The FCC acted within its authority under the Communications Act in approving in 2008 a shot clock for wireless tower zoning decisions, CTIA and Verizon Wireless said in a filing with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The court hasn’t set a date for oral argument in a challenge to the rule filed in October by Arlington and San Antonio, Texas.
A top state telecom official will join the House Commerce Committee staff, incoming Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said Wednesday. Ray Baum, chairman of the Oregon Public Utilities Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Telecom Committee, will be senior policy adviser for the Communications Subcommittee under Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. Meanwhile, Neil Fried -- who was senior minority counsel under Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas -- will stay on the committee as chief counsel of the Communications Subcommittee. As state chair of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, Baum had been active in efforts to revamp the Universal Service Fund. Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., the incoming vice chairman of the Communications Subcommittee, has said he will reintroduce USF legislation early in the session (CD Nov 23 p5). Baum is leaving NARUC and the Oregon PUC, a NARUC spokesman confirmed: “He will be greatly missed, but we wish him the best.”
Comcast filed a Notice of Appeal of a Maine PUC order requiring it and Time Warner Cable to seek certificates of public convenience from the PUC in order to offer interconnected VoIP services, a court document said. The appeal was filed with the PUC, which certifies the Notice and forwards it to the court with the rest of the administrative record. The appeal will be considered by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Comcast claimed the PUC Order is “predicated on several errors of both Maine and federal law.” The commission erred by holding that VoIP is a telephone service subject to public utility regulation, it said. The agency also mistakenly held that state public utility regulation isn’t preempted by the federal Communications Act, it said. Additionally, the PUC neglected established law holding that federal law can preempt state regulation of communications services where the provision of intra- and inter-state services are intertwined, as they are in Comcast’s VoIP service, it said.
The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service has turned to Harrisburg, Pa.-based consulting firm Rolka, Loube, Saltzer Associates to help collect and analyze data on universal service and intercarrier compensation, the joint board announced in filings published Monday. The commission is expected to issue a rulemaking notice as early as February on the two matters (CD Dec 1 p1). The joint board will file its own reports on the efforts and is currently collecting data from telcos, the group said in its filing, which was part of dockets No. 05-337, 10-90, 09-51 and 01-92. Rolka, Loube bills itself as an expert in “administering state and federal universal services funds, subsidy program administration, providing expert testimony on behalf of public agencies and drafting orders in regulatory proceedings.” Its listed clients include Michigan State University’s Institute of Public Utilities, CTIA, the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate, the Universal Service Administrative Co., NextLink, XO Communications, the Alaska Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Justice Department. Company Vice President Robert Loube, a former top analyst at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, and consultant Peter Bluhm, a former official with the joint board and the Vermont Public Services Board, will be the principal contacts for Rolka, the joint board said in its filing. President David Rolka is a former chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and NARUC board member.
The benefit of consideration of a Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the FCC’s net neutrality order may be to rally opposition and send a broader signal to the commission, said a former congressional committee counsel. Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said last week they may attempt to rebuke the FCC by introducing resolutions of disapproval under the Act (CD Dec 22 p5). The procedure has advantages over other lines of attack, but the likelihood of a presidential veto makes it a difficult road, current and former Hill aides said in interviews.
Hill Republicans bombarded the FCC with threats to reverse net neutrality rules approved Tuesday by the commission. Democrats said they were happy net neutrality is moving forward, but some said they wished for stronger protections.
The FCC on Tuesday approved net neutrality rules under Title I of the Communications Act, over scathing dissents by Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker. Democrats Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn also lobbed criticisms at the rules, saying they do not go far enough. The vote, after weeks of negotiations and months of build-up, was anticlimactic, since Copps and Clyburn had announced Monday they would not oppose the order (CD Dec 21 p1).
The FCC’s net neutrality order under Title I leaves room for argument on states’ authority over broadband services, experts said in interviews. Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to get the votes needed to approve his net neutrality proposal Tuesday. (See separate story in this issue.)
Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn won’t stand in the way of FCC rules on net neutrality proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski, the two Democratic commissioners said Monday. Copps said he'll concur with the order at Tuesday’s commission meeting. Clyburn said she'll vote to approve the rules in part and concur in part. The full order won’t be published for several days, but the commission will release excerpts along with the text of the rules, a senior FCC official said Monday.
Low-power TV broadcasters told the FCC that it shouldn’t mandate their switch to digital broadcasting before it completes plans for the TV band. The commission should wait until the National Broadband Plan is implemented before setting a deadline for a digital LPTV transition, Venture Technologies Group, which owns 33 LPTV stations, said in comments filed with the FCC last week. “The question now facing LPTV operators is whether channels will be available after the Broadband Plan is implemented,” the company said. “Until LPTV licensees … can be assured they will have channels on which to operate … it is ‘irrational and arbitrary’ to establish a deadline” for a digital conversion.