MetroPCS’s changes to its 4G service plans make clear why all FCC net neutrality rules should apply to wireless, Free Press said Tuesday. MetroPCS’s $40 per month service, unveiled Monday, allows Web browsing and use of YouTube, but appears to create a “walled garden,” excluding such popular services as Skype and Netflix, the group said.

A $1.2 million indecency fine against 44 ABC affiliates was vacated Tuesday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The decision cited a Supreme Court ruling sending back to the FCC its policy that fleetingly indecent content could be found indecent. The 2nd Circuit also revealed that it recently turned down a U.S. government request that the court rehear en banc its affirmance of its earlier Fox ruling (CD July 14 p1). That puts all eyes back on the Supreme Court, which the government is expected to ask to hear Fox, said advocates on both sides of the issue.

The FCC has fallen months behind its aggressive schedule for issuing follow-up orders to the National Broadband Plan. By the FCC’s latest count, 21 of 68 action items set up by the report remain incomplete. The agency has made “incremental progress” on two others, an agency spokesman said Friday. Two items which were scheduled to be wrapped up by the end of June remain on the FCC’s to-do list. Critics of the net neutrality order approved by the agency Dec. 21, including Republican Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, say the agency’s months’ long focus on that order is in part responsible for sometimes slow progress implementing the plan.

Legal challenges of FCC net neutrality rules appear all but certain, but where they will come from remains unclear. Verizon is the leading candidate, industry and FCC officials said. Other industry players, including mid-sized wireline-only carriers, also could challenge. Public interest groups who lost their fight to get the commission to reclassify broadband transmission under Title II of the Communications Act also appear to be considering an appeal.

Legal challenges of FCC net neutrality rules appear all but certain, but where they will come from remains unclear. Verizon is the leading candidate, industry and FCC officials said. Other industry players, including mid-sized wireline-only carriers, also could challenge. Public interest groups who lost their fight to get the commission to reclassify broadband transmission under Title II of the Communications Act also appear to be considering an appeal.

The FCC on Tuesday approved net neutrality rules under Title I of the Communications Act, over scathing dissents by Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker. Democrats Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn also lobbed criticisms at the rules, saying they do not go far enough. The vote, after weeks of negotiations and months of build-up, was anticlimactic, since Copps and Clyburn had announced Monday they would not oppose the order (CD Dec 21 p1).

The FCC on Tuesday approved net neutrality rules under Title I of the Communications Act, over scathing dissents by Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker. Democrats Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn also lobbed criticisms at the rules, saying they do not go far enough. The vote, after weeks of negotiations and months of build-up, was anticlimactic, since Copps and Clyburn had announced Monday they would not oppose the order.

The FCC on Tuesday approved net neutrality rules under Title I of the Communications Act, over scathing dissents by Republican Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker. Democrats Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn also lobbed criticisms at the rules, saying they do not go far enough. The vote, after weeks of negotiations and months of build-up, was anticlimactic, since Copps and Clyburn had announced Monday they would not oppose the order.

The posting of about 3,000 pages of documents in the FCC net neutrality docket, days before a vote on an order set for Tuesday, is unusual and not a good practice for any agency, said administrative law professors and former commissioners not involved in the policy debate. The Wireline Bureau posted about 2,000 pages Dec. 10 and 1,000 more Tuesday. The documents contain information that was publicly available, but not all of it had been filed in docket 09-191.

The posting of about 3,000 pages of documents in the FCC net neutrality docket, days before a vote on an order set for Tuesday, is unusual and not a good practice for any agency, said administrative law professors and former commissioners not involved in the policy debate. The Wireline Bureau posted about 2,000 pages Dec. 10 (CD Dec 11 p1) and 1,000 more Tuesday (CD Dec 15 p8). The documents contain information that was publicly available, but not all of it had been filed in docket 09-191.