The FCC should “do nothing” that would upset the balance struck in the 2010 Open Internet order, which “balanced concerns about Internet openness with the need to maintain incentives for Internet service providers to continue investing in advanced networks,” AT&T said. The commission has “ample statutory authority under section 706 to adopt new rules that replicate the balance struck in 2010” including new no-blocking and nondiscrimination rules, it said: The record is “devoid of evidence of any actual threat to Internet openness that could possibly warrant heavy-handed regulation, and any such rules would be” highly vulnerable to legal challenge. “And if there is one thing that all parties to this proceeding can agree on, it is that the Commission should ground its rules on a solid legal foundation to avoid the turmoil and investment-deterring uncertainty that would follow yet another judicial remand,” it said.
Sinclair and Allbritton Communications will have to sell their interests in WHTM-TV Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Media General to proceed with their $963 million deal, said the U.S. Department of Justice in a consent decree filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. “Without the required divestiture, prices for broadcast television spot advertising would likely increase in parts of central Pennsylvania,” said DOJ in a news release Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/U87NN5). The divestiture requirement echoes a plan to sell WHTM to Media General announced by Sinclair last month (CD June 24 p16). In a May letter to the Media Bureau, Sinclair said its plan to buy Allbritton’s TV stations must be completed by July 27 to remain viable, because the purchase agreement allows either party to terminate it July 28 (CD May 30 p1).
Net neutrality comments are due at the FCC Tuesday and most observers expect most key industry players to weigh in. Industry observers told us the battle lines are well drawn, but the comments are still likely to be closely read by the FCC and some could form the basis for eventual legal challenges to the rules. The FCC approved rules for the first time in December 2010, under former Chairman Julius Genachowski. In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned many of the rules (CD Jan 15 p1), virtually guaranteeing that net neutrality would be a big issue for Genachowski’s successor Tom Wheeler as well.
NARUC is set to wade into the net neutrality debate at its meeting this week in Dallas, where its board will consider a resolution that would encourage the FCC to use the Telecom Act Title II and Section 706 as jurisdictional bases as it creates new net neutrality rules. The resolution would also lend NARUC support to the FCC’s proposed expansion of the transparency rule, said a draft of the resolution released in advance of the meeting (http://bit.ly/1sI9XiF).
Whether the FCC should classify VoIP and with it HD voice as a Title I Communications Act information service or a Title II telecom service depends on how stakeholders would be affected by the IP transition, and with it issues like required interconnection. Interviews with lawyers and executives on both sides of the issue this week found that those who believe interconnection rules are important want them to carry over to an all-digital future where calls no longer travel on traditional phone networks. The same with Title I classification, sought by those who believe interconnection will happen on its own in the market without federal or state requirements for it, or Title II classification, for some who think government mandates are needed for interconnection.
CenturyLink opposed the FCC plan to analyze the telco’s petition for forbearance of dominant carrier and computer inquiry tariffing requirements on enterprise broadband services for market competitiveness using what the commission calls a “traditional market power framework” (http://bit.ly/1n88UTO). The proposed market analysis plan would analyze CenturyLink’s forbearance petition based on different geographic areas for different customer classes, like small and medium-sized businesses versus large enterprise customers (http://bit.ly/VYmZxY). CenturyLink had proposed that the FCC evaluate market competitiveness based on a nationwide geographic market. AT&T also opposed the FCC’s proposed plan. Comptel, Sprint and a group of CLECs of Cbeyond Communications, Integra Telecom, Level 3 and tw telecom supported the FCC plan. Comments were due Monday, while reply comments are due July 14, in docket 14-9.
Proposed changes to how FCC regulatory fees are assessed impose a “disproportionate” burden on wireless, CTIA said in comments filed at the FCC. The FCC’s overall budget for FY 2014 is $449.8 million and Congress directed the agency to recover about $339.8 million through regulatory fees, and $98.7 million through revenue retained from spectrum auctions. Comments in docket 12-201 were due Monday on a June 12 NPRM (http://bit.ly/U1K1m0).
The California Public Utilities Commission supports the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s request (http://bit.ly/1lA4BQX) for clarification on whether it may adjudicate intercarrier compensation disputes when they arise between CLECs outside of Telecom Act sections 251 and 252, the CPUC said in a filing (http://bit.ly/Veam14) posted in docket 14-70 on Tuesday. The PUCs are seeking clarification in cases that involve the exchange of local dial-up ISP-bound traffic, the filing said. The Pennsylvania PUC petition is an “improper attempt to re-litigate issues that were already decided by a federal district court and currently are pending on appeal before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals,” AT&T said in a reply (http://bit.ly/1rZ0zqF). The Pennsylvania PUC petition challenges a recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which enjoined the enforcement of two Pennsylvania PUC orders on Dec. 5, 2012, and Aug. 15, 2013. The orders had required two AT&T CLEC affiliates to pay another CLEC, Core Communications, for terminating phone calls originated when an AT&T customer dialed the local number of one of Core’s ISP customers, AT&T said.
"I'm not going to endorse any effort to do otherwise,” Leahy said at the field hearing. “The open Internet principles are the bill of rights for the online world."
FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly lamented that a cost-benefit analysis is lacking from the record on net neutrality and that the commission’s new rules on TV station joint sales agreements have negatively affected consumers. He spoke at a Phoenix Center event Tuesday night.