fcc

FCC will preempt San Francisco apartment broadband access ordinance, and that’s just for starters

20 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to preempt part of a San Francisco ordinance that requires landlords to open up access to existing wiring within a building, and allows any Internet service provider to use it to deliver service to tenants. In a draft ruling released yesterday, the FCC proposes to block any requirement that forces a landlord to share wiring it owns that’s already in use. It would apply to both residential buildings, such as apartments or condos, and office buildings – “multiple tenant environments” (MTEs), as the FCC puts it.… More

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, PRTC plead their pain of not getting everything they want from Santa the FCC

14 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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The opening arguments submitted by AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and the Puerto Rico Telephone Company in their appeal of last year’s Federal Communications Commission’s pole ownership preemption decision do little more than lend credence to the allegation that their challenges were launched in collusion with their friends at the FCC in a vain judge shopping attempt.

The 2018 FCC wireless order was a gigabuck early Christmas present to mobile carriers. It gave them the right to use city-owned property in the public right of way, such as street light poles, at below market rates, sharply restricted fees that local government could charge for permits to do so, and limited local discretion over street management and aesthetic standards.… More

California attorney general joins lawsuit to block T-Mobile-Sprint deal, likely delays it indefinitely

13 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Tmobile san francisco 18may2019

T-Mobile’s proposed merger with Sprint is “presumptively anticompetitive” according to California attorney general Xavier Becerra and eight other state attorneys general (plus their counterpart in the District of Columbia). On Tuesday, they sued the companies in a New York-based federal court with the goal of blocking the deal. The ten – all democrats – say there would be substantial damage to the market for mobile telecoms services if it goes through…

Sprint and T-Mobile are close competitors.

… More

FCC’s local pole preemption order based on speculation, ignores substantial evidence, cities tell appeals court

12 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission’s preemptions of local property rights – particularly city-owned street light poles – and local rules regulating the use of public right of ways are contrary to federal law and violate the federal constitution, according to arguments submitted to a San Francisco appeals court by dozens of cities, counties and local government associations. In their opening brief submitted on Monday, they made their case for overturning last year’s FCC rulings that swept away state and local land use, road maintenance, property leasing practices and other policies that mobile carriers find bothersome.… More

“Epic livestream” to reinstate net neutrality marks anniversary of its demise

11 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Open internet dont tread on me 2

It’s been a year since the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to scrap network neutrality rules took effect. So far, there’s no indication that wireline broadband providers have taken advantage of their new freedom to control the Internet, although mobile carriers apparently haven’t been as restrained.

To mark the day, an open Internet advocacy group, Fight for the Future, is doing a nine hour “epic livestream” to encourage the U.S. senate to pass a stalled net neutrality bill, and to generally make the case for freedom of access to the Internet.… More

Opening briefs challenging FCC pole and right of way preemptions filed in ninth circuit

11 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Tmobile small cell riverside

Dozens of local governments from across the U.S. filed joint arguments yesterday with the ninth circuit federal appeals court in San Francisco, as challenges to two 2018 Federal Communications Commission decisions move ahead. Mobile carriers and municipal electric utilities also filed opening briefs. I’ll dive deeper into the arguments in the next few days, but you can read them here now:

Petitioner Local Governments’ joint opening brief, 10 June 2019
Brief of petitioner the American Public Power Association, 10 June 2019
Petitioner Montgomery County, Maryland’s opening brief, 10 June 2019
Joint opening brief for Petitioners Sprint Corporation; Verizon Communications Inc.;… More

FCC puts political agenda ahead of regulatory relevance

10 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Self licking ice cream cone

The Federal Communications Commission is in danger of becoming just another one of Washington, D.C.’s self licking ice cream cones. Some would argue that it has already achieved that exalted status, but until pending court challenges to recent, major decisions – net neutrality and local property rights preemption, particularly – are decided, there’s still hope.

The latest example of hype-over-substance from the FCC’s current republican majority is the annual broadband deployment report that, at times, reads like an update from the old Soviet Union about its latest five year plan for increasing tractor production.… More

CPUC approval of T-Mobile-Sprint deal slipping to August, if then

5 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Caltrans slow 2

Even if the federal justice department has an Ajit Pai-like epiphany about T-Mobile’s proposed takeover of Sprint and approves the deal today – not likely – there’s diminishing hope that California’s review of the merger will wrap up before August. And the possibility of a mid-September decision is growing.

There are three structural reasons for the delay. First, the CPUC only has one voting meeting scheduled for July, on the 11th, and there’s a four week gap between the commission’s last August meeting and its first one in September.… More

Another bipartisan bill preempting local ownership of streetlight poles lands in U.S. senate

4 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Despite promises to work with local government representatives to develop less onerous language, a bill to preempt local ownership of streetlight poles and other municipal property that is 1. located in the public right of way and 2. coveted by wireless broadband providers was re-introduced in the U.S. senate with no significant changes. S.1699 is sponsored by the same bipartisan team of John Thune (R – South Dakota) and Brian Schatz (D – Hawaii) that pushed it last year.… More

FCC’s broadband deployment report is good news, but not as good as it says it is

31 May 2019 by Steve Blum
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“Advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis” in the U.S., according to the Federal Communications Commission. In a self congratulatory report, the FCC issued what has become its annual declaration of victory in its congressionally mandated battle to encourage “the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans”.

The report concludes that “the number of Americans lacking a connection of at least 25 Mbps/3 Mbps (the Commission’s current benchmark) has dropped from 26.1 million Americans at the end of 2016 to 21.3 million Americans at the end of 2017, a decrease of more than 18%”.… More