The FCC shouldn’t hold back zero-rating services, which don’t count toward consumer wireless data limits, those on a Mobile Future panel said on a webinar Friday. Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council CEO Kim Keenan said intervention would be "chilling and devastating to consumer freedom and empowerment." Zero rating is important for connecting low-income and minority communities, she said. "There are a lot of people who are cost challenged and they can't just buy unlimited data.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at first praised zero rating, but has become more skeptical, she said. But the commission should wait and see what happens, intervening on a case-by-case basis if only there are bad actors, Keenan said. Panelists also supported sponsored data, where companies pay for a free-data service. It’s not a net neutrality problem, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. A smaller company could set a smaller budget for their sponsored data campaign, and it’s “not something that’s a huge capital expenditure to participate in,” he said.
Small carriers bemoaned the shrinking number of states paying 911 wireless cost recovery to carriers. After Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) signed a bill Aug. 10 to end compensation for wireless carriers’ 911 costs, we could find only nine other states' with laws requiring annual payments. Delaware said it will use the saved money to fund 911 systems, but the Competitive Carriers Association said ending wireless cost recovery is an example of fee diversion. National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes urged states to seek carrier transparency on 911 costs and to consider reducing payments with depreciation. The money adds up to millions of dollars annually.
AUSTIN -- “It’s really a small minority” of communities making it tough for the wireless industry to install small cells for 5G, said a Wireless Infrastructure Association official Thursday at the NATOA conference. He, CTIA and Mobilitie officials said industry wants a dialogue with local governments as companies roll out tens of thousands of 5G small cells. Throughout the conference, local officials and attorneys objected to the tone of recent comments by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler about speeding local siting of small cells, with some warning attendees to be worried about possible commission action.
AUSTIN -- The cable franchise process can’t stay the same for long given convergence and new technologies, said a cable official and attorneys on local government issues Wednesday at the NATOA conference. Congress could take on the issue in a rewrite of the Communications Act, but local government officials shouldn’t count on quick federal action, they said. NCTA supports a rewrite, Deputy General Counsel Michael Schooler said in a keynote.
AUSTIN -- AT&T continued to oppose one-touch, make-ready policies Wednesday after the Nashville Metro Council Tuesday gave final OK to the pole-attachments policy aimed at speeding Google Fiber rollout. AT&T previously sued Louisville, Kentucky, for passing a one-touch policy (see 1602260043), and council members and a Google official predicted AT&T litigation before the vote.
AUSTIN -- Federal government should support local efforts to close the “homework gap,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday at the NATOA annual conference. She urged tweaking E-rate to support connected school buses, federal grants for library Wi-Fi hot spot lending, and creating a federal clearinghouse for sharing these and other local ideas. “I don’t think all good ideas come from Washington,” she said.
Cities may consider aesthetics when assessing telco pole attachment applications, a state appeals court said. In a published opinion Thursday, the California Court of Appeal for the First District rejected a challenge by T-Mobile, Crown Castle and ExteNet Systems to a San Francisco ordinance meant to stop installation of telecom equipment that would diminish the city's beauty. The telecom companies said state law pre-empts the ordinance, but the appeals court disagreed. The companies are mistaken that local government has no authority to regulate installations unless specifically authorized by statute, the court said. Local governments can't bar telcos from installing equipment in public right of way, nor may they charge franchise fees, the court said. "But section 7901 does not grant telephone corporations unlimited rights to install their equipment within the right-of-way." The state statute allows companies to install equipment so long as it doesn't "incommode the public use of the road or highway or interrupt the navigation of the waters," but the companies and the city differed on how to define “incommode.” Telcos interpret it to mean only physical obstruction of travel, while the city said the dictionary definition is broader and includes discomfort and disturbance beyond blockage. The court agreed with a definition by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2009 case, Sprint v. City of Palos Verdes, which found no conflict between California law and a city’s consideration of aesthetics. The 9th Circuit defined “incommode” as “to unreasonably subject the public use to inconvenience or discomfort; to unreasonably trouble, annoy, molest, embarrass, inconvenience; to unreasonably hinder, impede, or obstruct the public use.” The telecom companies and the city didn’t comment. The FCC is mulling rules to ease small-cell siting and the wireless industry is asking states to streamline siting rules (see 1609080074).
Colorado residents seeking better internet access in more than five Colorado counties can vote in November on opting out of a 2005 state restriction on municipal broadband, a counties association official told us. The counties seek to join a growing number of local governments in the state that have opted out of a Colorado law known as Senate Bill 152. While communities have easily won opt-out votes recently, some seek to repeal the law in the next legislative session in January.
New York City officials said Verizon defaulted on a contract to make Fios available to all its residents. The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) sent Verizon a notice of default for failing to meet franchise obligations. Philadelphia officials also have raised concerns about Verizon meeting franchise obligations for the fiber network.
A CenturyLink petition for deregulation in Minnesota attracted CLEC interest, not alarm. The Public Utilities Commission held oral argument Tuesday on whether the telco filed enough information to decide on the deregulation request. Meanwhile in Maine, deregulation of another ILEC, FairPoint Communications, is under way. That state’s commission may soon decide how to respond to FairPoint failures to meet service quality standards in several recent quarters, a PUC spokesman said.