CPUC Opposes Stay in State USF Fight with T-Mobile

The U.S. District Court for Northern California shouldn’t stay its March 31 order denying preliminary injunction to T-Mobile in a state USF case, the California Public Utilities Commission said in its opposition Thursday (docket 3:23-cv-00483). After the court declined to stop the CPUC’s change to a connections-based contribution method, the carrier asked the district court for a stay pending its appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2304050009). T-Mobile and subsidiaries "present nothing new" in their motion to stay the court's March 31 order, said the CPUC. They “failed to show any flaw in the Court’s decision -- much less a basis for the extraordinary relief of a stay,” the agency said. "That they disagree with the Court’s conclusion is of no moment and does not amount to probable success or a substantial question on the merits.” T-Mobile hasn’t “come close” to showing “likely and actual irreparable harm during the pendency of appeal,” the CPUC added. But "reverting to the previous revenue-based surcharge would confuse consumers and the other telecommunications carriers that have been working to implement the new surcharge, and it would cost the Commission and those other carriers considerable time and resources.”