Adell Broadcasting will bring legal action against Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting if Mission doesn’t accept the FCC’s conditions for approving Mission’s proposed $75 million buy of Adell’s WADL Mount Clemens, Michigan (see 2404240070), Adell CEO Kevin Adell told us in an interview Tuesday.
Worldwide spending on telecom and pay-TV services reached $1.5 trillion in 2023, up 2.1% over 2022, but slower growth is expected this year, according to the IDC Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker. IDC projected an increase of 1.4% in 2024. “The progress of the global market slowed during the latter half of 2023,” IDC said: “This deceleration primarily resulted from slower-than-anticipated progress in the Americas, where a combination of sluggish economic growth, relatively high inflation, and saturated markets created an unfavorable environment for market development.” Growth was stronger in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where operators “were allowed by the regulators to increase their tariffs in line with inflation using a Consumer Price Index model,” the report said.
The FCC’s April 24 opposition to Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.Net's petition challenging the authority of the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. to withhold reimbursement of discounts for IT and broadband services that the companies provided to schools confirms that the petition should be granted, the petitioners’ reply said. It was filed Wednesday (docket 24-1027) at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Discounts on IT and broadband services come under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2404250028). The FCC calls the mandamus relief that the petitioners seek to force the reimbursements a drastic remedy that should be invoked only in extraordinary circumstances. In cases such as this, involving claims of unreasonable agency delay, mandamus is warranted only when delays are egregious, the agency said. But under “the first mandamus factor,” for a remedy in this case to be adequate, “it must enable the numerous schools in this case to complete their IT projects before the next school year,” said the petitioners’ reply. If the FCC doesn’t render a decision and provide funding before the summer, “many schools will be unable to move forward with vital IT projects and hundreds of students will be deprived next school year of the IT infrastructure necessary for a modern education,” it said. Compensatory relief after years of litigation, as the FCC suggested, doesn’t provide an adequate remedy that would prevent this harm to the public, “which after next year would become irreversible in the absence of immediate mandamus relief,” it said. The agency contends that in light of evidence showing that the petitioners may have had an improper relationship with the schools they were servicing, USAC investigated that possible misconduct, but expects those probes will be finished by the end of May. But that expectation “provides little solace when USAC lacks any authority to address the legal issues in this case and there is no time limit for an FCC decision,” said the petitioners’ reply. The agency’s opposition doesn’t indicate when the FCC will render a decision or whether the schools will receive funds before next school year, it said. Under the second mandamus factor, there’s a clear and indisputable right under Section 254 to the particular relief sought, it said. The Fifth Amendment also establishes a clear and indisputable right to due process, which required a “timely deprivation hearing” either before or after Essential and MetComm were deprived of their “statutory entitlement to reimbursement,” it said. The FCC has a “clear duty” to report its deprivation decision in writing, it said.
Pennsylvania lawmakers should reject a plan deregulating incumbent local exchange carriers, the state’s Consumer Advocate Patrick Cicero said Tuesday. Yet with two 7-4 party-line votes, majority Republicans on the Senate Communications Committee advanced a deregulation bill (SB-85) with an amendment that says the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission lacks VoIP and broadband authority. The Democratic minority -- which controls the governor’s office and has a slim House majority -- raised concerns that the bill would harm consumers.
Charter Communications sought New Hampshire conditions on Consolidated Communications' transfer of indirect ownership and control of its local subsidiaries to Condor Holdings, a subsidiary of private equity firm Searchlight. Charter didn’t oppose the deal but asked the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission for conditions related to wholesale intercarrier relationships. Statements from Consolidated and Condor about maintaining the status quo "are ultimately meaningless unless there is a specific minimum period of time that ensures the continuity of existing wholesale intercarrier relationships,” said Michael Scanlon, Charter vice president-circuit operations, in written testimony Friday (docket DT 23-103). First, the PUC should require that Consolidated "honor existing interconnection agreements and their terms, including those of any tariffs or pricing guides" for three years after the deal closes, the Charter official said. Second, force Consolidated to process "number ports so as to meet or exceed [PUC] and FCC porting requirements with at least the same level of quality and intervals as they did pre-Transaction,” he said. Third, require that the company use existing operations support and billing support systems for at least 36 months after the deal closes. "It should also maintain at least the same intervals, quality of service, accuracy, and flow-through,” Scanlon wrote. Additionally, still under the third proposed condition, Consolidated should agree that, before migrating away from any existing systems related to wholesale, it should file a plan for the state commission to seek comment on, then approve, delay or deny. If approved, the company should provide CLECs with training on the new system, the Charter official said. If the migration results in “significant negative impacts to wholesale providers occur due to the migration, CLECs should be able to seek Commission approval of payment by Petitioners of all documented costs directly related to the migration." Under a fourth proposed condition, the PUC should require the company to "sufficiently staff its wholesale customer support centers with adequately trained personnel dedicated exclusively to wholesale operations; maintain updated escalation procedures, contact lists, and account manager information; and assign a single point of contact to [Charter New Hampshire] to address interconnection agreements, systems, and other issues,” said Scanlon: And the company should agree not to recover any transaction or rebranding costs through wholesale rates.
Federal law doesn't preempt New York state’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA), the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Friday. In a 2-1 opinion, the court reversed the U.S. District Court for Eastern New York, which had barred the state from enforcing the 2021 Affordable Broadband Act (ABA). The ABA required $15 monthly plans providing 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for qualifying low-income households.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit should deny Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.Net's Feb. 14 petition challenging the authority of the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. to withhold reimbursement of discounts for IT and broadband services that the two companies provided to schools under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2402200044), said the FCC’s opposition Wednesday (docket 24-1027).
The Kentucky Public Service Commission should quicken ISP access to utility poles in response to a directive from the state legislature, said the Kentucky Broadband and Cable Association (KBCA) in comments Friday. Electric companies that own poles said they’re fine with existing Kentucky rules. More could be done to encourage negotiation and to ensure complete applications and timely payments by attachers, they allowed.
Privacy legislation proposed by Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has "no chance of passing," ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us last week. Cantwell said she supports the bill as written and is encouraged to see the House Commerce Committee moving toward a markup on the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA).
House Commerce Committee members on Thursday vowed to find a bipartisan solution for updating Communications Decency Act Section 230.