The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a zoning board in Paramus, New Jersey, violated federal law in denying a wireless tower siting application jointly submitted by Sprint and T-Mobile, agreeing with the federal district court in the District of New Jersey. The "effective prohibition" of wireless service violated the Communications Act, the 3rd Circuit panel said in an April 20 opinion in case number 14-2954. A "significant gap in wireless coverage existed within the area presented, the monopole proposed would adequately fill that gap, and [the carriers] had adequately considered alternative sites before arriving at the ones proposed." A distributed antenna system would be insufficient because it would be susceptible to outages, less flexible and cover a smaller gap, the court said. The wireless carriers don't bear the burden of proving that every potential alternative is unavailable, it said. The zoning board's denial of Sprint and T-Mobile's zoning variance violated the act's “effective prohibition” language, and wasn't based on “substantial evidence” required by the act and Municipal Land Use Law, so the 3rd Circuit affirmed the District Court. T-Mobile had urged the 3rd Circuit to affirm, in all respects, the lower court's judgment, Wiley Rein said Wednesday.
CTIA, NCTA and the American Cable Association filed legal challenges Tuesday to the FCC’s net neutrality rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The appeals weren't a surprise -- industry officials had predicted the trade associations would largely carry the load this time around (see 1503300055). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is the former president of both NCTA and CTIA. Wheeler defended the order Tuesday in a speech to the Broadband Communities Summit in Austin (see 1504140045).
The FCC net neutrality order is to be published in the Federal Register Monday. That means the FCC will know soon which major players will challenge the order in court, industry officials said Friday. CTIA, USTelecom and possibly NCTA are expected to lead the charge against the order, which reclassifies broadband as a Title II service under the Communications Act (see 1503300055).
Beyond the usual difficulty in getting the Supreme Court to take a case, petitions (see 1504080050) seeking review of the 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order (see 1405270045) face some obstacles, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and other telecom attorneys told us. U.S. Cellular’s argument that the net neutrality order adds to the urgency to deal with the agency’s Telecommunications Act 706 authority through the Universal Service Fund/ICC case is unlikely to move justices, they said.
Fletcher Heald hires David Janet, ex-own law practice, as member, and promotes to member Davina Sashkin, Tony Lee and Cheng-Yi Liu ... Cablevision promotes Matthew Grover to senior vice president-sales operations and commercial sales ... Interactive Telecom Solutions hires Kevin Errity, ex-Windstream, as senior vice president-sales and operations ... Media General names Julio Marenghi, ex-District Six Media Consulting, chief revenue officer-broadcast operations ... Wiley Rein's McBee Strategic Consulting hires Erin Neal, ex-Orbital ATK, as executive vice president-advocacy unit ... American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers hires Alice Kim, ex-DigiConsult, as executive vice president-chief strategy & development officer ... Consumer Reports hires Jason Fox, ex-Reuters, as vice president-digital ... Concurrent hires Clay McCreery, ex-Arris, as senior vice president-worldwide sales and service ... RingCentral names to board Mike Kourey, ex-Khosla Ventures, as David Weiden, Khosla Ventures, resigns from board ... Lobbyist registration: VMware, registering on behalf of itself, effective April 1.
The FCC’s net neutrality order released last month asserts FCC authority over IP addresses and could give the FCC authority over ICANN and the domain name system, Fred Campbell, executive director of the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology, said Friday in a blog post. Campbell, former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau, raised an issue that first surfaced when the order was released March 12 (see 1503120053).
The FCC’s IP transition rulemaking (see 1411210037) is causing a debate over the bounds of Communications Act Section 214 discontinuance regulations, with critics saying in interviews Thursday the policies would stretch the way they’ve been seen and used as the agency deals with industry changes.
With the expected growth of the IoT, there will be a continuing demand for spectrum, which fuels innovation, wireless and broadcast lawyers said at an emerging technologies symposium in Washington. The symposium, sponsored by Catholic University’s Communications Law Program, focused on how networks will support IoT and regulation of devices and the data they collect.
Netflix adds Anne Sweeney, Disney-ABC TV, and Brad Smith, Microsoft, to board ... Comcast promotions include: to executive vice president Charlie Herrin, customer experience, and Matthew Strauss, also to general manager-video services; to senior vice president Clem Cheng, human resources, sales and marketing, Daniel Herscovici, also to general manager-Xfinity Home, Jan Hofmeyr, for X1 platform, Bridget Kimball, software development & engineering, Rick Rioboli, Comcast metadata products and search services, Sherita Ceasar, national video deployment engineering, Michael Brady, state regulatory affairs, Klayton Fennell and Rick Smotkin, government affairs, and Kathryn Koles and David Marcus, both also deputy general counsel; and to vice president Juan Otero, federal government affairs, Matthew Fradin and Derek Squire, also to senior deputy general counsels, and Mark Dellinger, strategic intellectual property ... CEA President Gary Shapiro, NAB President Gordon Smith and NCTA President Michael Powell to participate in "Future of TV Super Panel," moderated by Wiley Rein Chairman Dick Wiley, at ATSC Broadcast Television Conference May 14, Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington ... Communications Sales & Leasing hires Mark Wallace, ex-Fortress Investment Group, as senior vice president-chief financial officer and treasurer.
Wiley Rein is laying off 18 partners, 18 secretaries and 12 administrative support staff, according to a news release from the firm. The move was part of a “strategic plan” and a response to “changes in client demand in certain areas,” the firm said. The strategic plan was the outgrowth of a “year-long business review" launched in 2014, the firm said. “We needed to take steps to ensure our professional and staff resources were aligned with our strategic and practice area goals,” the release said. The firm's Telecommunications Practice was not impacted and "is doing great," a firm spokeswoman told us.