Uncategorized

The Federal Communications Commission went beyond the bounds of regulating interstate telecommunications when it issued an order that preempted state restrictions on municipal broadband systems in Tennessee and North Carolina. That’s one of two core arguments that the state of Tennessee made yesterday as it rebutted the FCC’s defence of the order in a federal appeals court case…

The Order contains none of the hallmarks of interstate communications policy regulation; it is neither neutral nor generally applicable.

Responses from the states of Tennessee and North Carolina to the Federal Communication Commission’s defence of its preemption of their restrictions on municipal broadband are due later this week. My expectation is that they’ll gloss over most of the counter arguments offered by the FCC and several other groups that support the preemption, and reiterate their core point, which is that states have the traditional right to set limits on how, what and where cities may offer service of any sort, and current telecoms law doesn’t say otherwise.… More

Voters don’t have to stick to the story you give them.

Local governments are not private businesses and are not managed as if they were. That simple fact of life seems to be bothering the Federal Communications Commission. In its defence of its preemption of state restrictions on municipal broadband systems, filed with a federal appeals court, the FCC points to commonplace public disclosure, debate and voting requirements imposed by North Carolina as attempts to regulate interstate commerce rather than govern municipalities…

These include a requirement that the city hold public hearings and a special election.