fcc

Comcast asks FCC for privilege without responsibility

10 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Comcast has joined Verizon in pushing the Federal Communications Commission to override state and local laws that might affect their business. In a required notice filed after a private meeting with FCC chair Ajit Pai’s top staffers, a lawyer for Comcast said they urged the FCC to overturn its 2015 decision to regulate broadband as a common carrier service, and to make sure that state and local governments didn’t try to pick up the slack…

At the meeting, we reiterated Comcast’s support for restoring its prior classification of broadband Internet access service (“BIAS”) as an interstate information service and reversing the 2015 decision to classify BIAS as a [common carrier] telecommunications service…

We also emphasized that the Commission’s order in this proceeding should include a clear, affirmative ruling that expressly confirms the primacy of federal law with respect to BIAS as an interstate information service, and that preempts state and local efforts to regulate BIAS either directly or indirectly.

… More

FCC misses night and day difference between lit and dark fiber

7 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission’s decision to allow CenturyLink to buy Level 3 Communications might have broken with merger review practices, but it is solidly in line with its past nonsense regarding wholesale broadband services. Earlier this year, the FCC justified backing away from common carrier regulation of business-to-business service with the circular argument that if ISPs – Comcast and Charter Communications, in particular – don’t follow common carrier rules, then common carrier rules don’t apply.… More

Sneak peek at FCC's pending preemption of local wireless reviews?

5 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Some poles are history.

The Federal Communications Commission might have given us a preview of what its intended preemption of state and local discretion over wireless sites will look like. Later this month, commissioners will vote on whether or not to exempt replacement utility poles, that are used to support new wireless facilities, from historical preservation reviews. At the top level, it’s about extending an existing historical review exemption for towers to utility poles that aren’t presently supporting wireless equipment.… More

U.S. senate looks at stomping local wireless property rights and permits

3 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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A draft bill bouncing around the U.S senate would preempt state and local ownership of public property when wireless companies want to use it, and would put tight limits on state and local authority to issue permits for wireless facilities on private property. It’s a bipartisan effort, led by senators John Thune (R – South Dakota) and Brian Schatz (D – Hawaii), both of whom are major congressional broadband policy players.

In a lot of ways, it resembles senate bill 649, which was approved by the California legislature this year then vetoed by governor Jerry Brown, who wanted a “more balanced solution”.… More

Swat away state broadband laws, Verizon tells FCC

2 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Verizon doesn’t like it when states pass laws that affect its business, and now it wants the Federal Communications Commission to simply sweep those annoying rules away with a single, blanket preemption.

In a white paper filed with the FCC, Verizon points to ongoing efforts in California, and several other states, to re-impose Internet privacy rules that were overturned earlier this year by the federal government. It also fears that states will try to reinstate net neutrality requirements, and other common carrier obligations that the FCC is likely to scrap in the coming months.… More

FCC limits scope of merger reviews as it okays CenturyLink-Level 3 deal

31 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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CenturyLink can close its deal to buy Level 3 Communication, and will probably do so tomorrow. The Federal Communications Commission gave the final green light to the deal on Sunday, without imposing any significant conditions. The FCC’s decision amounts to a manifesto that lays out how the republican majority will sharply restrict its review of future mergers and acquisitions.

The previous democratic-majority FCC took a broad look at proposed mergers, sometimes imposing conditions aimed at extracting general public benefits, but not necessarily directly related to problems caused by the transaction itself.… More

FCC continues push to replace rural copper with wireless service

30 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission won’t preempt state regulations regarding changes in network technologies made by telephone companies – commonly referred to as copper retirement – but it will streamline its own procedures to make those transitions easier. Including replacing rural wireline systems with wireless service that has much lower capacity, reliability and consistency than the fiber networks slated for more affluent communities. That’s the gist of a draft order published by the FCC last week.… More

FCC wants to give "citizens broadband" spectrum to big mobile

25 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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Some citizens are more equal than others.

The Federal Communications Commission says it wants to assign frequencies in the so-called Citizens Broadband Radio Service using a more traditional, industry-centric approach than previously planned. It’s a significant chunk of spectrum, 150 MHz located between 3.550 GHz and 3.700 GHz in what’s referred to as the “mid-band”.

It’s not pristine territory. Government and other legacy licensees are still operating in that band, and they would be protected. New operators, running under whatever new rules that the FCC eventually adopts, will have stay out of the way of those existing users and coordinate use among themselves.… More

FCC commissioner signals more preemption of state, local wireless review

24 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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Well that didn’t take long. Just a couple of working days after a pair of U.S. senators introduced a modest and sane bill to streamline federal permitting for wireless projects – S–1988, aka the Speed Act – there’s a call to double down and go after state and local approval processes too. Except it’s not from a lobbyist or trade association that wants to add perks to the bill.

It’s from someone who already has the authority to big foot state and local authority at will, at least if he can convince a couple of his colleagues to go along with it.… More

Court challenge to common carrier status for broadband chugs on

11 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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The usual suspects took their case to the U.S. supreme court last week, asking that the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to classify Internet access as a common carrier service be thrown out. Several lobbying groups, including a couple of cable industry front organisation and telco hired guns, and companies such as AT&T want the supreme court to declare that Internet access is an information service, rather than a telecommunications service.

The basic argument is that since Internet access involves a lot of background routing and (extremely brief) caching of data, broadband providers are producing and/or processing information, rather than just delivering it from point A to point B for subscribers.… More