The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
US Supreme Court
The US Supreme Court issued an opinion addressing the issue of whether local authorities can deny wireless siting applications without providing the reason for denial in the written denial documents. The Court held that:
The case arose from a dispute between T-Mobile South and the City of Roswell, Georgia. The city denied T-Mobile's application to install a 108-foot cell tower, which would be disguised as a pine tree, on a 2.8-acre vacant parcel of property. Two days after the meeting, the city mailed T-Mobile a letter that stating that the application was denied but giving no reasons. The detailed written minutes of the hearing, were not approved and published by the City until 26 days later. T-Mobile filed a timely appeal. The district court found in favor of T-Mobile, but the ruling was reversed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. T-Mobile appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
FCC
The FCC announced the agenda for its Small Business & Emerging Technologies Conference and Tech Fair to be held on Tuesday, January 27, 2015. See the Regulatory Mix dated 12/9/14 The first panel, entitled “Who’s Investing in Minority Tech? Early Stage Investment Strategies” will begin at 9:30 am. The second panel, entitled “How to Grow Your Idea Into a Business. Entity Formation and Incubation” will start at 10:45 am. The third panel, entitled “How Did You Do That? Road-mapping Success” will start at 1:00 pm. The Technology Fair and Fast Pitch will start at 2:00pm, with networking from 5:00-6:00pm.