Disagreements on net neutrality will likely emerge Tuesday during a House Communications Subcommittee legislative hearing, according to written testimony and opening statements released ahead of the 10:15 a.m. hearing in 2123 Rayburn. Contention about the two net neutrality-related measures was expected last week (see 1601070051). House lawmakers will consider four telecom measures in total: the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act (HR-2666) and a discussion draft of the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, both dealing with the FCC net neutrality order and lacking Democratic backers, and the bipartisan Amateur Radio Parity Act (HR-1301) and Anti-Spoofing Act (HR-2669).
Three witnesses will testify Tuesday before the House Communications Subcommittee at its 10:15 a.m. legislative hearing in 2123 Rayburn, said a GOP staff memo released Friday. It said the witnesses are: former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, now with Wiley Rein; Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld; and Aristotle President Elizabeth Bowles on behalf of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. The hearing is on four telecom measures (see 1601050058) that the GOP staff memo defended. The FCC’s net neutrality order doesn’t prohibit broadband rate regulation despite the agency saying it has no intentions to do that, the memo argued, thus creating the need for legislation. “First, the FCC retains the ability to regulate the rates for broadband through its enforcement authority," the GOP memo said. "Sections 201 and 202 of the Communications Act provide authority to ensure that the rates charged for telecommunications services are just and reasonable. Through this authority, the FCC can engage in after-the-fact ratemaking by using enforcement decisions to define the contours of what the FCC deems a ‘reasonable’ rate.” The order also contains nothing preventing future FCC chairs from such regulation, the memo said. Net neutrality advocates cautioned against the two of the four telecom measures that involve the net neutrality order (see 1601070051).
With Tuesday the deadline for the Form 177 short-form application for the reverse auction, broadcast attorneys are scrambling to finish applications and prepare for an auction “quiet period” that broadcasters have never been in before, several lawyers told us. Though the type of quiet period mandated by the incentive's auction's anti-collusion rules is old hat for wireless companies, it's a new experience for broadcasters, and it's not clear how it will go, said broadcast attorney Jack Goodman. The deadline means broadcast legal experts will likely be working over the weekend to complete channel sharing agreements (CSAs) and finalize their auction applications, said Wiley Rein broadcast attorney Ari Meltzer.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and other national figures have continued to push for the Democratic House campaign of former senior FCC official Josh Gottheimer, who worked for former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “I'm on your team!” Booker, a Commerce Committee member, tweeted of Gottheimer over the weekend, expressing excitement over a national press account of Gottheimer's campaign for the 5th district seat from New Jersey (see 1505060023). Over the summer, some Washington figures, including Genachowski and ex-Clinton administration officials, were already favoring Gottheimer, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton who now works for Microsoft and chairs a nonprofit JerseyOn. Commerce Deputy Secretary Bruce Andrews donated hundreds of dollars over 2015’s Q2 and Q3, and White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman donated $2,700 in Q2, according to records from the Federal Election Commission. Former FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett, now at Venable, donated $1,000 in Q2. Industry figures financially favoring Gottheimer’s run include AT&T Senior Vice President Bob Quinn and Democratic lobbyist Lyndon Boozer, Comcast Vice President Kathryn Zachem, NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan, RIAA Executive Vice President Michele Ballantyne, Softbank Executive Vice President Bruce Gottlieb, Verizon Senior Vice President Kathleen Grillo and Ultra Mobile CEO David Glickman. Gottheimer is facing incumbent Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., in the seat for multiple terms and scoring his last win with 55 percent of the vote. He has an opponent in the June 7 primary; Gottheimer does not. Gottheimer touted $934,191 on hand by Q3, compared with $2.3 million for Garrett. Former Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, now with Wiley Rein, wrote on Twitter of running into Gottheimer on the Amtrak Acela train in November: "He looks happy," McDowell wrote. "Running for office suits him."
Capital expenditures have continued steady among the major carriers, despite concerns that the February net neutrality order would mean investments in networks would crater. Most troubling for many ISP executives, the order reclassified broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. In a series of recent financial presentations, carrier executives said other factors, such as the state of buildout and the shift from wireline to wireless investments, are the primary considerations behind capex investments.
Richard Wiley, former FCC chairman and founder of Wiley Rein, is stepping down as chairman of the firm effective Jan. 1, Wiley Rein said Wednesday. Wiley is retiring from the firm’s executive committee, but will continue at the firm as chairman emeritus. Wiley has also headed the firm’s 80-attorney communications practice. Bert Rein, a specialist in antitrust and commercial law and the firm’s co-founder, is also leaving the executive committee and will become vice chairman emeritus, the firm said. Industry lawyers said the change isn't a surprise, at least within Wiley Rein, and that a succession plan had been in the works for a long time. Wiley was at the FCC 1970-1977, rising from general counsel to commissioner to chairman. There has been an orderly transition, starting with Peter Shields being named managing partner several years ago, Andrew Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Georgetown Institute for Public Representation, told us in an email. “Dick is unquestionably the most influential member of the private communications bar and, if anything, this change gives him more time to practice law. I don't see any sign that he is slowing down.” Kathleen Kirby, co-chair of the telecom, media and technology practice, and Kimberly Melvin, partner in the insurance practice, will replace Wiley and Rein on the executive committee.
The U.N.’s high-level meeting on its 10-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society outcomes (WSIS+10) concluded with the U.S. and allies praising an outcome document approved Wednesday at the U.N. meeting that reaffirmed international acceptance of the multistakeholder Internet governance model. Rhetoric from China in the midst of the WSIS+10 meeting indicates supporters of the multistakeholder model will continue to face challenges in 2016 in promoting that model to skeptical governments, stakeholders said in interviews. The WSIS+10 review was intended to evaluate progress on the original second-phase 2005 WSIS outcomes adopted in Tunis and decide how to make further progress.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his staff offered the U.S. perspective on net neutrality at a workshop that was part of last week’s plenary session of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), said outgoing BEREC Chairwoman Fátima Barros during a public briefing on the plenary Wednesday. The briefing was streamed from Brussels.
There have been many more party-line 3-2 votes at FCC meetings under FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler than under former Chairmen Kevin Martin and Julius Genachowski, a comparison of such votes shows. Using records on the FCC's website and in the Electronic Comment Filing System, Communications Daily tallied votes at FCC meetings in 2008, 2012 and 2014. It found that in 2014, the Wheeler-led commission approved items at FCC open meetings with a party-line vote 11 times, compared with two such votes under Martin in 2008 and just one under Genachowski in 2012.
Tech Freedom will appeal to the Supreme Court if it loses its challenges to the FCC net neutrality and broadband reclassification order at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, said Berin Szoka, president of the group, which intervened in the litigation. “I am chomping at the bit to get this case before the Supreme Court,” he said on a panel organized by Tech Freedom that had both critics and supporters of the order. Other critics, citing comments by three D.C. Circuit judges at Friday’s oral argument (see 1512040058), voiced hope the court would rule against the FCC on at least parts of its order.