By Broadband Breakfast Staff
A panel of top telecom journalists on Wednesday warned that major FCC policy moves in 2023 face significant litigation threats in the year ahead.
The year “2024 is going to include a lot of litigation and a lot of it generated by the cable TV industry,” said editor of Policyband Ted Hearn,.
Speaking on Broadband Breakfast Live Online Wednesday, Hearn said that industry would likely be challenge the agency’s rules on net neutrality, digital discrimination, early termination fees, and “all-in” pricing.
Others of the journalists agreed that the FCC’s net neutrality order is unlikely to survive court scrutiny. Howard Buskirk, executive senior editor of Communications Daily, pointed out that the Supreme Court’s “major questions doctrine” as a barrier for the FCC to overcome.
In 2022, the Supreme Court held in West Virginia v. EPA that Congress alone has the power to decide on “major questions” of “vast economic or political significance.” Hearn and Buskirk said that it was almost certain that net neutrality would fit into that category, and that as such a “major question,” its resolution was the responsibility of Congress alone.
Noting the lack of radio frequency spectrum availability in 2023, Buskirk also highlighted the role of spectrum sharing over the past year. This included the FCC’s focus on finalizing rules for specific spectrum bands, such as the 4.9 GigaHertz, as well as the broader implications for 5G and 6G wireless technology development.
BEAD Implementation
Other topics covered included details in the implementation of the US$42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment programme, and concern over the likely depletion of the Affordable Connectivity Program fund.
While BEAD is likely to help advance rural connectivity, its focus on rural areas leaves major urban connectivity gaps unaddressed, noted senior reporter and editor at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative Sean Gonsalves. He predicted the lion’s share of BEAD funds will be awarded to incumbent internet service providers.
Gonsalves also highlighted that the FCC’s new rules around digital discrimination may amount to little given that the agency allows for discrepancies as “justified by genuine issues of technical or economic feasibility.”
As the event wound down, Broadband Breakfast Editor and Publisher the session moderator, Drew Clark asked each panelist to name one surprise issue to watch for in 2024.
Hearn highlighted marketplace challenges for the cable industry, including from fixed wireless access.
Buskirk said the year will be dominated by actions at the FCC, including those by recently-confirmed agency Commissioner Anna Gomez.
Gonsalves warned of increasingly aggressive anti-community broadband campaigns by cable lobbyists.
Telecommunications Reports Senior FCC Reporter Lynn Stanton closed the session by predicting “some big sleeper issue we’ve all completely forgotten about that will somehow rise from the dead now that the FCC has this 3 to 2 majority.”
Our Broadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET.
Panelists
- Executive Senior Editor, Communications Daily Howard Buskirk,
- Senior Reporter, Editor and Communications Team Lead, Institute for Local Self Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative Sean Gonsalves
- Publisher, Policyband Ted Hearn
- Senior Editor, Wolters Kluwer’s TR Daily, Lynn Stanton
- Moderator, Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast Drew Clark
Ted Hearn is the Editor and Publisher of Policyband, a new website dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the broadband communications market. A former communications executive and reporter for newsletters and trade journals, Hearn has decades of experience with traditional video and broadband industry trends, regulatory developments, technology advancements, and market dynamics.
Howard Buskirk is Executive Senior Editor and joined Warren Communications News in 2004, after covering Capitol Hill for Telecommunications Reports. He has covered Washington since 1993 and was formerly executive editor at Energy Business Watch, editor at Gas Daily and managing editor at Natural Gas Week. Previous to that, he was a staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Greenville News.
Sean Gonsalves is Senior Reporter, Editor and Communications Team Lead, Institute for Local Self Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative. He is a longtime former reporter, columnist, and news editor with the Cape Cod Times. He is also a former nationally syndicated columnist in 22 newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune, Kansas City Star and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. His work has also appeared in the Boston Globe, USA Today, the Washington Post and the International Herald-Tribune. An award-winning newspaper reporter and columnist, Sean also has extensive experience in both television and radio.
Lynn Stanton is Senior Editor for Wolters Kluwer’s TR Daily, has been covering telecommunications, broadband, and Internet policy for nearly three decades. She has also reported on pharmaceutical marketing compliance and has worked as a copyeditor for a wide range of publications. She holds a bachelor’s degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in political theory from the University of Virginia.
Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.
