PUC Disputes FCC Claim Pennsylvania Has Complete Ban on Muni Broadband
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) sought FCC clarification Thursday of an FCC official’s statement to the media during a Feb. 2 news briefing that Pennsylvania was one of three states that currently have full bans on municipal broadband deployment.…
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The FCC believes states that have full bans -- the FCC official said the others were Montana and Nebraska -- won’t be affected by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s draft order that would grant commission pre-emption of municipal broadband laws in North Carolina and Tennessee in response to petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga and Wilson, North Carolina. The order would directly approve only the Chattanooga and Wilson petitions, but could set a precedent guiding how the FCC proceeds on future petitions (see 1502020037). “It is incorrect to group Pennsylvania with other states that may have statutorily instituted a ‘complete ban’ on the deployment of municipal broadband networks,” the PUC said in a filing. Pennsylvania’s municipal broadband law gives ILECs the right of first refusal when a municipality seeks to deploy broadband rather than completely banning such deployments, the PUC said. If the ILEC or an affiliate doesn’t agree within two months to provide broadband at speeds requested by a municipality, then the municipality is free to deploy broadband, the PUC said. State law also exempts municipal broadband networks and telcos that were in operation before Jan. 1, 2006, the PUC said in docket 14-116. The question of whether the Pennsylvania law "is or is not a flat ban is one that would be reviewed if there is a pre-emption petition coming out of" Pennsylvania, an FCC spokesman said.