Incompas will hold a single annual trade show starting fall 2018, while shifting policy-oriented sessions from a traditional spring trade show to an expanded policy summit in Washington in the spring, said a release. It noted this year's Incompas Show is Oct. 15-17 in San Francisco, and the 2018 trade show also will be there.

Initial net neutrality comments were due Monday and major players weighed in, joining millions who had already filed. The FCC ultimately will have to address the filings, especially from groups like the Internet Association and major broadband ISPs. But industry officials said Monday the comments likely to get the most attention at the Ajit Pai FCC are those that offered hard data on the economic effects of Title II broadband reclassification and the 2015 rules.

Initial net neutrality comments were due Monday and major players weighed in, joining millions who had already filed. The FCC ultimately will have to address the filings, especially from groups like the Internet Association and major broadband ISPs. But industry officials said Monday the comments likely to get the most attention at the Ajit Pai FCC are those that offered hard data on the economic effects of Title II broadband reclassification and the 2015 rules.

The FCC and ILECs opposed a bid for a court stay of a business data service order that critics said unjustifiably deregulated monopoly ILEC services and will cause irreparable harm to BDS competitors and business consumers (see 1707050032). BT Americas, Incompas, Windstream and the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee "argue the Order 'removes price regulation,' 'abandon[s] rate regulation,' and 'almost totally deregulate[s] rates,' leaving them 'without remedy if BDS rates rise,'" said an FCC filing (in Pacer) Thursday opposing the parties' request for a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. "Those contentions are false. The Order only eliminates one form of regulation -- setting prices in advance through price cap tariffs. It leaves in place a robust regulatory regime that protects petitioners from unjust, unreasonable, or unlawfully discriminatory rates and terms." The decision to streamline BDS price regulation was based on a substantial record and reasonable analysis, said the FCC, which attached a July 10 Wireline Bureau denial of a request for an agency stay of the order (see 1707100028). AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom also opposed (in Pacer) the request for a court stay: The order "eliminates unnecessary regulatory burdens and spurs investment by modifying outmoded rules governing certain [BDS] offered by incumbent telephone companies over legacy technologies." The stay movants have asked the 8th Circuit to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit, which the agency and some ILECs also opposed.

The FCC and ILECs opposed a bid for a court stay of a business data service order that critics said unjustifiably deregulated monopoly ILEC services and will cause irreparable harm to BDS competitors and business consumers (see 1707050032). BT Americas, Incompas, Windstream and the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee "argue the Order 'removes price regulation,' 'abandon[s] rate regulation,' and 'almost totally deregulate[s] rates,' leaving them 'without remedy if BDS rates rise,'" said an FCC filing (in Pacer) Thursday opposing the parties' request for a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. "Those contentions are false. The Order only eliminates one form of regulation -- setting prices in advance through price cap tariffs. It leaves in place a robust regulatory regime that protects petitioners from unjust, unreasonable, or unlawfully discriminatory rates and terms." The decision to streamline BDS price regulation was based on a substantial record and reasonable analysis, said the FCC, which attached a July 10 Wireline Bureau denial of a request for an agency stay of the order (see 1707100028). AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom also opposed (in Pacer) the request for a court stay: The order "eliminates unnecessary regulatory burdens and spurs investment by modifying outmoded rules governing certain [BDS] offered by incumbent telephone companies over legacy technologies." The stay movants have asked the 8th Circuit to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit, which the agency and some ILECs also opposed.

FCC commissioners diverged on how to assess open internet public comments, and outside parties continued to disagree on the significance of Wednesday's net neutrality Day of Action (DOA) (see 1707120017). Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency will review all comments in the record and make a decision based on the law and other facts. The raw number of comments isn't as important as the substantive ones, he said at Thursday's news conference after the commission meeting. He declined to provide a timetable for action and said he didn't have any DOA conversations with participants. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said it would be "short-sighted" and "problematic" to ignore or discount individuals' comments. Docket 17-108 had 493,462 filings by late Thursday, bringing the cumulative total to 7,382,933 (after 797,577 were posted Wednesday, and over 400,000 both Monday and Tuesday). Pai said the agency's electronic comment filing system seemed to be holding up despite the crush of comments. Demand Progress, a DOA organizer, called the protest against FCC-proposed rollback of Title II net neutrality regulation a "historic day" that "broke records." It said Thursday that DOA sparked at least 2 million comments to the FCC (some of them apparently not yet posted) and over 5 million emails and phone calls to Congress, with "tens of millions" of people seeing protest messages online. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office joined the DOA "to sound the alarm about the FCC's attack on net neutrality" and ask for people's support. But FreedomWorks said: "The response, largely from companies greatly benefiting from so-called net neutrality, was unimpressive. The fundamental problem with their message is that it is laughable. The average user's Internet experience today is no different than in 2014. ... Net neutrality is a solution without a problem." NCTA CEO Michael Powell said in a piece also distributed on Medium, which took part in DOA, "the duplicity of big tech’s call to action is revealed by asking are they willing to subject themselves to government regulation to ensure the internet is neutral rather than skewed in favor of their pocketbooks." The Phoenix Center said broadband and telecom capital spending "is down significantly in 2016." Incompas unveiled a poll saying Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump back current net neutrality protections by a 3 to 1 margin.

