public policy

People at the Federal Communications Commission might have leaned on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and the Puerto Rico Telephone Company to go shopping for sympathetic judges who would be more likely to bless its preemption of local ownership of streetlight poles and similar municipal assets. A letter sent by a pair of democratic congressmen – Frank Pallone (D – New Jersey) and Mike Doyle (D – Pennsylvania) – directs republican FCC chairman Ajit Pai to enlighten them on why the four wireless companies filed largely identical and completely ludicrous appeals of its September order…

It has come to our attention that certain individuals at the FCC may have urged companies to challenge the Order the Commission adopted in order to game the judicial lottery procedure and intimated the agency would look unfavorably towards entities that were not helpful.

The challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s September Order preempting local ownership and control of municipal property grinds on. The local governments and companies appealing the order, which strips cities and counties of ownership rights to streetlight poles and other such assets in the public right of way, filed brief statements –mediation questionnaires – with the San Francisco-based federal appeals court hearing the case yesterday.

Mobile companies are appealing the order because, they say, the FCC didn’t go far enough and give them everything they wanted.… More

The federal appeals court in San Francisco set 5 April 2019 as the filing date for opening briefs in the nine challenges it’s received, so far, to the Federal Communications Commission’s September order preempting municipal ownership of streetlight poles and other potential wireless assets in the public right of way.

The FCC will have a month to respond, then the challengers will have three weeks to file a final rebuttal. So it’ll be the end of May before all the opening arguments are on the table.… More

The Federal Communications Commission’s order preempting local ownership of streetlights and other municipal property in the public right of way is now active. What does it mean to cities? Nothing much, according to a court filing by the FCC…

The Order does not itself require localities to do anything, nor does it compel approval of any particular siting request; it simply articulates standards for courts to apply if and when they are confronted with any future siting disputes that might eventually arise…nor does it prevent localities from recovering all of their actual and reasonable costs…

The Order’s safe harbor for recurring fees up to $270 per small cell per year is not a “limit o[n] compensation” above that amount, as Movants wrongly assert; rather, the Order makes clear that localities may charge higher fees if a reasonable approximation of their costs exceeds that amount.

Update, 11 January 2019: the federal tenth circuit court of appeals denied a request by the City of San Jose and other cities to delay implementation of the FCC’s September preemption order. It is still scheduled to take effect on Monday.

The growing list of challenges to a Federal Communications Commission decision to preempt local ownership of streetlight poles and other municipal property located in the public right of way will be decided by the San Francisco-based ninth circuit federal appeals court.… More