In the early 2000s as legacy cable companies contemplated
offering Internet-protocol (IP) based services including Voice Over Internet
Protocol (VOIP), they feared local governments that franchised their decades-old
cable television services would demand they offer IP services to all neighborhoods
within their jurisdiction. That prospect was very real possibility given their
residents had other options for television service including over the air broadcast
and satellite, but would need landline infrastructure built out in order to provide
universal Internet access as demand for Internet service jumped. Also, by
offering voice service via VOIP, cablecos began emulating telephone companies
that are required to offer universal service to any premise requesting it.
To head off what to them appeared to be a costly prospect,
cablecos heavily lobbied state governments to preempt the locals by giving
state public utility commissions franchise authority over IPTV. While nominally
limited to video services, for both cablecos and phone companies the move forestalled
for many years any local requirements they upgrade and build out their Internet
infrastructure since their video services are typically bundled as part of landline
premise Internet service.
Now more than a decade later, local governments are getting
in on the preemption game. Since their oxen were gored by their states at the
behest of the legacy incumbent cablecos and telcos, they are looking to the
federal government for relief. An example is the Federal Communications
Commission’s
order
earlier this year to preempt statutes in two states barring local governments
from building their own infrastructure. Doing so would allow local governments to
get around the state sanction of the incumbents’ redlining practices.
In Arizona, local governments appear to be looking to the
feds to resolve a dispute involving the city, a legacy cableco and Google Fiber
over the city’s regulation of video services. “The City believes these
questions will more likely be resolved more definitively in the future by the
Federal Communications Commission or a similar authority,” said Scottsdale
Chief Information Officer Brad Hartig in a statement. (
H/T
to DSLReports).
In California, two legacy telcos are making an argument that
would place Internet services in a regulatory non man’s land, subject to
neither state nor federal jurisdiction. Frontier and Verizon contend regulation
of Internet service falls under federal jurisdiction per the FCC’s order classifying
Internet as a common carrier telecommunications service under Title II of the federal
Communications Act. But at the same time, they argue that order does not
preempt California law giving the California Public Utilities Commission
jurisdiction over legacy (non IP-enabled) telephone service but not Internet services.
(Item
here
at Steve Blum’s Blog)