USTelecom filed another appeal of the FCC’s net neutrality order, as expected, Monday, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to declare it “unlawful.” The commission’s “overreach is not only legally unsustainable” but “unwise given the enormous success of the commission’s [Communications Act] Title I approach for consumers, businesses and Internet entrepreneurs,” USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a statement. USTelecom and Alamo Broadband (see 1503230066) filed appeals March 23 in the D.C. and 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals respectively under a theory that a 10-day deadline for appeals to be eligible for a lottery to determine which circuit will hear the cases ended that day.
Pay-TV services, online video distributors (OVDs) and programmers don’t agree on whether an FCC proposal to adjust the meaning of the term multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) to include over-the-top (OTT) video providers is good for online video, according to reply comments filed Wednesday in docket 14-261. “No commenter has identified any evidence of a problem in the OTT ecosystem that could warrant regulatory intervention now,” said AT&T, echoing Amazon and MLB Advanced Media. Extending MVPD status to OVDs would “facilitate online providers’ ability to gain access to video programming and enable the Commission to address practices by programmers that stymie greater video competition,” countered Verizon, echoed by online TV service FilmOn and the Tennis Channel.
The FCC unanimously approved a notice of proposed rulemaking Thursday seeking comment on allowing broadcast designated market areas (DMAs) to be modified “to enable satellite subscribers to gain access to in-state news and other programming that they currently are unable to receive,” a commission news release said. The NPRM was triggered by Section 102 of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization, and though the NPRM merely seeks comment on how the rule should be implemented, STELAR requires the FCC to approve final rules by September, FCC officials said. Since a similar rule already exists for cable, the rule change is designed to create "regulatory parity between satellite and cable television providers,” the FCC release said.
Present members of the House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee unanimously accepted four bipartisan amendments during Wednesday’s markup of the Data Security and Breach Notification Act draft following last week’s hearing (see 1503180053). The Republican-led subcommittee declined to adopt any amendments proposed solely by Democratic members.
Disagreement over whether a future downloadable security platform should account for over-the-top (OTT) content, use CableCARD as a baseline, or take the form of an app dominated the second meeting of the congressionally mandated Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee (DSTAC) Tuesday. Formed under a provision of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization, the committee of representatives from companies, trade groups and public interest organizations appeared to be divided along lines going back to the CableCARD regime they're trying to replace.
A draft FCC rulemaking notice seeking comment on permitting modification of TV markets for satellite carriage is being watched closely by broadcasters, several broadcast attorneys told us. On the agenda for Thursday's FCC meeting, the NPRM seeks comment on how the FCC should implement Section 102 of the 2014 Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization. Though satellite industry officials told us they expect the measure to be noncontroversial, broadcast industry attorneys said the item has the potential to affect retransmission consent negotiations.
A central point the FCC makes to justify reclassifying broadband in the net neutrality order is the idea that times have changed in the decade since the agency classified cable as a telecom service. No longer do consumers think of Internet access as a combination of getting to the Web and services like Web browsing, but a way to get “access to everything on the Internet,” a senior agency official told reporters after the order’s release Thursday (see 1503120053). The official spoke on condition of not being identified.
AARP urged the FCC to go beyond its proposal to require at least eight hours of battery backup power and instead advocated providing at least 12 hours, while Public Knowledge went further and urged that the requirement be at least a week of power. Indicative of the gulf over the role the agency should play in the IP transition -- over a range of items in the tech transition rulemaking, including tougher discontinuation hurdles and greater assurances of last-mile special access by competitive carriers (see 1411210037) -- AT&T and Verizon opposed any new backup power requirements. Reply comments were due Monday night in docket 13-5 and posted Tuesday.
FCC staffers, in particular in the Enforcement Bureau, are expected to play a big role in determining what business practices are permissible under the commission’s new net neutrality rules. Provisions in the rules that leave decisions to staffers who otherwise don’t play a policy role at the commission are being questioned by net neutrality opponents.
Responding to calls by competitive carriers for an FCC tariff investigation into so-called special access “lock down” plans -- an investigation that an industry source told us Wednesday is anticipated -- Verizon defended the practice in a letter to the agency, calling the plans “pro-customer voluntary discount[s].” At issue are plans that offer discounted services in return for commitments by competitors to buy the access service for certain lengths of time or at certain volumes.