President Barack Obama’s statement in favor of broadband reclassification potentially weakened “perhaps significantly, the case for granting deference” to the FCC's ultimate decision on net neutrality, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May Thursday in a blog post on The Hill website. “The president's intervention politicized the agency's decision-making process in a way that may give a reviewing court considerable pause before granting any deference.”
President Barack Obama’s statement in favor of broadband reclassification potentially weakened “perhaps significantly, the case for granting deference” to the FCC's ultimate decision on net neutrality, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May Thursday in a blog post on The Hill website. “The president's intervention politicized the agency's decision-making process in a way that may give a reviewing court considerable pause before granting any deference.”
With a key public notice up for a vote at the FCC Thursday, Verizon has been absent at the commission on any aspect of the long-awaited TV incentive auction. Industry officials say Verizon’s lack of recent advocacy at the very least creates a question mark for the auction of highly desired low-band spectrum. While Verizon had been active at the commission the first half of the year, its last ex parte filing in docket 12-268, a key auction docket, was made June 13, records show.
Video streaming service Aereo has about $20 million in assets, including about $4.5 million in cash, and faces $4.2 million in liabilities, plus potential damage claims from broadcasters, the company said in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
A decision is likely on Monday on the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) schedule for reviewing the Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal and associated transactions, state participants in the review told us. California public interest groups have joined with the CPUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) in petitioning Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer to reconsider the review schedule he set earlier this month, which they view as too compressed to result in the thorough review the CPUC had planned. CPUC had earlier delayed its review in response to the FCC’s temporary pause of its own review in the case (see 1410140022). Another administrative law judge who had temporarily replaced Bemesderfer had ruled last month on the scope of ORA’s discovery requests for the review, but deferred to Bemesderfer on a revised schedule (see 1410170049). Comments on the ORA’s petition were due at the close of business Friday.
Video streaming service Aereo has about $20 million in assets, including about $4.5 million in cash, and faces $4.2 million in liabilities, plus potential damage claims from broadcasters, the company said in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
A decision is likely on Monday on the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) schedule for reviewing the Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal and associated transactions, state participants in the review told us. California public interest groups have joined with the CPUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) in petitioning Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer to reconsider the review schedule he set earlier this month, which they view as too compressed to result in the thorough review the CPUC had planned. CPUC had earlier delayed its review in response to the FCC’s temporary pause of its own review in the case (see 1410140022). Another administrative law judge who had temporarily replaced Bemesderfer had ruled last month on the scope of ORA’s discovery requests for the review, but deferred to Bemesderfer on a revised schedule (see 1410170049). Comments on the ORA’s petition were due at the close of business Friday.
Video streaming service Aereo has about $20 million in assets, including about $4.5 million in cash, and faces $4.2 million in liabilities, plus potential damage claims from broadcasters, the company said in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
The FCC requested more information from AT&T about its proposed takeover of DirecTV. The FCC wants data about AT&T’s current plans for fiber deployment, specifically the current number of households to which fiber is deployed, “and the breakdown by technology and geographic area of deployment,” the commission said Friday in a letter to Bob Quinn, senior vice president-federal regulatory. It requested a description of whether the AT&T fiber-to-the-premises investment model demonstrates that fiber deployment is now unprofitable, and asked for all documents concerning the company’s decision to limit its deployment of fiber to 2 million homes following the acquisition. “We are happy to respond to the questions posed by the FCC,” an AT&T spokesman said in a statement. “As we made clear earlier this week, we remain committed to our DirecTV merger-related build-out plans,” he said, referring to comments by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson that it would pause fiber deployment efforts not knowing under what rules that investment would be governed.
The FCC requested more information from AT&T about its proposed takeover of DirecTV. The FCC wants data about AT&T’s current plans for fiber deployment, specifically the current number of households to which fiber is deployed, “and the breakdown by technology and geographic area of deployment,” the commission said Friday in a letter to Bob Quinn, senior vice president-federal regulatory. It requested a description of whether the AT&T fiber-to-the-premises investment model demonstrates that fiber deployment is now unprofitable, and asked for all documents concerning the company’s decision to limit its deployment of fiber to 2 million homes following the acquisition. “We are happy to respond to the questions posed by the FCC,” an AT&T spokesman said in a statement. “As we made clear earlier this week, we remain committed to our DirecTV merger-related build-out plans,” he said, referring to comments by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson that it would pause fiber deployment efforts not knowing under what rules that investment would be governed.