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
California
The PUC has issued a new schedule for the merger application of Comcast and Time Warner Cable. The schedule had been suspended pending the FCC’s decision regarding release of Highly Confidential information related to programming agreements. On November 4, 2014, the FCC denied the objection to release of the information and required access to the Highly Confidential information by November 12, 2014. The PUC’s revised schedule anticipates a final Decision in February 2015. Opening briefs are due December 1, 2014, reply briefs are due December 8, 2014, evidentiary hearings, if necessary, will be held December 10-11, 2015, and a proposed decision should be issued on January 12, 2015. A motion for evidentiary hearings must be filed no later than December 1, 2014. It must specify “in detail all alleged disputed material facts, explaining the relevance of such facts to the issues outlined in the scoping memo, stating the names of any proposed witnesses and providing an estimate of the time required for such hearings.”
The PUC will host the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services meeting on November 19, 2014. The Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services was convened in 1999 as part of the FCC’s ongoing efforts to ensure that advanced services are deployed as rapidly as possible to all in the U.S. The PUC said that the conference is will provide a “forum for ongoing dialogue among the FCC, state regulators, and local and regional entities regarding the deployment of advanced communications capabilities and related issues.”
FCC
The FCC announced the agenda for its November 21, 2014, Open Meeting. The agenda includes two items relating to technology transitions: (1) a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Declaratory Ruling, and Order to facilitate the transition to next generation networks by promoting and preserving the FCC’s public safety, consumer protection, and competition goals; and (2) a Policy Statement and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the FCC’s approach to 911 governance and proposing mechanisms to ensure continued accountability for reliable 911 services as technologies evolve. The agenda also includes a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to provide broadcasters greater flexibility in their disclosure of contest terms. In addition the FCC will hear a presentation regarding the 2014 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference.
