The FCC on Wednesday deleted all four major agenda items from Thursday's commissioner meeting. Those items were an order and Further NPRM on business data services, an order on a mobile fund Phase II, an NPRM on mobile roaming obligations and the regulatory classification of Voice over LTE, and a video description order. Also deleted was an Enforcement Bureau consent agenda item. All the items remain on circulation, said a commission notice. A Freedom of Information Act item from the general counsel apparently remains on the agenda.
Republicans may run the table on telecom policy over the coming years after emerging triumphant in Tuesday’s elections, scoring an unexpectedly strong showing that will yield control of the White House under GOP President-elect Donald Trump and a GOP majority in the Senate. And Trump already has his eyes on telecom. The Associated Press declared Trump the victor around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton privately conceded in a call to Trump. Some congressional races are still too close to call. The House, as expected, retained its Republican majority.
Less than a week since AT&T announced its $108.7 billion purchase of Time Warner, Congress scheduled its first oversight hearing on the deal. The Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee will hold an AT&T/Time Warner oversight hearing at 2 p.m. Dec. 7, a Republican aide told us Wednesday. Subcommittee leaders announced the desire to hold a hearing before the weekend was over, seen as especially rare speed during a recess period, Communications Daily reported Monday (see here).
Opposition to and criticism of AT&T's buying Time Warner have begun, including from some influential Democrats and Republicans, among them GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump on the campaign trail. That was even before any deal was announced. Confirmation came from the companies around 8 p.m. EDT Saturday, saying the transaction is worth $108.7 billion.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a business data service draft order Thursday to take "overdue steps to reform a long-broken regulatory regime" for BDS, the commission said Friday. "The Order strikes a balance between targeted regulation for legacy TDM (DS1 and DS3) services, where evidence of market power is strongest, and lighter-touch regulation of packet-based services, where there has been new entry and competition may be emerging," said an agency fact sheet. Communications Daily had reported that such an order was going to circulate Thursday, which would allow it to be possibly added to the agenda for the Oct. 27 meeting.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler shifted gears on ISP privacy, refocusing proposed rules on protecting only “sensitive” information, he confirmed in a blog post Thursday. The change was expected, and along the lines of what we had reported this week. Under his proposal, circulated for an Oct. 27 commissioner vote, ISPs would have to obtain opt-in consent before using or sharing sensitive information. The agency also issued a fact sheet.
Even as FCC commissioners began their monthly meeting sans the unlock-the-box order, the item remains on circulation and some parties tell us they're hopeful a version of an apps-based proposal ultimately will be adopted. After a flurry of lobbying by all affected parties as the sunshine period began last week, agency officials told us revisions to the order were in the works. All FCC Democratic members announced just before their meeting began at 10:30 a.m. Thursday they're working toward a resolution.
A federal court reversed FCC preemption of state limits on municipal broadband efforts to extend their systems to surrounding communities. The FCC 2015 order "essentially serves to re-allocate decision-making power between the states and their municipalities," said the ruling (in Pacer) Wednesday by a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (State of Tennessee; State of North Carolina v. FCC, Nos. 15-3291/3555). "This preemption by the FCC of the allocation of power between a state and its subdivisions requires at least a clear statement in the authorizing federal legislation. The FCC relies upon § 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for the authority to preempt in this case, but that statute falls far short of such a clear statement. The preemption order must accordingly be reversed," said the opinion by Judge John Rogers, who was joined by Judge Joseph Hood, with Judge Helene White concurring in part and dissenting in part.
A split panel of federal judges has upheld the FCC net neutrality order that reclassified broadband service under Title II of the Communications Act. In a 184-page document of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judges David Tatel and Sri Srinivasan wrote the majority opinion finding FCC arguments reasonable and denying all petitions for review of its order, while judge Stephen Williams dissented in part and concurred in part (USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler cheered the ruling, which Commissioner Ajit Pai said it disappointed him, and USTelecom had no immediate comment.
Federal judges denied petitions for review of the FCC net neutrality order "in accordance with the opinion of the court," in a per curiam judgment (in Pacer) Tuesday (USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063). The lengthy opinion (in Pacer) of the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was also released this morning. This opinion will be the subject of a forthcoming Communications Daily Bulletin this morning. The FCC order had reclassified broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. Officials at the FCC and USTelecom had no immediate comment.