lojlaw

On September 17, 2012, the Federal Communications Commission agreed to forbear from applying Section 652(b) of the Communications Act, which generally prohibits cable operators and their affiliates from owning more than a 10 percent financial interest, or any management interest, in any competitive local exchange …

On August 22, 2012, the FCC released a Report and Order suspending its rules that permitted automatic grants of price deregulation to incumbent LECs offering special access services.  The FCC also committed to release by October 22, 2012 a comprehensive data collection order seeking special …

On August 16, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a consent decree with Verizon and SpectrumCo, a joint venture of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications.  The transaction, if approved by the FCC and the court, allows Verizon Wireless to …

On July 11, 2012, the Tenth Circuit “provisionally denied” the FCC’s motion to hold in abeyance the many challenges to the FCC’s November 2011 USF/ICC Transformation Order.  The FCC had argued that issues raised by petitions for reconsideration pending at the Commission substantially overlapped with …

On June 21, 2012, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision overturning FCC orders finding broadcasts by ABC and Fox to be indecent, based on the FCC’s failure to provide Fox or ABC fair notice of the indecency standards applied against them. The case, …

On June 14, President Obama signed Executive Order 13616, entitled Accelerating Broadband Infrastructure Deployment. The EO announces a policy that broadband access is essential to the nation’s competitiveness and public safety, and mandates several actions to promote broadband infrastructure deployment.
The EO includes “Dig Once” requirements …

The FCC’s Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) seeking comments on ways to reform how contributions to the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) are assessed was adopted on April 27, 2012. Proposing efficiency, fairness, and sustainability as its goals, the FNPRM seeks input on what …

L2Networks Corp., a competitive ISP, VoIP, and IPTV provider, issued a press release on May 22, 2012, stating that it has filed the first formal complaint with the FCC under rules adopted in the FCC’s December 2010 Open Internet Order. The complaint was filed against …

The FCC has imposed a temporary cap on most Universal Service Fund (“USF”) payments to competitive eligible telecommunications carriers (“CETCs”) operating in rural areas, most of which are wireless carriers. Support is capped at the levels in place as of March 2008, and support for …

The FCC has adopted a Report and Order (“Order”) to further protect against placement of unauthorized charges on a customer’s telephone bill (“cramming”).  The FCC simultaneously issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“FNPRM”) seeking input on additional cramming protections.
The Order finds that while there …