Today's Regulatory Mix: Court Upholds Most of FCC's Small Cell Orders, FCC Responds to Congress on COVID-19 Robocalls

Court Upholds Most of FCC’s Small Cell Orders

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the FCC’s 2018 Small Cell Orders (Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefings dated 8/22/18 and 10/24/18,) with the exception of the provision dealing with the authority of local governments in the area of aesthetic regulations. The panel vacated the portions of the order requiring that aesthetic regulations be “no more burdensome” than requirements applied to other infrastructure deployment, and the FCC’s requirement that all local aesthetic regulations be “objective,” and remanded them to the FCC. Among the provisions upheld by the Court were the rules for One-touch-make-ready, limiting the rates that municipalities can charge for reviewing small cell deployments, adopting shot clocks for acting on small cell applications and the ruling barring states and localities from adopting rules that prohibit the deployment of wireless infrastructure.

In response to the Court’s action, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued a statement saying:

“Today’s decision is a massive victory for U.S. leadership in 5G, our nation’s economy, and American consumers. The court rightly affirmed the FCC’s efforts to ensure that infrastructure deployment critical to 5G—a key part of our 5G FAST Plan—is not impeded by exorbitant fees imposed by state and local governments, undue delays in local permitting, and unreasonable barriers to pole access. The wind is at our backs: With the FCC’s infrastructure policies now ratified by the court, along with pathbreaking spectrum auctions concluded, ongoing, and to come, America is well-positioned to extend its global lead in 5G and American consumers will benefit from the next generation of wireless technologies and services.

“I want to thank FCC staff for their outstanding work in crafting this order and defending this action against short-sighted efforts by those seeking to obstruct 5G deployment. I also thank Commissioner Carr for his leadership on wireless infrastructure issues.”

Commissioner Carr also issued a statement, saying:

“I am pleased that the Ninth Circuit affirmed the wireless infrastructure reforms we adopted in September 2018. I thank the Commission staff who carefully crafted the order, and I congratulate the Office of General Counsel for their successful defense of our work.

“Small cells that power 5G were threatened by exorbitant fees and unnecessary delays—red tape that was tolerated when building macro towers but would have brought small cell deployment to a halt. The Commission wisely right-sized review to reflect new technology, and I’m proud that over the last two years our reforms have resulted in more small cell investment than ever before.

“Ultimately, the wireless infrastructure docket I’ve led is about 5G jobs, education, and healthcare—opportunities and services that we’ve valued all the more through the pandemic. Our sensible fee limits, shot clocks, and guardrails on approval already are making America home to the strongest 5G platform in the world. I’m glad that with today’s decision, the litigation is settled, and we can continue our pursuit of next-gen opportunities for all Americans.”

FCC Responds to Congress on COVID-19 Robocalls

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai released the texts of his response to Senators Hassan and Carper concerning the FCC’s efforts to curb robocall campaigns related to COVID-19-related fraud and scams. See the Regulatory Mix dated 7/1/20.  Among other things, he pointed to the FCC’s work with other federal agencies and the industry trace-back group that resulted in the successful blocking of such calls, See the Regulatory Mix dated 5/22/20 and 4/6/20,  the FCC’s own enforcement actions resulting in its largest-ever proposed forfeiture, See the Regulatory Mix dated 6/10/20 and the notable decrease in robocall complaints in recent months filed with both the FCC and FTC.

He also noted that the FCC had (1) launched the “COVID-19 Consumer Warnings and Safety Tips” webpage and released a Consumer Alert to increase awareness; (2) adopted rules allowing providers to block by default suspected malicious and illegal calls;  (3) selected the new private-led consortium to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls; (4) started a proceeding to address “one ring” scams; and (5) required implementation of STIR/SHAKEN.  Inteserra Briefing Service subscribers see Briefings dated 6/12/19, 4/1/20; 4/6/20; 7/1/20; and 7/23/20.

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related 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 an Inteserra Briefing.