Texas right-of-way rules should be updated to reflect communications technology changes, Public Utility Commission members said Thursday. At their meeting, all three commissioners said they leaned toward adopting a proposed decision by administrative law judges, siding with ExteNet in the distributed antenna systems (DAS) provider’s compensation dispute with Houston (see 1703200049). But commissioners postponed a vote until the PUC’s April 28 meeting, saying they need more time to study the ALJ proposal. Meanwhile, legislation meant to relax local rules for wireless siting moved forward this week in Hawaii, Indiana and Missouri.
Industry groups and companies, eager to gain access to the 5.9 GHz band for Wi-Fi, raised concerns about a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rulemaking notice on dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) technology and other vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. But auto industry commenters said the technologies that would be allowed as a result of new rules are critical to public safety. Public interest and free-market groups were on the same page on the 5.9 GHz issue. There was speculation early in the Trump administration the White House might kill the rulemaking (see 1612130050), released in December in the late days of the Obama presidency. Comments were posted in docket NHTSA-2016-0126.
A California telecom group backed a San Francisco request to extend FCC comment dates on a Multifamily Broadband Council (MBC) petition for federal pre-emption of a San Francisco ordinance mandating ISP competitive choice in multi-tenant buildings (see 1612150006). Members of the California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies "have benefitted from the ordinance, and the request extensions would greatly enhance CALTEL's ability to contribute more comprehensive comments," said the group's filing Tuesday in docket 17-91. The MBC asked the FCC to say "Article 52 of the San Francisco Police Code is preempted by federal law and policy," said an April 4 FCC Media Bureau public notice, which set comments for May 4, replies May 19. MBC said Article 52 requires a multiple occupancy building owner to permit competing "communications service provider[s] onto his or her property upon the request of an ‘occupant,’ and to permit the additional providers to use the property owner’s existing wiring even if another provider is already using it,” the PN said. "MBC argues that Article 52 conflicts with the Commission’s policies on (1) competitive access to inside wiring in multiple dwelling unit buildings, (2) bulk billing arrangements, and (3) network unbundling. MBC also asserts that federal laws with respect to inside wiring are so dominant as to preempt the field of law that Article 52 occupies."
State ISP privacy laws will confuse consumers and create litigation, industry officials testified at a legislative hearing live streamed Wednesday from Washington, one of several states moving bills to counter President Donald Trump and Congress’s use of the Congressional Review Act to kill FCC broadband privacy rules (see 1704060055). At least 10 legislatures are now mulling ISP privacy rules, and observers expect more to follow. A critical mass of states could push Congress to write federal rules, said Center for Democracy and Technology Policy Analyst Natasha Duarte.
The FCC and allies and NATOA are at odds over the significance of a federal appellate court overturning the agency's solicited fax rule and what it means for a challenge of the commission finding of effective competition in the U.S. cable market. FCC intervenor NCTA in a letter (in Pacer) Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the FCC in a letter (in Pacer) Thursday, said Congress expressly gave the agency authority to make effective competition determinations in franchise areas. The FCC said the fight over the agency terminating franchising authorities' certifications to regulate cable rates in areas where there's effective competition is "plainly distinguishable" from the D.C. Circuit's ruling last month that the agency's solicited fax rule is illegal (see 1703310018). The regulator said its December 2015 conclusion of effective competition in most franchise areas nationwide was consistent with the Communications Act's text and legislative history. In its letter (in Pacer) Wednesday to the D.C. Circuit, NATOA -- which along with NAB and Minnesota's Northern Dakota County Cable Communications Commission is challenging the effective competition finding (see 1508280033) -- said the D.C. Circuit junk faxing ruling "definitively rejected" FCC rationale that its solicited fax rule was lawful as long as Congress didn't prohibit it, and that since Congress didn't authorize "mass sua sponte terminations of franchising authority certifications," the court should set aside the FCC effective competition order. NCTA rejected NATOA assertions that the D.C. Circuit decision means the only way for the agency to terminate franchising authorities' certifications is after a petition, as laid out in Section 623(a)(5) of the Communications Act, saying that section of code is about seeking relief from a franchising authority that exercises its rate regulation in violation of FCC standards, and is silent about effective competition determinations.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and more than 50 other House Republicans sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Friday urging the agency to protect the privacy of consumers. The letter directs Pai to “continue ensuring that ISPs fulfill their promises to consumers regarding their use of data until the FCC remedies the [Communications Act] Title II reclassification, which incorrectly removed ISP’s from the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission,” said a committee news release. White House Director-Legislative Affairs Marc Short predicted last week the FCC will “take a fresh look” at ISP privacy rules once it has a full contingent of five commissioners (see 1704050027), after President Donald Trump signed a Congressional Review Act resolution repealing the rules (see 1704040059). “Protecting consumer privacy while allowing for innovation has been critical to American innovation,” the letter said. “Maintaining an environment that permits innovation without sacrificing consumer privacy is critical to our nation's future prosperity and the creation of new consumer services.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's efforts to take on net neutrality could start with an NPRM in a few months, we're told. Approving new rules could take as long as a year, current and former commission officials said Friday. Pai and staff have started talking to industry representatives about the process of taking on net neutrality and repeal of broadband classification as a Communications Act Title II service. A staff team within the FCC has been working on an NPRM, agency officials and others said Friday. The goal apparently is to seek a vote by the June 15 commissioners’ meeting, since Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s term expires June 30, they said.
An FCC draft rulemaking would seek to roll back ILEC technology transition duties in retiring copper networks and simplify the process for discontinuing telecom services under Section 214 of the Communications Act. The draft NPRM, which would also tee up potential actions to facilitate pole attachments, proposes "to remove regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment at the federal, state, and local level; suggests changes to speed the transition from copper networks and legacy services to next-generation networks and services; and proposes to reform Commission regulations that increase costs and slow broadband deployment."
State legislatures are adopting internet privacy protections on a bipartisan basis in response to President Donald Trump and Congress repealing FCC ISP privacy rules. Trump signed the Congressional Review Act (CRA) repeal Monday (see 1704040059) after votes last week. Wisconsin directly rebuked that action Tuesday and Minnesota responded last week by adopting ISP privacy amendments on major state bills.
The International Trade Commission should highlight foreign countries' data localization laws as a top barrier to digital trade in a forthcoming report, telecom and tech officials said Tuesday during an ITC hearing. The commission began an investigation in February at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's request into developments in the digital trade market and how laws in the U.S. and “key foreign markets” are affecting digital trade. The ITC is examining laws in the EU, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Russia. The commission is expected to release the first of three reports on the investigation by Aug. 29, with the other two reports to be released in 2018 and 2019.