FCC OKs 3-2 MTE Pre-emption in San Francisco
The FCC voted along party lines Wednesday for partial pre-emption of San Francisco's Article 52 open-access rule, with dissenting Democratic commissioners complaining of regulatory overreach. Geoffrey Starks called the declaratory ruling “not sound law and not good policy." Jessica Rosenworcel…
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said it's "an affront to our long history" of local control. The Republicans and Starks backed a related NPRM on other ways the FCC could boost broadband deployment in multi-tenant environments (MTE), though Mike O'Rielly said he did so with reservations. Chairman Ajit Pai said Article 52 is rife with ambiguity and chilled broadband investment. He said if the city's correct that Article 52 doesn't require sharing of in-use wiring (see 1907010023), there's no reason to object to the agency's narrow ruling banning such required sharing. Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith told us pre-emption doesn't require FCC notification to San Francisco, and it becomes effective on the ruling's release. Mayor London Breed (D) didn't comment Thursday. With broadband deployment inherently interstate commerce, O'Rielly said after the meeting he anticipates the agency taking further pre-emptive steps on other state or local broadband deployment regulations. "I'm sorry they feel upset about that or their authority is being restricted -- it's our authority," he told us. "Sorry, not sorry." When we asked directly, none of the regular commissioners pointed to other state or local regimes that could be an agency target.