ISPs will battle FCC reclassification of broadband service under Communications Act Title II in the courts, on Capitol Hill and possibly through pressure on a successor executive branch and FCC, Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso told us in an interview shortly after Thursday’s commission meeting (see 1502260043). The interview will be shown on C-SPAN's The Communicators. The FCC and the courts are likely to take “a long time” to resolve the likely challenges to net neutrality rules, Commisso said. Though he didn’t say Mediacom would sue over the new rules, he said it was a possibility and he was sure many entities would. The FCC’s open Internet order will create such a windfall for Washington attorneys that they’ll be able to take yearlong vacations, he told us.
The FCC’s focus on tough protections against online blocking and throttling and its current proceeding on extending multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) privileges to online video companies show that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is interested in the future of online video, said Dish Deputy General Counsel Jeffrey Blum at The Federalist Society's Telecommunications & Media Practice Group Future of Media conference Wednesday. Speakers at the event discussed the permutations of the over-the-top/MVPD notice of proposed rulemaking and the FCC’s looming net neutrality rulemaking, set for Thursday’s FCC meeting.
The FCC Media Bureau requested comments on a rulemaking on expanding to broadcast radio licensees, cable operators, satellite radio licensees and satellite TV providers the requirement for public inspection files to be posted on the commission's online database, the bureau said in a public notice Monday. Comments are due March 16, replies April 14.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn backed moving ahead with policies against incumbents imposing terms and conditions that pose obstacles to competitive carriers' ability to access the last mile to customers, as the agency sorts through special access data it's collected. Speaking at Comptel’s Policy and Innovation Policy Summit Tuesday, Clyburn said that receiving the special access data was significant for an agency that has wanted it for “many years.” The commission shouldn't “sit idly and wait” until the data analysis is completed later this year to act, she said. An NPRM tentatively concluded that terms and conditions that deter wholesale business competition shouldn't be allowed (see 1411210037).
Consumer and open source software advocates urged the Copyright Office to implement its proposed exemptions for Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201, which prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures. Parties filed comments Friday on proposed exemptions for 27 classes of goods under Section 1201, including 3D printers, audiovisual works and the unlocking of a number of electronic devices. The comments, which were due Friday, were made available Tuesday. It was the first round of comments within the CO's sixth triennial rulemaking process for Section 1201. Those comments were limited to parties in favor of such exemptions. Comments by those opposing the exemptions are due March 27. Comments by those who support or oppose specific proposals and neutral parties wishing to reply to other comments are due May 1.
Capitol Hill’s tools of FCC oversight and overhaul are piling up. Just as committee leaders announced investigations into White House influence over net neutrality (see 1502090049) and another lawmaker his intentions to reauthorize the agency formally (see 1502030039), Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced his more ambitious FCC process overhaul bill, which industry lobbyists have told us is likelier to move this Congress. A Senate Republican staffer also said there is interest in bringing the commissioners before the Commerce Committee in the weeks ahead.
NAB withdrew its appeal of the FCC’s requirement for broadcasters to upload public inspection files at the FCC. Public files include information about who bought political advertisements on behalf of which candidates and what time slots during a broadcasting ads appeared, said Dennis Wharton, NAB executive vice president-communications. Supporters of the requirement said the FCC still needs to enforce standardization of these files and create a standardized, searchable, sortable database.
Proposed new net neutrality rules based on classifying the Internet as a Title II utility under the Communications Act look like they'll disproportionately burden smaller cable operators and leave cable ISPs open to blocking by leaving out edge providers and content companies, officials at several cable companies and American Cable Association President Matt Polka said in interviews Wednesday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated in unveiling some details of the draft net neutrality order that day that forbearance will relieve many of the more burdensome aspects of Title II regulation (see 1502040055). But Polka said that might not immediately alleviate the rule's effect on cable operators. It also remains unclear how Title II rules will affect satellite broadband providers, industry officials said.
Whether the FCC will, or even should, broaden the definition of multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to include over-the-top (OTT) services, docket 14-261, is a "to be continued" situation, industry officials said Friday. The Aereo case posed the question whether OTT services should have access to TV programming, but it didn’t end with the Supreme Court’s ruling, they said at an FCBA event. Some said a net neutrality decision would affect the definition.
Cable and wireless industry leaders plan to throw their weight behind draft net neutrality legislation circulated Friday by top GOP lawmakers (see 1501160048), according to written testimony for congressional hearings on the topic Wednesday. Public Knowledge will say the draft raises a host of concerns and will untenably reduce FCC authority long-term. A senior House Democrat is expected to make the same point.