Capitol Hill reaction may be limited, despite criticism AT&T is facing from net neutrality advocates over the introduction Monday of the carrier’s “sponsored data” plan, said industry experts in interviews. Other national carriers are likely monitoring the criticism from advocacy groups and the Hill and may use that to determine when -- and if -- they will introduce similar plans, the experts said. Net neutrality advocates said the plan violates the spirit of net neutrality but question the extent to which the FCC’s Open Internet rules would apply (CD Jan 7 p2). House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., raised some concerns Monday about the AT&T plan, which she said in a statement “puts it in the business of picking winners and losers on the Internet, threatening the open Internet, competition and consumer choice."

LAS VEGAS -- The Internet of Things (IoT) is really about connecting people rather than things, FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen said Wednesday during a speech at CES. Other speakers warned against regulatory hubris and said regulators must exercise a light hand as the Internet of Everything becomes a reality. And stakeholders told us that the FTC can play a significant role in the rapidly developing yet nascent IoT, but details of that involvement remain an open question.

LAS VEGAS -- The Internet of Things (IoT) is really about connecting people rather than things, FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen said Wednesday during a speech at CES. Other speakers warned against regulatory hubris and said regulators must exercise a light hand as the Internet of Everything becomes a reality. And stakeholders told us that the FTC can play a significant role in the rapidly developing yet nascent IoT, but details of that involvement remain an open question.

Members of Congress and policymakers worry about how the licenses awarded in the spectrum auction will be structured and whether that structure will allow for competition and new entrants in the mobile market, wrote Linda Moore, a specialist in telecom policy, in a Dec. 23 Congressional Research Service paper posted recently. “Many policy makers and Members of Congress are concerned, for example, that the current structure of auctions to assign spectrum licenses does not provide enough opportunities for competition or new entrants into mobile communications markets,” she said (http://bit.ly/1a1gcUy). “These concerns include the availability of spectrum for uses such as telemedicine or driverless vehicles.” She said implementing the 2012 Spectrum Act raises questions about how stakeholders structure the incentive auction and how to use spectrum controlled by the government. “Without abandoning competitive auctions, spectrum policy may benefit from including additional ways to assign or manage spectrum that might better serve the deployment of a broader range of wireless technology and the implementation of national policies,” Moore said. “Congress may consider these and other policy options as it evaluates how to meet future spectrum needs."

The public, educational and government (PEG) channel community plans to help lawmakers better understand the importance of PEG channels, in an attempt to push through legislation aimed at restoring fees from franchise agreements with cable companies that were lost to PEG channels, they said. The Community Access Preservation Act, S-1789, introduced last month by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., called for flexible use of PEG fees and would order cable operators to provide support for PEG channels (CD Dec 11 p6). The bill, which was reintroduced and revised from previous versions, will likely meet backlash from cable operators, a cable attorney said.

Several agencies with a hand in import/export regulation issued their plans for new regulations in the Fall 2013 Unified Agenda. The Food and Drug Administration is planning to issue proposed and final rules on food and drug facility registrations and sanitary transport of food in 2014. The Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is set to propose a fee hike for agricultural quarantine and inspection services at ports of entry. The Environmental Protection Agency will propose changes to its regulations on import and export of hazardous materials, and will finalize regulations on composite wood formaldehyde emissions and exports of cathode ray tubes.

Pressure is growing on the FCC to make some decision on what to do with LightSquared’s spectrum, as the company’s bankruptcy case plays out in federal bankruptcy court in New York under Judge Shelley Chapman. Chapman scheduled the next hearing in the case for Jan. 9.

A U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C., opinion in the FCC’s favor may also be a bad omen for the commission’s must-carry regime, several attorneys told us Friday. In a unanimous decision in Agape Church v. FCC (http://1.usa.gov/19ojjp3), a three-judge panel upheld the commission’s authority to sunset its dual carriage “viewability” rule, which required cable operators to downconvert the digital signals of “must-carry” channels for subscribers with analog television sets.

A district court does not have jurisdiction under the Hobbs Act to review an FCC order in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case when the plaintiff does not challenge the validity of the order, the FCC said in an amicus brief filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the case from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Mark Mais filed suit against Gulf Coast Collection Bureau. Mais charged the debt collection company “violated the TCPA by using a predictive dialer to make between 15 and 30 calls to his cellular telephone number, and left four messages, in an effort to collect a debt Mais had incurred for medical services,” the FCC said (http://fcc.us/1bsBppH). “Mais’s wife had provided the cellular telephone number on his behalf at the time the medical services were rendered.” Gulf Coast sought summary judgment, citing a 2008 FCC ruling that since the calls had been made with express consent by Mais, via his wife, Gulf Coast could not be held liable for violating the TCPA. The district court let the case proceed, “holding it was not bound by the 2008 FCC decision” and “the Hobbs Act did not divest it of jurisdiction because ’the Plaintiff does not seek to collaterally attack an FCC order in any respect,'” the FCC said. The agency disagreed. “Section 402(a) of the Communications Act ... specifies that (with certain exceptions not applicable here) any challenge to a final order of the FCC must be brought under the Hobbs Act,” the FCC said. “The Hobbs Act, in turn, gives the courts of appeals ‘exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in part), or to determine the validity of’ such action.” Upholding the lower court’s decision would have many negative implications, the FCC said. “If the district court’s decision is left to stand, the validity of FCC orders and rules could be called into question in a host of collateral challenges in which the FCC is not a party and as to which its lawyers have no notice,” the agency said. “That result raises the specter of conflicting opinions from different courts as to whether a particular FCC order or rule is, or is not, valid. ... There would be little point to consolidating challenges to agency orders in a single court of appeals if the validity of the agency’s order also could be challenged during the course of private litigation in courts across the country."

Best Key Textiles asked the Court of International Trade on Dec. 23 to reconsider its dismissal of the company’s challenge to CBP’s revocation of a ruling on the company’s metallized yarn. As a challenge under the Administrative Procedure Act to CBP’s alleged misconduct during the revocation proceeding, CIT can hear the case if it chooses, said Best Key. But if not, the interests of justice would best be served by transferring the case to a federal district court so Best Key can get a fair hearing, it said.