The FCC should act “in short order” to pause, effective June 30, 2014, reductions in intercarrier compensation rates for originating intrastate VoIP traffic, said National Exchange Carrier Association, NTCA and WTA in a Dec. 16 letter to the commission, posted in docket 10-90 Wednesday. The groups filed an emergency petition on July 7, seeking relief from the reductions, and argued they had been approved under the assumption that Connect America Fund reforms would be in place to offset the loss for smaller carriers (see 1409030031). If granted, the pause should remain in place until the USF reforms are enacted, the letter said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his staff have largely maintained radio silence in recent weeks on what’s next on net neutrality and such key questions as when the agency will take up an order or whether the commission will first seek specific comment on reclassifying broadband as a Title II Communications Act service with broad forbearance. Wheeler also has provided little guidance to the other commissioner offices, agency officials said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his staff have largely maintained radio silence in recent weeks on what’s next on net neutrality and such key questions as when the agency will take up an order or whether the commission will first seek specific comment on reclassifying broadband as a Title II Communications Act service with broad forbearance. Wheeler also has provided little guidance to the other commissioner offices, agency officials said.
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.