In light of sweeping 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco, rulin...
In light of sweeping 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco, ruling that municipalities had “very limited and proscribed” role in regulating telecom services (CD May 1 p7), Portland, Ore., is abandoning efforts to address issue of imposing franchise fees…
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for cable modem services, city official said. Court had invalidated telecom ordinances of Auburn and more than dozen other Wash. cities on ground that federal law allowed “control over rights-of- way itself, not control over companies with facilities on rights- of-way.” City in Feb. had released draft telecom ordinance (CD Feb 7 p7) designed in part to stem loss of potential revenue from cable modem franchise fee following earlier 9th Circuit decision classifying cable-delivered Internet as telecom service. That was in response to incumbent cable provider AT&T’s insistence that it didn’t require telecom franchise for its high-speed Internet service in view of court ruling. Official said court in latest decision had held that federal law preempted requirements for fees unrelated to local cost of managing public rights-of-way, although city’s franchise process managed other aspects of how companies used rights-of-way. Cities are left in new world of telecom convergence without much guidance from federal law, he said, and although Portland “strongly disagreed” with court’s interpretation of federal law it didn’t want to get into costly litigation. “I imagine that cities in the 9th Circuit jurisdiction will give pause to proposals for new telecom regulations or laws,” official said.