Commissioner Mike O’Rielly urged the FCC to “take a step back” from its work on new net neutrality rules because “Congress is actively working” on legislation that would address the issue. “There is absolutely no reason why the commission needs to rush” to write new net neutrality rules, O’Rielly said Wednesday during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. “There is still no evidence of a market failure or harm to consumers. There are no pending claims of potential net neutrality violations.”
A partisan rift persisted and clouded prospects for net neutrality legislation Wednesday, which GOP lawmakers in both chambers began circulating in draft form last week. GOP leaders of the Commerce committees held two hearings on legislation they call a bipartisan compromise, spurring plentiful outcry from Democrats. The draft text would codify several net neutrality protections while limiting FCC authority under Communications Act Title II and Telecom Act Section 706. No Democrats have lent any backing, and many observers have guessed a White House veto of a partisan bill is likely.
If the FCC takes a Communications Act Title II net neutrality approach and opts not to forbear from Sections 201 and 202, it should, at most, rely on the sections only to provide additional authority for transparency, no-blocking, and antidiscrimination rules, CEO Michael Powell and other NCTA officials told agency General Counsel Jonathan Sallet, Philip Verveer, senior counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and other officials Monday, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-28. Applying Sections 201 and 202 beyond what’s needed to enforce net neutrality rules “would expose broadband providers to the investment-reducing and innovation-chilling risks that have sparked vehement opposition to reclassification,” NCTA said. It’s “particularly important to forbear from enforcing Section 201(b),” the filing said, because “the directive to ensure that all ‘charges’ and ‘practices’ are ‘just and reasonable’ would subject every aspect of a broadband provider’s business to regulatory second guessing and micromanagement.” President Barack Obama’s call, while endorsing reclassification, to forbear from rate regulation “cannot be accomplished without forbearing from Section 201(b) -- as that provision is the primary source of statutory authority for the FCC to engage in rate regulation,” NCTA said. The association stressed it continues to oppose reclassification, and wants forbearance from all requirements if the commission adopts the Title II approach. Forbearance also should be done concurrent with any approval of reclassification, NCTA said. Calls by some to suspend sections of Title II, while the commission decides whether to forbear from them, “would deprive industry participants of much-needed regulatory certainty,” NCTA said. Also attending the meetings were James Assey, executive vice president; Rick Chessen, senior vice president-law and regulatory policy; Steven Morris, associate general counsel; Latham Watkins’ Matthew Murchison and Matthew Brill; and members of the commission’s general counsel’s office and the Wireline and Wireless bureaus. NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield urged Sallet Monday not to forbear from Section 254 because it could block the agency’s ability to require broadband customers to begin contributing to the USF (see 1501120039), said an ex parte filing. Brendan Kasper, Vonage senior regulatory counsel, and Morgan Lewis’ Joshua Bobeck and William Wilhelm urged an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Monday not to forbear from Sections 201, 202 and 208, the company’s ex parte filing said. Vonage backed Google’s position to not forbear from Section 224, which gives broadband providers access to utility poles and other infrastructure needed for deployment (see 1412310041).
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler may be moving toward basing net neutrality rules on Title II (see 1501070054), but how he goes about it has become intertwined with another controversial issue -- whether to require broadband customers to begin paying into the USF. If the FCC approves reclassification, and forbearance from Section 254, the agency could block its own ability to require broadband to contribute to the fund, an NTCA official told us. The group made the case to the agency last week. ITTA, which like NTCA has called for requiring broadband providers to begin contributing to the fund, also opposes forbearing from the section, said ITTA President Genny Morelli in an interview.
Republicans will have more House Commerce Committee muscle as they attempt a Communications Act overhaul this year, with new members from both parties eager to dig into the issues and showing telecom expertise. Net neutrality also will be a major political focal point, with legislation likely on deck at least in the Senate (see 1412310033) and House lawmakers planning an FCC oversight hearing on net neutrality early in 2015.
The FCC is seeing some of its deepest divisions ever under Chairman Tom Wheeler, said longtime FCC observers and former agency officials. By one count, in the 14 months Wheeler has been chairman there have been 11 party line votes at meetings, which is more than during the previous 106 months before he took office.
The revolving door rotates freely in government public relations. At just one federal agency with about 1,700 total employees, at least 14 public relations experts and lawyers who advise on issues including PR came or left during the Obama administration. Careers of PR practitioners exiting the FCC since about Jan. 21, 2009, spanned the gamut. Some job changes resembled the traditional revolving door, with officials leaving for the industries their employer used to regulate, others were so-called reverse revolvers coming to the agency from entities that lobbied the FCC, while other career paths were less orthodox and don't fall under the revolving door rubric at all. That is according to Communications Daily Freedom of Information Act requests, other records and interviews with those who reviewed our database.
The FCC should act “in short order” to pause, effective June 30, 2014, reductions in intercarrier compensation rates for originating intrastate VoIP traffic, said National Exchange Carrier Association, NTCA and WTA in a Dec. 16 letter to the commission, posted in docket 10-90 Wednesday. The groups filed an emergency petition on July 7, seeking relief from the reductions, and argued they had been approved under the assumption that Connect America Fund reforms would be in place to offset the loss for smaller carriers (see 1409030031). If granted, the pause should remain in place until the USF reforms are enacted, the letter said.
The proposed USF contribution factor for Q1 2015 will be 16.8 percent, said the FCC Office of the Managing Director in a public notice Monday. It said the contribution factor will be deemed approved unless the commission takes action within 14 days after the release of Monday’s notice, and the Universal Service Administrative Co. will calculate USF contributions based on the contribution factor.
FairPoint Communications filed a motion for reconsideration with the Maine Public Utilities Commission Thursday over a Nov. 21 PUC ruling that the telco hadn’t adequately demonstrated its need for its requested $62.8 million subsidy from the state USF for supporting provider of last resort (POLR) service for 29,000 customers in the state. The PUC raised the POLR rate in May to $16.69 per month for residential users and $34.28 for businesses. FairPoint’s requested subsidy is estimated to require an additional $5 rate hike per cellphone bill. FairPoint said Thursday that it “has an unconditional obligation to provide service, but the Order refuses to fund the service because the Commission's preferred forward looking cost and embedded cost analyses failed to produce a result that was acceptable to the Commission.” Without the additional subsidy, the telco said it "is faced with at least another year sustaining tens of millions of dollars of losses to provide the service while the Commission and the Legislature toss this POLR funding ‘hot potato’ back and forth.”