FCC Warns LFAs About Rate Regulation

In so many words, the Federal Communications Commission is banning local governments from placing limits on basic tier rates charged by cable operators that are new entrants into the market. The media regulator said in a public notice released Jan. 16 that local governments likely have no basis to regulate a new provider when incumbents have been broadly deregulated as a result of competition from satellite TV providers and, more recently, local phone companies. The FCC was vague about the reason for its public notice. It didn't provide even one example of where a local government had stepped in, or threatened to step in, to regulate basic rates of a new video provider, such as Verizon Communications.