brick and mortar we need.” New Orleans faced a disastrous spike in COVID-19 cases last year after Mardi Gras was a super-spreader event, he said. Unable to telework when the coronavirus first hit, 911 call takers were left “more vulnerable than the average person going to work,” said Renee Gordon, Alexandria, Virginia, Department of Emergency Communications director. As the virus continued to spread, Alexandria learned how to tweak existing equipment to allow remote working (see 2006120038), but many smaller centers couldn’t do that, she said. Teleworking would have helped during the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball game in Alexandria, she said. “We had an influx of calls,” and it would have helped to allow workers not on shift to immediately take calls at home, she said. More rural network infrastructure funding would improve emergency response in Larimer County, Colorado, said Larimer Emergency Telephone Authority CEO Kimberly Culp. During summer wildfires last year, landline emergency alerts had a 60% failure rate, she said: It wasn’t due to the carrier or the alert system, but because many rural areas lack broadband and cell towers.
A federal judge denied preliminary injunction for ISP associations against California’s net neutrality law at a teleconferenced Tuesday hearing at the U.S. District Court in Sacramento. The comments came following industry and government arguments. See our news report here.
Virginia could soon become the second state with a comprehensive privacy law, after California. The Senate voted 32-7 Friday to send HB-2307 to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who's expected to sign (see bulletin). Business privacy attorneys are watching New York and Washington as possible next states and monitoring bills in Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Utah, they said in interviews last week. The Virginia and Washington bills are weaker than California’s mandate and would do more harm than good, privacy advocates told us.
Virginia could soon become the second state with a comprehensive privacy law, after California. The Senate voted 32-7 Friday for HB-2307. The House voted 89-9 Thursday for SB-1392, the Senate's same version. The Senate concurred with House changes.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission won’t reconsider approving Frontier Communications’ bankruptcy reorganization. Though two commissioners promised continued investigation, the PUC voted 5-0 Thursday to deny petitions by the Minnesota Commerce Department and unions citing better promises to other states (see 2101070027). On the West Coast, consumer and local government advocates praised the California Public Utilities Commission’s proposed OK.
The Washington state House's Finance Committee cleared a bill 10-7 Tuesday to implement national 988. HB-1477 would apply a 30 cent fee to wireless and VoIP lines starting Oct. 1, with increases to 50 cents in 2023 and to 75 cents on July 1, 2024. The national suicide prevention line is even more important during the pandemic, said sponsor Rep. Tina Orwall (D) at the virtual hearing. Some committee Republicans raised funding issues. Rep. Brandon Vick (R) said it’s good policy but he's voting no now because he hopes the bill can be improved before final passage. The panel decided not to vote Tuesday on HB-1460 to set up state Lifeline, digital equity and other new USF programs and add a 25 cent telephone and VoIP tax on switched access lines and a 25 cent internet access tax on all internet services.
The Maryland General Assembly enacted a digital sales tax opposed by advertisers. The Senate voted 29-17 Friday to override a veto by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on HB-732. The House overrode the veto Thursday (see 2102110052). At the livestreamed floor vote, Sen. Stephen Hershey (R) said the first-in-the-country state digital tax will hurt small businesses in the midst of a pandemic. Google and Facebook aren’t suffering during COVID-19, countered Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D). “That’s who this bill addresses.” Lawmakers worried about tech companies passing costs to small businesses should support bills (HB-1200/SB-787) up for hearing later this month to prevent that and to exempt news media, he said. Tech companies are too smart to absorb the tax’s costs and will figure a way around the proposed fixes, disagreed Senate Minority Leader Bryan Simonaire (R). The Maryland law "needs to be overturned in the courts," said Dan Jaffe, Association of National Advertisers group executive vice president-government relations. “ANA believes this law will be found to be unconstitutional and violates the Internet Tax Fairness Act that bans discriminatory taxes on Internet digital communications."