Verizon said late Thursday it filed a notice of appeal to the net neutrality order of Dec. 21, of which it had repeatedly signaled its opposition, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The telco filed even before the order was published in the Federal Register.
Nullification of FCC net neutrality rules through the Congressional Review Act topped a list of communications and technology priorities for Republicans on the House Commerce Committee. Also listed in a staff memo Tuesday as “key issues” this year: Spectrum auction legislation, revamping the commission’s processes, broadband stimulus oversight and a Universal Service Fund overhaul. Colin Crowell, former aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said on a panel Wednesday at the State of the Net Conference he doubts that the GOP’s planned resolution of disapproval concerning net neutrality will succeed.
Payphone operators’ request for emergency cash and long-term Universal Service Fund support was panned by Sprint-Nextel, Verizon, USTelecom and TracFone Wireless. The American Public Communications Council filed a petition last month asking the FCC for about $57 million in emergency Lifeline money and for a proceeding on whether payphones should receive universal service support permanently (CD Dec 6 p6). The petition drew support from the Florida Public Telecommunications Association, which said that the collapse of the payphone industry “has been greatly exacerbated in Florida and other states … due to the introduction of ‘free’ governmentally supported cell phone service offered by TracFone and more recently Virgin Mobile.”
The FCC largely skipped the fundamental question posed in a local government challenge to the agency’s zoning shot clock before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Arlington and San Antonio, Texas, said in a reply at the court. The commission “skips past the central question in this case: whether Congress empowered the FCC to make binding federal rules under Section 332(c)(7) to govern State and local zoning authority,” the cities said. The “plain language” of the Communication Act and its history “show that Congress did not grant the FCC such authority,” the cities said. Other local governments and organizations that represent then joined the appeal by the two Texas cities (CD Jan 4 p4).
The U.S. government is making Comcast fulfill several Web conditions to complete its purchase of control in NBC Universal from General Electric and form a new joint venture with GE. The FCC and Justice Department said they're barring the cable operator, in its role as an ISP, from discriminating against competing content. A condition from the commission -- which some see as a form of net neutrality (CD Jan 12 p4) -- prohibits Comcast from giving priority on its broadband network to its content over competitors’, FCC officials said.
Qwest failed to meet its burden to prove that it could set its own prices and terms of service in Phoenix because it didn’t demonstrate that forbearing continued regulation would have preserved fair prices and business practices, protected consumers or serve the public interest, the FCC said in its reply in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Qwest attempts to reverse the burden of proof by insisting that the commission was required to disprove each of the predicates that otherwise would justify forbearance under the statutes,” the commission said in its reply. It was filed with the Denver court on Monday. Not only is Qwest’s argument “at odds with the plain language of the statues,” it “would also have the perverse effect of forcing the commission to produce evidence to preserve provisions of the Communications Act whenever a carrier simply requests forbearance from those provisions of law and produces nothing else,” the commission’s reply said. “It is hard to imagine that Congress intended the competition-enhancing provisions of the act to be so easily nullified,” the 78-page reply stated. In any case, Qwest can’t raise the matter on the federal appeal because it didn’t bring it up with the commission first, as required by law, the agency said. Qwest has said it’s “hemorrhaging” market share in Phoenix to Cox and yet is still unfairly being treated as if it were a monopoly (CD Nov 23 p6). The company has also claimed in its appeal that the FCC “moved the goalposts” when it adopted a market power analysis and determined that Qwest wasn’t facing enough facilities-based competition for the Phoenix retail mass market (CD June 24 p1). A Qwest spokesman declined to comment. Industry is watching the Qwest case closely (CD Aug 27 p6). After Qwest appealed its forbearance denial, similar forbearance petitions -- by both Qwest and Verizon -- were withdrawn in other markets (CD June 24 p1). Some dozen CLECs are planning a consolidated intervenor’s brief on behalf of the FCC, said telecom lawyer Andrew Lipman of Bingham McCutchen, who is representing some of the CLECs. “I don’t think it’s likely the court will vacate the FCC’s decision,” he said, but CLECs are anxious because they saw themselves steadily squeezed in the Omaha market after Qwest won a forbearance there.
Wireless “bill shock” is “not remotely as large” a problem as the FCC suggested in a rulemaking notice, CTIA said in a filing Monday at the commission. The rules proposed would cost carriers, and therefore consumers, “tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to put into practice,” the association warned. CTIA also hinted that a legal challenge is likely if the FCC moves forward on rules. The FCC at its October meeting proposed rules to require carriers to provide usage alerts and related information to help consumers avoid unexpected charges.
The hiring of Ray Baum to the House Commerce Committee could signal heightened Capitol Hill interest in pursuing Universal Service Fund reform this year, state and industry officials said. Baum was chairman of the Oregon Public Utilities Commission and the state chairman of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. Some wireline industry lobbyists said they believe Baum may try to revamp the bill worked out last year by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and former Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.
Motorola Solutions, NCTA, Cellular South and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association all filed petitions for reconsideration at the FCC last week, asking it to make changes to white spaces rules. The commission approved an order on use of the TV white spaces at its Sept. 23 meeting. The agency said the band can be used for “super Wi-Fi."
Key parts of the National Broadband Plan still require action by Congress. A potential roadblock for the commission as it implements the plan remains that the commission cannot control if or how quickly Capitol Hill moves forward on its parts.