The press is buzzing with news, leaked late yesterday and announced today in a document entitled The Third Way: A Narrowly Tailored Broadband Framework, that FCC Chairman Genachowski is proposing to reclassify the transmission component of broadband Internet access as a “telecommunications service” subject to FCC regulation. As almost everyone…
For those tired of having their dinner conversations interrupted by others’ cell phone calls, or watching movies in a theater by the light coming off the screens of nearby texters, technology has provided a solution. Unfortunately it is illegal. In a recent decision, the FCC fined a company called Phonejammer.com…
Comments are due by March 1, 2010 and Reply Comments are due March 30, 2010 to the FCC’s proceeding to implement national emergency alert testing at least once a year and to collect station data from such tests. In a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) concerning updating of…
December 2009 Earlier this week, the FCC released a Public Notice seeking “specific data on the use of spectrum currently licensed to broadcast television stations.” According to the Public Notice, in other proceedings related to the FCC’s development of a National Broadband Plan some commenters “have expressed concern that the…
December 2009 Today, the FCC released a Public Notice announcing that as of December 9, 2009, the new FCC Form 323 will become available online in the FCC’s CDBS filing system. Additionally, the FCC announced the availability of a “Special Use FRN” option in reporting attributable interest holders on the…
9/10/2009 On September 8, 2009, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the Department Treasury and the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) of the Department of Commerce issued final rules in the Federal Register amending the Cuba Sanctions program and the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to increase the…
8/4/2009 Practitioner comment on T-Mobile USA, Inc. v. City of Anacortes (No 08-35493, slip op. (9th Cir. July 20, 2009), available at 2009 WL 2138980). The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (“TCA”) was enacted with goals that were at once complementary and contradictory–to increase competition and facilitate rapid deployment of new…
4/16/2009 Upcoming Deadlines FCC Form 499-Q is Due by May 1, 2009 All providers of interstate telecommunications within the United States, with limited exceptions, must file a FCC Form 499-Q Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet by May 1, 2009 containing revenue information for January 1 through March 31 and projections for July…
January 2009: Upcoming Deadlines FCC Form 499-Q is Due by February 1, 2009 Customer Proprietary Network Information Certification is Due by March 1, 2009 Enforcement Matters: Telecommunications Carrier Enters Into $10,080,600 Consent Decree for CPNI and Universal Service Fund Violations Telecommunications Carrier Found Apparently Liable for More than $650,000 for…
December 2008 On December 2, 2008, the FCC extended the reply comment date in its sweeping Universal Service Fund (“USF”) Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “FNPRM”) until December 22, 2008. USF is an almost $7 billion program overseen by the FCC that promotes the availability of affordable telecommunications services…