ST. PAUL -- A federal circuit judge showed deference to FCC legal analysis but asked if there can be federal pre-emption of states regulating interconnected VoIP without a ruling on classification of such services. The question came at oral argument Tuesday at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Other judges asked if technical differences between Charter Communications’ VoIP service and traditional phone services make it an information rather than telecom service. Minnesota is challenging a lower court’s May 2017 decision that Charter’s cable VoIP is an information service exempt from Public Utilities Commission regulation (see 1705080048).
The Trump administration’s policies on spectrum and sharing may not be that different from those of the Obama administration, a top White House aide said Tuesday at an NTIA spectrum policy summit. The administration is looking more closely at developing a national spectrum strategy (see 1804250063), promised by NTIA Administrator David Redl in April. During the Obama years, Republicans sometimes criticized the emphasis on sharing over exclusive-use spectrum.
A Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing with NTIA Administrator David Redl will likely -- to varying degrees -- focus on the federal spectrum policies of President Donald Trump's administration (see 1806120056), improving national broadband map data accuracy and the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, said lawmakers and communications sector experts in interviews. The hearing will begin at 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell. It's Redl's first before Senate Commerce since his November confirmation (see 1711070076, 1711070084 and 1711080015). Redl also testified during a March House Communications Subcommittee hearing.
The Senate Commerce Committee is gearing up to move quickly on FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks, including a likely June 20 confirmation hearing, communications lobbyists and Capitol Hill officials told us. The committee is eyeing a fast process for Starks, as expected (see 1804060049), in hope of also confirming Commissioner Brendan Carr to a full five-year term. President Donald Trump nominated Starks, Enforcement Bureau assistant chief, this month to succeed now-former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for a term ending June 30, 2022 (see 1806010072).
Chiding the government's case being, in part, "gossamer thin," U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington rejected (see 1806120002) DOJ's lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block AT&T buying for $108.7 Time Warner. Leon also urged Justice not to seek a stay of his ruling if it appeals, saying the department would suffer no harm if the deal were allowed to go through in the meantime. He said the companies -- in the form of a $500 million breakup fee and the looming June 20 deadline for consummating the deal -- would suffer "irreparable harm" and a stay would be "manifestly unjust."
Congress is unlikely to overhaul Team Telecom executive branch reviews of foreign takeovers of U.S. communications assets as part of pending Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act bills (HR-4311/S-2098), said Harris Wiltshire expert Kent Bressie at an FCBA event Monday. Noting FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly suggested lawmakers consider such Team Telecom process changes in FIRRMA (see 1805150068 and 1804260029), Bressie said it doesn't appear practical to do so in a bill focused on changes to the broader Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
Telecom-focused lawmaker reactions to Monday's effective date of the FCC order rescinding 2015 net neutrality rules largely reflected longstanding positions. And rescission supporters compared opponents’ reaction to the panic in 1999 over Y2K.
Better space situational awareness (SSA) data sharing and clearer delineation of who has authority when two objects are heading toward a collision in space should top the next steps list for creation of a space traffic management (STM) rules regime, experts said at a Secure World Foundation event Monday. It would be "a big leap forward" for Congress to beef up White House authority for STM "for someone to be formally in charge" of handling conflicts among objects in orbit, said space lawyer Brandt Pasco of Pasco & Associates.
Despite the House again passing the Email Privacy Act (HR-387/S-1654) (see 1805250018) via amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, there are no plans to move the bill with the Senate NDAA, said a spokesman for lead Democratic sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont Monday. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, remains opposed to the bill because he says it doesn't go far enough in protecting law enforcement interests.
The FCC is seen as aiming to include an order on the national TV ownership cap on the July 12 commissioners’ meeting agenda, with the goal of getting ahead of an expected unfavorable court ruling on the UHF discount (see 1804200059), broadcasters, their lawyers and an official told us. All said it’s not clear what that order will do to the cap, and broadcasters are divided (see 1806050040). Broadcast groups such as Hearst and Gray filed a BIA Kelsey study posted Monday supporting their call for a 50 percent cap that would block Sinclair buying Tribune as currently constructed, while NAB recently met with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai on the association’s pitch to apply a rebranded UHF discount to all TV broadcasters.