FCC commissioners diverged on how to assess open internet public comments, and outside parties continued to disagree on the significance of Wednesday's net neutrality Day of Action (DOA) (see 1707120017). Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency will review all comments in the record and make a decision based on the law and other facts. The raw number of comments isn't as important as the substantive ones, he said at Thursday's news conference after the commission meeting. He declined to provide a timetable for action and said he didn't have any DOA conversations with participants. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said it would be "short-sighted" and "problematic" to ignore or discount individuals' comments. Docket 17-108 had 493,462 filings by late Thursday, bringing the cumulative total to 7,382,933 (after 797,577 were posted Wednesday, and over 400,000 both Monday and Tuesday). Pai said the agency's electronic comment filing system seemed to be holding up despite the crush of comments. Demand Progress, a DOA organizer, called the protest against FCC-proposed rollback of Title II net neutrality regulation a "historic day" that "broke records." It said Thursday that DOA sparked at least 2 million comments to the FCC (some of them apparently not yet posted) and over 5 million emails and phone calls to Congress, with "tens of millions" of people seeing protest messages online. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office joined the DOA "to sound the alarm about the FCC's attack on net neutrality" and ask for people's support. But FreedomWorks said: "The response, largely from companies greatly benefiting from so-called net neutrality, was unimpressive. The fundamental problem with their message is that it is laughable. The average user's Internet experience today is no different than in 2014. ... Net neutrality is a solution without a problem." NCTA CEO Michael Powell said in a piece also distributed on Medium, which took part in DOA, "the duplicity of big tech’s call to action is revealed by asking are they willing to subject themselves to government regulation to ensure the internet is neutral rather than skewed in favor of their pocketbooks." The Phoenix Center said broadband and telecom capital spending "is down significantly in 2016." Incompas unveiled a poll saying Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump back current net neutrality protections by a 3 to 1 margin.

Internet giants and others joined to oppose FCC plans to undo the 2015 net neutrality order reclassifying broadband providers as common carriers under Communications Act Title II. Day of Action (DOA) participants urged people to tell the commission and Congress to preserve net neutrality and an open internet, though edge companies didn't emphasize Title II (and ISPs opposed its use). Some doubted FCC Republicans would change course, but net neutrality advocates said the protest boosted resistance that complicates the rollback efforts and advances their cause.

Internet giants and others joined to oppose FCC plans to undo the 2015 net neutrality order reclassifying broadband providers as common carriers under Communications Act Title II. Day of Action (DOA) participants urged people to tell the commission and Congress to preserve net neutrality and an open internet, though edge companies didn't emphasize Title II (and ISPs opposed its use). Some doubted FCC Republicans would change course, but net neutrality advocates said the protest boosted resistance that complicates the rollback efforts and advances their cause.

FCC staff rejected a request for a regulatory stay of a business data service order, said a spokesman Monday, referring to a Wireline Bureau denial. Critics of the deregulatory BDS order that filed the request had said they would take FCC inaction as of June 30 as a denial. Last Monday, they filed for a court stay (see 1707050032), and Friday, they pressed the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit, which is reviewing an AT&T challenge to a 2016 BDS tariff investigation order. Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee, BT Americas, Granite Telecommunications, Incompas, Windstream and Sprint disputed opposition arguments of the FCC, Citizens Telecommunications and CenturyLink: that the two cases are unrelated, that the D.C. Circuit will dismiss (or remand) the AT&T tariff case, and Citizens' justification for 8th Circuit review. "The BDS Rate Order and BDS Tariff Order are as related as two agency decisions possibly can be," the critics replied (in Pacer) in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. "The Court should decline the opposing parties' invitation to prejudge the merits of the motions pending before the D.C. Circuit. And Citizens' explanation of why it chose to proceed in the Eighth Circuit merely reveals its motivation in this appeal: forum shopping."