GOP lawmakers unveiled their net neutrality discussion draft Friday, codifying several net neutrality protections, as expected. The seven-page bill is intended to pre-empt the FCC’s Feb. 26 net neutrality vote, creating net neutrality protections without relying on the Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband the agency is expected to rely on. Prominent Democrats pushed back against the GOP proposal, urging FCC action instead.
In one of several petitions seeking waivers from Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) restrictions, healthcare administrators say they need to be able to place “time sensitive” automated calls to patients for such things as appointment reminders and prescription instructions, the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management said.
Imposing Title II regulation, with forbearance, on broadband services is a “recipe for disaster,” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Wednesday on a Federal Society teleconference. Pai charged that in the end net neutrality advocates who pushed Title II reclassification with forbearance will turn around and try to keep the FCC from forbearing from key provisions.
President Barack Obama declared his support Wednesday for ending state laws that restrict or prohibit municipal broadband deployments and said he would file a letter with the FCC urging the commission to use its authority to remove barriers to local broadband deployments, as expected (see 1501130067). “I believe a community has the right to make its own choice” on deploying broadband free from state restrictions, Obama said in a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which has a municipal broadband network. He said “all of us,” including the FCC, “should do everything we can to push back on those old laws.”
The FCC is intensifying its crackdown on radio station violations, drawing the notice of broadcast lawyers, according to interviews Tuesday. Recent enforcement actions include penalties for local marketing agreement (LMA) and time brokerage agreement violations and tower lighting issues. The Media Bureau issued a consent decree Friday requiring Hoosier Broadcasting and Inter Mirifica, a nonprofit organization and Catholic media network, collectively to pay a $50,000 penalty since WSPM(FM) Cloverdale, Indiana, licensee Hoosier received LMA payments in excess of the station's expenses.
Google is right to argue in a Dec. 30 letter to the FCC that net neutrality rules shouldn’t interfere with cable companies’ pole attachment rights, NCTA said in its own letter to the commission Friday. Google, though, was wrong in arguing that the reclassification of broadband to Title II is necessary to preserve those rights. Google said Google Fiber “‘lacks federal access rights pursuant to Section 224 because it offers an Internet Protocol video service that is not traditional cable TV,’” NCTA said. But the “law is clear” that facilities-based providers of Internet Protocol television services “do qualify as cable operators under the Communications Act,” which defines a cable operator as “one who ‘provides cable service over a cable system,’ without any reference to the technology," NCTA said.
Though FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler appears headed toward proposing a Title II net neutrality approach (see 1501070054), which is expected to be adopted in a 3-2 vote (see 1501080019), details about how exactly to reclassify remain up in the air, said those on both sides of the debate, including whether to forbear from Section 222, which gives the agency authority over privacy issues.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed publicly at CES Wednesday the FCC will vote on a net neutrality order at its Feb. 26 open meeting. In a session with CEA President Gary Shapiro, Wheeler indicated the FCC will reclassify broadband as a Title II service, while forbearing from all but sections 202 and 208 of the Communications Act title. The rules will prohibit blocking and throttling while not requiring carriers to file tariffs, Wheeler told a standing room only crowd in a large room at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
FairPoint Communications continued negotiations Monday with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) to end a monthslong strike in northern New England, though none of the parties would say how the talks are progressing. More than 1,700 FairPoint workers affiliated with the CWA and IBEW have been on strike since mid-October in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont over what the workers view as unacceptable conditions included in a new FairPoint contract proposal. FairPoint is also contending with related broadband and wireline service quality issues in New Hampshire and Vermont that have attracted state governments’ scrutiny.
A TIA motion for leave to file an amicus brief in support of the FCC in the petition for review proceeding against its incentive auction order should be denied as untimely, NAB said Wednesday in an opposition motion filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “For four months TIA stood by silently as the parties hammered out a consolidated briefing schedule that places tight constraints on the parties’ word limits, briefing format, and filing deadlines, NAB said. “Now, at the eleventh hour, TIA appears with a proposed amicus brief that would in effect give a lopsided, 4,000-word extension to the Federal Communications Commission ('FCC') and its intervenors.” TIA's brief was filed Dec. 23, the same day as other respondent briefs, but TIA had not previously filed for leave to intervene, according to online court records. Allowing TIA to join the case would “cause extreme prejudice to NAB and Sinclair," NAB said. The broadcasters “are in the midst of responding to three Respondent side briefs while adhering to the scheduling Order’s inflexible word limits and tight deadlines,” NAB said. The court should reject TIA's request, NAB said.