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Federal appeals court judges hearing the challenge brought by local governments to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 preemption of ownership and control of street lights tried to get an FCC lawyer to explain how the commission settled on $270 as the allowable annual pole rental limit. The attorney, Scott Noveck, couldn’t oblige judges Jay Bybee and Mary Schroeder…

Bybee: I’d still like you to get to how you get to the $270.

Novek: So your honor, what I believe happened is that the commission took a look at various state small cell bills…

Bybee: It’s interesting, counsel, that you just characterised it as ‘you believe’.

Federal appellate judges drilled down into arguments made by local governments and the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, as they considered a challenge to the FCC’s 2018 decision to cap rental rates for locally owned street light poles and other assets in the public right of way, and effectively give mobile carriers unfettered use of public property.

One justification for this preemption of local property ownership was that if big cities with big potential for subscriber revenue charge high fees, then carriers like AT&T and Verizon won’t have money left over to spend in less profitable small cities and rural communities.… More

The Federal Communications Commission defended its 2018 preemption of local property ownership and permitting authority in front of a panel of three federal appeals court judges in Pasadena yesterday. Its lawyers faced some pointed questions from the judges.

FCC attorney Scott Noveck tried to dance around the reality of the FCC’s preemption order and claim that it really wasn’t doing much at all, particularly in regards to limits on the aesthetic requirements that cities can impose on wireless facilities.… More

Local ownership of street light poles and other facilities planted in the public right of way is at stake, as lawyers for dozens of cities and counties and the Federal Communications Commission square off in a Pasadena court room later this morning.

A panel of three federal appellate court judges will hear arguments about why, or why not, the FCC has the authority to tell local agencies how much they can charge mobile carriers to attach equipment to their poles, and to largely replace negotiated rental contracts with simple, non-discretionary permits.… More

We might know by next summer if local governments will be able to lease public property, such as street lights, at fair market rates to private wireless companies, or whether those rates will be capped at $270 per pole per year.

The challenge by cities and counties to the Federal Communications Commission’s preemption of local ownership of public assets in the public right of way, and control of the public right of way itself, will be heard in Pasadena in February.… More

The good news is that the appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s preemption of local ownership of streetlight poles will be fast tracked. The not so good news – which isn’t exactly news to people who follow such things – is that fast is a relative term.

An order issued yesterday by the ninth circuit federal appellate court in San Francisco granted a request “to expedite oral argument” in the case, made by dozens of local governments.… More

Local governments from around the U.S. asked the federal appeals court in San Francisco to speed up consideration of their challenge to the Federal Communications Commission preemption of local ownership and control of the public right of way and assets located in it, such as street light poles and traffic signals.

In a motion filed last month, they told judges that on the one hand, disputes are piling up, and on the other, the FCC is aggressively pushing ahead…

First, there are several other cases progressing through the lower courts that will be affected by the outcome of this appeal…Delay in resolution will simply complicate the work of district courts and Circuit Courts of Appeal throughout the country, as more applications are filed and more disputes arise.

The rounds of written arguments and counter arguments in the appeals of last year’s FCC decisions preempting state and local governments’ control of public right of ways and ownership of property, such as street light poles and traffic signals, they install there is drawing to a close. Several groups filed rebuttals to the FCC’s defence of its preemption. The primary opposition came from a reply brief filed by a long list of cities and counties in the federal appeals court based in San Francisco, which is hearing the combined challenges to two sweeping rulings made by the FCC last year.… More

The FCC’s subservience to the telecommunications companies it’s supposed to regulating – or at least the grovelling of its republican majority – is highlighted by the industry’s defence of sweeping preemptions issued by the commission last year. In a brief filed with the San Francisco-based ninth circuit federal appeals court, carriers and their lobbyists effectively admit they were gaming the judicial system when they tried to steer the case to a friendlier court, with the collusion of the FCC.… More