FCC handling of an OrbitCom forbearance petition elicited more re...
FCC handling of an OrbitCom forbearance petition elicited more reaction Thursday. The agency withheld the petition from public view for nearly a year after OrbitCom filed it (CD Aug 14 p1). Wednesday, an FCC spokesman said a draft order…
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on circulation denied the request “because the petition was so deficient on its face.” If that was so, the FCC should have acted sooner, said Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation, a think tank focused on deregulation and free-market policies. “That way, the petitioner, if it chose to do so, could have promptly refiled a beefed-up petition in an attempt to make its case,” he said. The FCC should reform the forbearance process “to prevent something going into effect without the commissioners actively voting on it,” said Dan Mitchell, legal vice president for the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. “While we're not familiar with all of the details surrounding the OrbitCom proceeding, it seems to demonstrate that the drop dead date in forbearance proceedings can be problematic.”