{"id":87161,"date":"2010-04-12T20:47:42","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T12:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/fcc-fights-opposition-to-modernize-broadband-atc-policy\/"},"modified":"2010-04-12T20:47:42","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T12:47:42","slug":"fcc-fights-opposition-to-modernize-broadband-atc-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/fcc-fights-opposition-to-modernize-broadband-atc-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC Fights Opposition to Modernize Broadband, ATC Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>U.S. Federal Communications Commission<\/strong> (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski\u2019s efforts to modernize national broadcast and broadband policy have been met with strong resistance from U.S. telecom giants and an unfriendly U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., after legal efforts from Verizon and Comcast resulted in an appeals court challenge to the FCC\u2019s policy enforcement power, issued April 6.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In its ruling, the <strong>U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia<\/strong> stated that the FCC lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks. The appeals case stems from a 2008 legal challenge filed by <strong>Comcast<\/strong> against the FCC, after the commission banned the company from blocking its broadband subscribers from using file-sharing torrent Web sites. The court of appeal\u2019s decision set off a wave of panic in the satellite industry due to its implications over the FCC\u2019s National Broadband Plan, which aims to re-allocate ATC spectrum to maximize efficiency.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Attorney Owen Kurtin, founder and principal of <strong>The Vinland Group<\/strong>, said the court\u2019s ruling is a major blow to the FCC\u2019s broadband policy. The decision \u201cis a major affirmation of Internet backbone providers\u2019 rights to manage their networks as they see fit when not operating on a common carrier or cable operator-regulated basis. The FCC and the intervening parties may choose to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, where, in the last decade of local competition wars, the FCC at times fared better than it did before the D.C. Circuit. Absent that, the FCC\u2019s broadband policy and plans go back to the drawing board for a far less regulated treatment.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Kurtin said that Genachowski\u2019s pro-net neutrality stance, underscored by the National Broadband Plan, has caused political friction with the appeals court, which has favored a more hands-off regulatory approach. As an example, Kurtin points to the court\u2019s decision to overturn the FCC\u2019s authority banning Comcast\u2019s broadband management practices in 2008. \u201cThe D.C. circuit appeals court cited the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 2005 Brand X decision, which ruled that cable modem Internet service was an information service under the 1996 Telecommunications Act \u2026 The Court further found that other provisions of the Communications Act constituted \u2018statements of policy\u2019 that did not confer regulatory authority on the FCC or offer the necessary \u2018independent justification\u2019 for an assertion of ancillary authority under established case law, and rejected the FCC\u2019s assertion of an expansive interpretation of the ancillary authority power in favor of a restrictive one,\u201d said Kurtin.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Despite fears over the court\u2019s power to push back the National Broadband Plan, FCC International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre said that the decision \u201cshould not affect the National Broadband Plan,\u201d and that the FCC is sticking with its current timetable for its allocation of spectrum. &#8220;The major work on the ATC spectrum plans will start moving forward in roughly six months,&#8221; she said.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The FCC even moved forward and published its National Broadband Action Agenda April 8, which lays out its strategy to connect the entire United States with broadband services within a reasonable economic budget. <br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In a statement published with the agenda, Genachowski aimed to alleviate fears and reaffirm the commission\u2019s confidence that the plan will come to fruition. \u201cThe court decision earlier this week does not change our broadband policy goals or the ultimate authority of the FCC to act to achieve those goals. The court did not question the FCC\u2019s goals; it merely invalidated one technical, legal mechanism for broadband policy chosen by prior commissions. \u2026 It is essential that the Commission act on this roadmap to protect America\u2019s global competitiveness and help deliver the extraordinary benefits of broadband to all Americans.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; De La Torre emphasized the FCC\u2019s policy goals for 2010. \u201cThe FCC is working to both create and promote business competition in the U.S. satellite and telecoms market while maintaining America\u2019s leadership in the international community. We\u2019re also working to streamline spectrum allocation processes and to come up with more innovative ways to use that spectrum. Our broadband policy has been beneficial for companies like Hughes and WildBlue, which have grown their subscriber base tremendously. As evidence, we can look at the remarkable rate at which the U.S. satellite industry itself has grown since 2004,\u201d she said.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Broadband Plan extends beyond connectivity to the home to civil service uses such as healthcare and education. De La Torre said the commission has congressional support because of its emphasis on improving the economy, but despite the optimism, some telecom executives have made it clear that they would prefer to maintain their market position and have the FCC stay out of their business practices. <br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; During a speech given to the Council on Foreign Relations, <strong>Verizon<\/strong> Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg shared his thoughts on the FCC\u2019s proposed ATC spectrum allocation. \u201cMy reaction is going to surprise you. I don\u2019t think the FCC should tinker with this. I think the market\u2019s going to settle this. So in the long term, if we can\u2019t show that we have applications and services to utilize that spectrum better than the broadcasters, then the broadcasters will keep the spectrum. \u2026 Cable companies have bought spectrum over the last 10 or 15 years that\u2019s been lying fallow. They haven\u2019t been using it, so here, the FCC is out running around looking for new sources of spectrum, and we\u2019ve got probably 150 megahertz of spectrum sitting out there that people own that aren\u2019t being built on. I don\u2019t get that. This annoys me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski\u2019s efforts to modernize national broadcast and broadband policy have been met with strong resistance from U.S. telecom giants and an unfriendly U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., after legal efforts from Verizon and Comcast resulted in an appeals court challenge to the FCC\u2019s policy enforcement power, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}