A group of Capitol Hill Democrats defended the FCC set-top box rulemaking Thursday during a news conference featuring multiple officials affiliated with the Consumer Video Choice Coalition. Opponents of the NPRM, including the Future of TV Coalition, have been outspoken in recent weeks, with Democrats and Republicans outlining concerns and calling for pause.

A group of Capitol Hill Democrats defended the FCC set-top box rulemaking Thursday during a news conference featuring multiple officials affiliated with the Consumer Video Choice Coalition. Opponents of the NPRM, including the Future of TV Coalition, have been outspoken in recent weeks, with Democrats and Republicans outlining concerns and calling for pause.

DALLAS -- The FCC approach under Chairman Tom Wheeler to competition was attacked as a Telecommunications Industry Association conference was drawing to a close Wednesday. In what TIA CEO Scott Belcher billed as the only time the policy chiefs of the big three ISPs gathered on one stage simultaneously, two of those executives, from AT&T and Comcast, had harsh words for a variety of competition-related rules. And the third ISP policy chief, from Verizon, said Washington gets it wrong on some broadband customer take-up issues.

DALLAS -- The FCC approach under Chairman Tom Wheeler to competition was attacked as a Telecommunications Industry Association conference was drawing to a close Wednesday. In what TIA CEO Scott Belcher billed as the only time the policy chiefs of the big three ISPs gathered on one stage simultaneously, two of those executives, from AT&T and Comcast, had harsh words for a variety of competition-related rules. And the third ISP policy chief, from Verizon, said Washington gets it wrong on some broadband customer take-up issues.

Incompas CEO Chip Pickering defended T-Mobile’s zero-rated Binge On program as within the spirit of net neutrality rules, in a letter Friday to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. T-Mobile is an Incompas member, and the letter said not all the group's members backed the filing. “INCOMPAS believes that Binge On supports and promotes your overriding policy objective -- the promotion of competition -- in the mobile broadband marketplace and the video marketplace as it allows consumers to explore more over-the-top video options on the go,” Pickering wrote. “Overwhelming consumer enthusiasm for Binge On shows just how much users benefit from the program.”

Incompas CEO Chip Pickering defended T-Mobile’s zero-rated Binge On program as within the spirit of net neutrality rules, in a letter Friday to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. T-Mobile is an Incompas member, and the letter said not all the group's members backed the filing. “INCOMPAS believes that Binge On supports and promotes your overriding policy objective -- the promotion of competition -- in the mobile broadband marketplace and the video marketplace as it allows consumers to explore more over-the-top video options on the go,” Pickering wrote. “Overwhelming consumer enthusiasm for Binge On shows just how much users benefit from the program.”

Some Capitol Hill Democrats may not resist a GOP House appropriations rider that would slow the FCC’s set-top box proceeding. House Republicans hitched the rider to the FY 2017 FCC funding bill unveiled last week. Some Democrats in both chambers oppose the language, but many also question the NPRM. Bipartisan and bicameral backing is widely seen as crucial for ensuring riders’ inclusion in any broader FY 2017 government funding package later this year.

Some Capitol Hill Democrats may not resist a GOP House appropriations rider that would slow the FCC’s set-top box proceeding. House Republicans hitched the rider to the FY 2017 FCC funding bill unveiled last week. Some Democrats in both chambers oppose the language, but many also question the NPRM. Bipartisan and bicameral backing is widely seen as crucial for ensuring riders’ inclusion in any broader FY 2017 government funding package later this year.

Opponents of extending comment dates in the business data service (BDS) proceeding "completely miss the mark," said an NCTA filing Friday in docket 05-25 urging an FCC extension. Suggestions there's a "high bar" to extensions are wrong, the cable group said, noting its finding that the commission granted 85 percent of recent extension requests. Sprint opposed NCTA's extension request Tuesday (see 1605180028) and joint opposition was filed Thursday by the Competitive Carriers Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Free Press, Incompas, New America's Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. NCTA disputed arguments that potential BDS regulation of cable has been within the scope of the proceeding since a 2012 Further NPRM. "The Commission captioned this proceeding 'Special Access for Price Cap Local Exchange Carriers' because it was considering changes to the rules that governed the rates for special access services provided by price cap local exchange carriers," NCTA said. It said the telco regulatory focus was consistent with FCC precedent under which new BDS entrants like cable are considered nondominant and generally aren't subject to rate regulation. FCC data collection from cable didn't mean cable was being targeted for regulation, but that the data could assist telco regulation, the group said. NCTA also disputed opposition to an extension based on industry having access to the data for months, which it called irrelevant to resolving many of the issues raised in the recent FNPRM (see Ref:1604280057]. It also said it was "disingenuous" for Sprint to argue that no other party was concerned about the proceeding's complexity, when even supportive FCC commissioners voiced such concerns. "It seems the only parties unwilling to acknowledge the complex nature of this proceeding are the CLECs, who apparently will continue pushing for as much rate regulation as possible, as quickly as possible, regardless of whether such regulation is warranted by the facts (like the fact that Sprint already has negotiated commercial Ethernet arrangements with cable operators and telephone companies that enable the company to cover 95 percent of the country)," NCTA said. Separately, CCA said that wireless industry ability to deploy 5G and IoT services depended on "fixing the broken BDS market" because of all the backhaul needed to connect tens of thousands of new cell sites.

Opponents of extending comment dates in the business data service (BDS) proceeding "completely miss the mark," said an NCTA filing Friday in docket 05-25 urging an FCC extension. Suggestions there's a "high bar" to extensions are wrong, the cable group said, noting its finding that the commission granted 85 percent of recent extension requests. Sprint opposed NCTA's extension request Tuesday (see 1605180028) and joint opposition was filed Thursday by the Competitive Carriers Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Free Press, Incompas, New America's Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. NCTA disputed arguments that potential BDS regulation of cable has been within the scope of the proceeding since a 2012 Further NPRM. "The Commission captioned this proceeding 'Special Access for Price Cap Local Exchange Carriers' because it was considering changes to the rules that governed the rates for special access services provided by price cap local exchange carriers," NCTA said. It said the telco regulatory focus was consistent with FCC precedent under which new BDS entrants like cable are considered nondominant and generally aren't subject to rate regulation. FCC data collection from cable didn't mean cable was being targeted for regulation, but that the data could assist telco regulation, the group said. NCTA also disputed opposition to an extension based on industry having access to the data for months, which it called irrelevant to resolving many of the issues raised in the recent FNPRM (see Ref:1604280057]. It also said it was "disingenuous" for Sprint to argue that no other party was concerned about the proceeding's complexity, when even supportive FCC commissioners voiced such concerns. "It seems the only parties unwilling to acknowledge the complex nature of this proceeding are the CLECs, who apparently will continue pushing for as much rate regulation as possible, as quickly as possible, regardless of whether such regulation is warranted by the facts (like the fact that Sprint already has negotiated commercial Ethernet arrangements with cable operators and telephone companies that enable the company to cover 95 percent of the country)," NCTA said. Separately, CCA said that wireless industry ability to deploy 5G and IoT services depended on "fixing the broken BDS market" because of all the backhaul needed to connect tens of thousands of new cell sites.