The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday decision to review en banc the FTC’s appeal ruling that threw out the commission's case alleging AT&T Mobility inadequately informed customers of its data-throttling program is potentially a game changer for the FCC and the FTC, industry officials said Wednesday. The agencies won’t have clarity before the fall. The court said Wednesday the en banc hearing will be the week of Sept. 18. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai hailed the importance of the decision to rehear the case (see 1705090068). Industry lawyers said usually when a court grants en banc rehearing, it's more likely than not to overturn the initial decision.
A chief House Republican on telecom matters joined with a Trump administration official Monday, keeping up her ties with administration officials that began last year. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., held her annual Women of Distinction luncheon in Nashville, where former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was a guest. Conway is counselor to President Donald Trump. Blackburn maintained especially close ties to the Trump team and was a member of its transition effort. The event’s invitation said it was paid for by Blackburn for Congress and lists ticket prices ranging from $150 to $2,500, depending on the seating. The Tennessee Democratic Party posted video of protests happening outside. Blackburn’s latest Federal Election Commission records show close to $3 million on hand in her campaign coffers, with many donations this year from telecom and media political action committees since she became subcommittee chairman. Comcast, Charter Communications, CTIA, NCTA and the American Cable Association’s PACs donated $5,000 in March, and AT&T’s did the same in February. Several other entities’ PACs, including those of Centurylink, CTA, ITTA, NAB, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and USTelecom, donated lesser amounts this year.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai invoked the words of Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., in declaring that policymakers must “return the role of state utility commissions in determining Lifeline eligibility,” citing a statement that Udall offered in introducing joint Lifeline overhaul legislation with Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb. (see 1702170051). Pai was responding to a group of House Democrats’ Feb. 15 criticisms, led by House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., in a reply released Monday and dated April 28, focused on the commission’s revocation of Lifeline certification for certain broadband providers. Applications are pending before the Wireline Bureau. “I do not believe that the Bureau should approve these applications,” Pai said, citing more than 3.5 million Americans receiving subsidized broadband through Lifeline via the eligible telecom carriers that are certified. “It would be irresponsible for the Bureau to allow companies to sign up customers for subsidized broadband service through an unlawful federal authorization process that will soon be withdrawn. This would force many consumers to switch broadband providers in a relatively short period of time, which wouldn't be fair to them.” He lauded the state certification role: “By letting states take the lead on certification as envisioned by Congress, we will strengthen the Lifeline program and put the implementation of last year's order on a solid legal footing. This will benefit all Americans, including those participating in the program.” Pai laid out some of his intentions on these matters at the end of March (see 1703290054).
Charter's cable VoIP is an information service exempt from state regulation, a federal court in Minnesota ruled Monday. In an opinion (in Pacer) seen as having big ramifications for the jurisdictional question of whether states may regulate VoIP and other IP-based services, the U.S. District Court in St. Paul said the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission may not regulate Charter’s VoIP-based Spectrum Voice as a telecom service. The court granted Charter’s motion for summary judgment and denied the PUC’s separate motion for summary judgment.
CenturyLink got a tentative greenlight for its Level 3 buy from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. UTC telecom staff Friday filed an all-party settlement in docket UT-170042 to approve the $34 billion deal, the commission said in a Friday news release. Staff, Level 3, CenturyLink and the state attorney general’s public counsel signed the settlement. It includes commitments by CenturyLink to (1) file an annual report for three years showing spending on network maintenance, with explanation if the amount spent per access line is less than 2014-2016; (2) notify the UTC about major outages within 30 minutes, until 2021, and copy the UTC on Network Outage Reporting System reports about the state that it files with the FCC; (3) file annual reports on federal USF support from July this year to 2021; (4) file Communications Act Section 251 interconnection agreements between CenturyLink subsidiaries and Level 3 subsidiaries; (5) issue a news release about transaction closing and notify customers if the company’s name changes; and (6) assign a dedicated project manager to work on the transition to Next-Generation 911. The UTC will formally present the settlement May 25 to the parties, which then will accept, reject or modify the agreement, the commission said. “We are pleased to have reached a settlement in Washington in the case regarding the acquisition of Level 3," a CenturyLink spokeswoman emailed Monday. "This is an important milestone as we make progress toward the completion."
The International Trade Commission voted to begin a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation on imports of LTE wireless communication devices imported by Blu Products, the ITC said in Monday's Federal Register. In a complaint filed in March (see 1703270059), LG Electronics said Blu’s Dash, Energy, Life, Neo, Pure, Speed, Studio, Vivo, Win and R1 HD mobile phone products infringe its patents. As the technologies are essential to the LTE communication standard, LG committed to license use of the patents on fair terms, and Blu hasn't responded to LG’s attempts to negotiate a fair and reasonable licensing deal, LG said. Blu didn't reply to our queries.
A court denial of further challenges to the FCC 2015 net neutrality order was decided 6-2 by the active judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 1705010013). The six judges voted Monday to deny petitions for en banc rehearing of a June ruling by a three-judge panel that upheld the FCC order, which also reclassified broadband to be under Title II of the Communications Act. Two judges dissented and three others didn't participate in the ruling in USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063.
Arizona enacted small-cells wireless siting legislation as states continued to push forward small-cells wireless bills this week. Industry and localities continue to negotiate different terms in different states, while the FCC looks at ways to speed wireless infrastructure deployment at the federal level (see 1704260058). California senators promised more revisions to their bill after listening to many public comments -- for and against -- at a committee hearing Wednesday.
The FCC offered additional details Thursday on a proposal to scrap Title II broadband classification under the Communications Act and revisit net neutrality rules, building on a speech by Chairman Ajit Pai Wednesday (see 1704260054). Pai, as promised, released the draft NPRM. A senior FCC official said on a call with reporters that even if there's significant public blowback against the NPRM the FCC doesn’t make decisions based on taking the public's temperature. By our count, the draft asks for responses to more than 150 questions. It proposes a deadline of July 17 for initial comments, Aug. 16 for replies.
Telecom companies urged convening of state USF contribution revamp workshops in Nebraska, even if they delay the Public Service Commission's proposed adoption of a connections-based mechanism (see 1703280032). CenturyLink, Cox Communications and Level 3 sought workshops, in reply comments dated April 21 and posted Wednesday at the PSC (NUSF-100). “It is abundantly clear that more information must be presented before a connections-based mechanism can be safely implemented,” and it’s OK if that causes the PSC to miss a self-imposed Jan. 1 deadline for action, Cox said. "Stabilization of the fund can be achieved in 2018 under the current methodology while a thoughtful, reasonable connections-based methodology is created.” In another reply, CTIA said the PSC shouldn’t adopt USF changes now but instead should urge the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service to craft a plan for all states. "Nebraska is not unique in seeing declining revenues for its universal service program,” CTIA said. “Other states are seeing similar trends,” but the Nebraska PSC is alone in proposing "a novel contribution mechanism,” it said. However, a rural independent company -- Great Plains Communications -- replied that the PSC should reject calls for delay. “Any such delay should not occur since the Commission has already amply demonstrated that NUSF contribution reform is an urgent matter due to the continued erosion of the NUSF remittances generated by the current NUSF contribution mechanism.”