Intervenors defended the FCC net neutrality order against petitions for rehearing a court panel's June ruling upholding the order. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit twice before disagreed with FCC net neutrality decisions and provided "valuable guidance" the agency "faithfully and correctly applied," said a joint response (in Pacer) Monday from Cogent Communications, Dish Network, Free Press, Incompas, Netflix, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and other intervenors in USTelecom v. FCC, No. 15-1063. Industry petitioners again attacked the rules even though the panel ruling doesn't conflict "with precedent or any issue of exceptional importance," they wrote. "As far as Intervenors can determine, this Court has not, in recent memory, ever granted rehearing to address such fact-bound and case-specific complaints." In another response (in Pacer), Full Service Network, which was denied in its challenge to FCC forbearance relief, asked the court to reconsider the panel ruling and precedents on which it relied. FSN said the ruling conflicted with other precedents and raised exceptional issues "because of the massive judicial expansion of agency authority inherent in that decision." Calling itself "the skunk at the party," FSN said the statute required the FCC to classify broadband as a telecom service under Title II of the Communications Act, but the commission decision to forbear from much ISP regulation was "unreasonable." The FCC and DOJ recently defended the order (see 1610030029).

Frontier, Sprint and Windstream proposed two modified FCC transition mechanisms for phasing in proposed price-cap reductions of legacy "TDM-based" business data services. The rivals said they had divergent interests but believed in "forging industry consensus" to help the commission revise its BDS framework. The FCC is considering placing a BDS draft order on its preliminary agenda Thursday for its Oct. 27 meeting, informed sources continue to tell us.

Frontier, Sprint and Windstream proposed two modified FCC transition mechanisms for phasing in proposed price-cap reductions of legacy "TDM-based" business data services. The rivals said they had divergent interests but believed in "forging industry consensus" to help the commission revise its BDS framework. The FCC is considering placing a BDS draft order on its preliminary agenda Thursday for its Oct. 27 meeting, informed sources continue to tell us.

Late removal of the FCC set-top order from commissioners' meeting agenda Thursday (see 1609290014) indicates Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel are relatively far from a compromise on what a final order should look like, industry and FCC officials told us. If the two sides were closer together, it's likely the meeting would have been delayed for hours instead of the item being delayed indefinitely, officials said. In the day or so before, a Democratic member of Congress who led a letter against the order (see 1609270048) lobbied Rosenworcel, while others lobbied her aide, filings show.

Late removal of the FCC set-top order from commissioners' meeting agenda Thursday (see 1609290014) indicates Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel are relatively far from a compromise on what a final order should look like, industry and FCC officials told us. If the two sides were closer together, it's likely the meeting would have been delayed for hours instead of the item being delayed indefinitely, officials said. In the day or so before, a Democratic member of Congress who led a letter against the order (see 1609270048) lobbied Rosenworcel, while others lobbied her aide, filings show.

Sprint and Verizon pushed business data service regulatory proposals, but cable companies, telcos and unions objected to them, in filings posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 16-143. Commissioners may consider BDS action at their Oct. 27 meeting, the tentative agenda for which is due for release Oct. 6. Sprint said the BDS joint proposals of Incompas and Verizon were the "best path" to ensure "non-competitive market conditions" don't hurt business customers and incumbent rivals, including wireless carriers rolling out 5G mobile broadband networks that need more backhaul. AT&T is engaged in an "eleventh-hour effort" to block changes and preserve its "lucrative dominance," said a Sprint filing, which included an extensive overview of "the overwhelming evidence in support" of the Incompas/Verizon framework and separate "backstop remedies." Verizon disputed Comcast arguments the cable company was a BDS "private carrier" (not a “common carrier”) and should be subject to different rules. Verizon said it backed exempting post-2006 Ethernet providers from proposed benchmark regulation. But NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox and Mediacom said the record showed BDS was "intensely competitive" and provided "no basis" for Incompas/Verizon regulatory proposals. In a meeting with staffers, they urged the FCC to adopt NCTA's proposal to regulate only where companies have market power. CenturyLink said Incompas/Verizon proposals would cut rates in BDS offerings below 50 Mbps and extend them to Ethernet services in noncompetitive areas through benchmark regulation affecting most price-cap ILECs except Verizon, which would see "little, if any, impact." The agency can justify "no more than minimal" reductions to DS1 and DS3 rates based on "X-factor" productivity analysis, said CenturyLink, which said regulation undercut 5G. Frontier Communications and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers urged the FCC not to impose "draconian" ILEC rate cuts that would threaten union jobs in favor of competitors that blocked organized labor and provided lower pay and benefits. Dorsey Hager, executive secretary of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, asked the FCC to revise proposals that are based on "data that is out of date." Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell disagreed that Incompas/Verizon proposals were a compromise, given their increasingly common wireless-oriented interests. Verizon would reap the benefits of lower BDS rates out of region but wouldn't have to lower its own Ethernet rates, he said in a commentary.

