fcc

FCC preemption of local street pole ownership takes effect in January

19 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission wasted no time in publishing its new rules regarding how cities and counties can regulate (or, really, not) small wireless facilities in the federal register. That means most of the rules take effect on 14 January 2019, unless one of the promised lawsuits materialises and a court puts everything on hold.

The new rules don’t force local governments to do anything – the FCC doesn’t have authority. But state and federal courts do, and the intent is to set standards that judges will apply when settling disputes between wireless companies and local agencies.… More

FCC’s have it both ways brief is California’s heads we win, tails you lose hope

17 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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Besides doing rhetorical back flips to explain why broadband isn’t a telecommunications service, the Federal Communications Commission’s defence of its decision to scrap network neutrality rules also goes to great lengths to justify its declaration that states cannot impose their own laws as a substitute. This specific preemption, along with federal law and the general constitutional principle that the federal government has sole authority over interstate commerce, forms the basis for the court challenge to California’s net neutrality law mounted by lobbyists for AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Frontier and other monopoly model telecoms companies, and the allied law suit filed by the Trump administration.… More

FCC’s definition of information is a bad 1990s nostalgia trip

14 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission is strenuously and – I’d say – unconvincingly arguing that broadband is an information service and not a telecommunications service, as it defends last year’s decision to roll back network neutrality rules. In a brief filed with a Washington, D.C. appeals court, the FCC defended both the logic of its decision and the way it arrived at it.

Courts have already told the FCC that it needs to define broadband as a telecoms services before it can impose common carrier obligations on providers, which, for all practical purposes is what network neutrality rules do.… More

Motions to block California’s net neutrality law to be heard end of November

12 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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The federal justice department will work side by side with telecom industry lobbyists to block California’s new network neutrality law. The two challenges to senate bill 822, filed shortly after it was signed into law by California governor Jerry Brown, will be taken up as a package by a federal judge in Sacramento. For now, the two cases will be technically separate, but will be argued and decided together.

Judge John Mendez set a hearing for 28 November 2018 to decide if he’ll issue a preliminary injunction that would prevent SB 822 from taking effect in January.… More

FCC’s broadband paradox opens a door for California’s net neutrality law

10 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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Both California and Washington now have laws on the books that, to one extent or another, reinstate network neutrality rules that were scrapped last year by the Federal Communications Commission. California’s law was challenged by the Trump administration in federal court a couple of hours after it was signed, on a Sunday afternoon, by governor Jerry Brown. Lobbying fronts for AT&T, Comcast, Charter, Frontier and other monopoly model telecoms companies soon followed.

Conventional wisdom has been that a state can’t regulate Internet access service, because it’s clearly a matter of interstate – international, really – commerce.… More

Stalled federal bill preempting local pole ownership, authority gets a push

7 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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Congress might jump into the tug of war between the Federal Communications Commission and local governments over control of municipal property located in the public right of way. According to a story in Politico, the chairman of the federal senate’s commerce committee, senator John Thune (R – South Dakota) wants to move his small cell preemption bill – S. 3157 – ahead as the current congressional term winds down.

As originally drafted, S. 3157 tracks closely with the “small wireless facility” preemption ruling issued last month by the FCC.… More

Big telecom drops lawyers and lobbyists on California’s net neutrality law

5 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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Lobbying front organisations for AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Frontier and mobile carriers joined forces to mount another legal challenge to California’s new network neutrality law on Wednesday. The four are the American Cable Association (ACA), the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) and the U.S. Telephone Association (USTelecom) – they keep trying to rebrand themselves, but that’s what the initials originally stood for, and what they’re really about.

They filed a complaint and motion for an injunction in a Sacramento federal court, claiming that the network neutrality law – senate bill 822 – signed by governor Jerry Brown on Sunday is “a classic example of unconstitutional state regulation”.… More

Court gives California three weeks to defend net neutrality law

2 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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The gears of justice are grinding on California’s newly minted network neutrality law. Yesterday, the federal court in Sacramento gave California attorney general Xavier Becerra three weeks to respond to the Trump adminstration’s attempt to nullify senate bill 822.

Signed Sunday afternoon by governor Jerry Brown, the law reinstates the core elements of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 ban on blocking, throttling and paid prioritisation of Internet traffic on the basis of content, and also clarifies that selective zero rating is prohibited.… More

Brown signs SB 822 and establishes Californian net neutrality rules, Trump lawyers hit back

1 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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Sing it, Linda.

Jerry Brown doesn’t have a problem stepping into policy territory claimed by the federal government. He’s signed bills that fly in the face of Trump administration immigration policy, and carved out a place for California in international environmental diplomacy. You can add telecoms policy to that list. Yesterday, he signed senate bill 822 into law. Authored by senator Scott Weiner (D – San Francisco), it reinstates network neutrality rules that were approved by the democratic majority on the Federal Communications Commission in 2015, and quickly scrapped when republicans took over control of the FCC in 2017.… More

Feds launch lawyers at California net neutrality law, on high political alert

30 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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That didn’t take long.

Less than two hours after the announcement that governor Jerry Brown signed senate bill 822 and made network neutrality the law of the land in California, the federal government struck back. The federal justice department filed a lawsuit challenging it with the federal district court – the eastern district – that covers Sacramento.

They had their finger on the button. Two filings and the obligatory press release were ready to go. One is a complaint, um, complaining that California “seeks to second-guess the Federal Government’s regulatory approach”.… More