The FCC lifted through inaction regulatory controls on broadband data services Verizon sells business customers. Chmn. Martin chose not to release a notice of proposed rulemaking or seek any votes on a Dec. 2004 Verizon forbearance petition. The FCC was split 2-2 on whether to grant Verizon the relief it sought, with the Democrats prepared to dissent, source said. Because the FCC didn’t act, Verizon effectively gets the regulatory relief it sought. The FCC had until midnight Sun. to block or modify Verizon’s request.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted its new Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) minimum-security criteria for sea carriers, which are effective as of March 1, 2006.
A federal court in Ore. denied most claims raised by Time Warner Telecom and Qwest in a challenge to telephone franchise terms set by the city of Portland. The carriers claimed the city broke its franchise deals by operating its own municipal telecom network allegedly violating Telecom Act Sec. 253 by driving private enterprise out of the marketplace for telecom service to schools and govt. agencies via below- cost pricing and control over rights of way. The U.S. Dist. Court, Portland, dismissed the Sec. 253 claim. The court (Case CV-04-1393-PA) said Sec. 253 bars govt. barriers on competition, but the carriers failed to show how the city network blocks them from competing for govt. customers. The court also said govt. customers constitute a small fraction of the Portland market. The court said Portland’s service agreements with govt. entities simply let the entities share resources, much as private firms enter into joint ventures or partnerships. The court did uphold the companies’ claims that Sec. 253 preempted provisions in the franchise agreements requiring the carriers to make in-kind contributions to the city, valued at the lowest rate provided to any commercial customer. The court said the valuation provision allowed the city too much leeway for interpretation. The court also upheld a Qwest claim that the usage-based franchise fees in its agreement were unlawful because they weren’t tied to the city’s actual right-of-way maintenance costs.
Rep. Hensarling’s (R-Tex.) bill to limit the impact of campaign finance laws on online political speech “simultaneously does too little and too much,” the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) said. In a Roll Call op-ed, CDT Exec. Dir. Leslie Harris and Staff Counsel John Norris said the legislation, slated for a full House vote today (Wed.), does too little because it addresses only the narrow question raised by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) about the application of “public communications” rules to the Internet. But it also ignores Internet regulation that predated BCRA in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), they said. Even if HR-1606 were enacted, bloggers would face burdensome requirements under FECA to file reports on expenditures with the FEC, publicly post their home addresses when they advocate on behalf of a candidate and submit to “political committee” regulation if 2 or more bloggers or speakers collaborate on a site, Harris and Norris wrote. Hensarling’s bill is also silent on whether the “media exemption” can apply to bloggers and other online publications, CDT said. CDT prefers a bill (HR-4900) by Reps. Bass (R-N.H.) and Allen (D-Me.) that’s “essentially our proposal” for Internet campaign exemptions (WID March 3 p4), Morris told us: Legislative counsel in the House changed “2 or 3 or 4 relatively small points” in CDT’s proposal, adopted by Bass and Allen, to improve its clarity and rephrase some provisions. The Bass-Allen bill addresses all points left out of the Hensarling bill, “and it makes crystal clear that 99% of bloggers and other individual speakers on the Internet will be free from all campaign finance regulation.” The Bass-Allen bill creates a broad “safe harbor” level of $5,000 in spending below which no regulations apply, the said. CDT’s not alone in its advocacy of HR-4900. Six reform groups -- the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG -- support HR-4900 and oppose HR-1600, Democracy 21 said.
The Department of Transportation's (DOT's) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a notice denying two petitions for reconsideration of an October 2005 final rule that amended regulations pertaining to the importation by registered importers (RIs) of motor vehicles that were not originally manufactured to comply with all applicable Federal motor vehicles safety, bumper, and theft prevention standards.
A NARUC task force presented its proposed agreement on intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform in a closed door meeting at the FCC. Sources familiar with the presentation Wed. said the proposal would “harmonize” access charges significantly, dividing carriers into 3 groups and providing different compensation rates for large, medium and small carriers.
Whatever the Federal Election Commission (FEC) decides on Internet campaigning rules next week (WID Feb 24 p8), the decision will be a net plus for speech online, a leading blogger and political campaign strategist told us Mon. night. U. of Tenn. Law Prof. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com and former Howard Dean Campaign Mgr. Joe Trippi were speaking to a National Press Club gathering on the Internet’s impact on the relationship between individuals and institutions in society, such as the media, Hollywood and the workplace. Reynolds was also flacking for his new book on the empowerment of individuals online, An Army of Davids.
Govt. use of data is “way oversimplied” when presented as a tradeoff between privacy and security, Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) Secy. Michael Chertoff told the DHS Data Privacy & Integrity Advisory Committee Tues. It’s better to consider different dimensions of privacy and the contrasting approaches between the U.S. and Europe, he said: DHS is still a “young and comparatively immature” agency, but its privacy initiatives could be “a very good template for what government must do in general.”
SAN FRANCISCO -- AT&T’s proposed BellSouth takeover adds to hurdles Bells face in seeking video franchising reform, a cable industry executive said at a Practising Law Institute seminar here Mon. and Tues. That AT&T can float a $67 billion purchase but says it can’t afford universal buildout of its Project Lightspeed network “will be suspect to people,” said Jeffery Sinsheimer, Cal. Cable & Telecom Assn. vp-law & public policy. The cable law program was dominated by the views of attorneys for cable companies and cities; AT&T personnel were on hand but generally said little about the criticism.
The Senate Commerce Committee will review the $89.4 billion AT&T-BellSouth merger, according to a statement released Mon. from the committee. Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) and committee staff will examine the merger during coming weeks, “a process which will include meetings with involved parties,” the statement said. Several Hill sources said the committee’s March 15 hearing on competition and convergence could be a forum for reviewing the buyout.