Sprint and Verizon pushed business data service regulatory proposals, but cable companies, telcos and unions objected to them, in filings posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 16-143. Commissioners may consider BDS action at their Oct. 27 meeting, the tentative agenda for which is due for release Oct. 6. Sprint said the BDS joint proposals of Incompas and Verizon were the "best path" to ensure "non-competitive market conditions" don't hurt business customers and incumbent rivals, including wireless carriers rolling out 5G mobile broadband networks that need more backhaul. AT&T is engaged in an "eleventh-hour effort" to block changes and preserve its "lucrative dominance," said a Sprint filing, which included an extensive overview of "the overwhelming evidence in support" of the Incompas/Verizon framework and separate "backstop remedies." Verizon disputed Comcast arguments the cable company was a BDS "private carrier" (not a “common carrier”) and should be subject to different rules. Verizon said it backed exempting post-2006 Ethernet providers from proposed benchmark regulation. But NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox and Mediacom said the record showed BDS was "intensely competitive" and provided "no basis" for Incompas/Verizon regulatory proposals. In a meeting with staffers, they urged the FCC to adopt NCTA's proposal to regulate only where companies have market power. CenturyLink said Incompas/Verizon proposals would cut rates in BDS offerings below 50 Mbps and extend them to Ethernet services in noncompetitive areas through benchmark regulation affecting most price-cap ILECs except Verizon, which would see "little, if any, impact." The agency can justify "no more than minimal" reductions to DS1 and DS3 rates based on "X-factor" productivity analysis, said CenturyLink, which said regulation undercut 5G. Frontier Communications and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers urged the FCC not to impose "draconian" ILEC rate cuts that would threaten union jobs in favor of competitors that blocked organized labor and provided lower pay and benefits. Dorsey Hager, executive secretary of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, asked the FCC to revise proposals that are based on "data that is out of date." Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell disagreed that Incompas/Verizon proposals were a compromise, given their increasingly common wireless-oriented interests. Verizon would reap the benefits of lower BDS rates out of region but wouldn't have to lower its own Ethernet rates, he said in a commentary.

Frontier Communications said wireline telcos could be harmed disproportionately if potential business data service regulation doesn't account for differences among carriers. A Frontier executive and a senior commission staffer agreed further industry talks on BDS proposals are desirable, but not much time remains for a broad agreement if commissioners act at their Oct. 27 meeting, as some expect (see 1609190064). Frontier, NCTA and others made new filings in docket 16-143 opposing BDS regulation proposals.

Frontier Communications said wireline telcos could be harmed disproportionately if potential business data service regulation doesn't account for differences among carriers. A Frontier executive and a senior commission staffer agreed further industry talks on BDS proposals are desirable, but not much time remains for a broad agreement if commissioners act at their Oct. 27 meeting, as some expect (see 1609190064). Frontier, NCTA and others made new filings in docket 16-143 opposing BDS regulation proposals.

Multichannel video programming distributors, programmers, tech companies and civil rights groups continued to lobby the FCC over the agency's set-top proposal until the beginning of the sunshine period Thursday evening, according to ex parte notices posted in docket 16-42 that day and Friday. Groups on both sides repeated their opposition or support for the draft item set for commissioner's coming Thursday meeting, T-Mobile announced support for the FCC plan, and a coalition of civil rights groups asked the FCC to delay the vote. Amazon proposed an alternative to the commission’s licensing plan that was raised by FCC officials in discussions with content companies, according to an ex parte filing.