Rural Telcos: FCC Sec. 706 Authority Covers Retransmission Reform

Representatives of rural telecommunications companies met with top Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau staffers to argue that the ancillary authority the FCC has asserted in taking steps to promote broadband deployment and adoption, and buttress its network neutrality regulations, can be used to justify reforming retransmission consent rules.

Section 706 of the Communications Act gives the FCC the authority to "encourage the deployment of advanced telecommunications to all Americans," a line of authority the FCC has traced to encouraging wireless build-outs (pole attachment reforms, for one), migrating phone subsidies to broadband and codifying its network neutrality guidelines, although FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell has suggested that the invocation of 706 authority as a blanket defense of broadband-related regulations is skating on thin legal ice. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, OPASTCO (the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies) the Western Telecom Alliance and CenturyLink, said the FCC has the authority under the Cable Act to reform the rules, but also said it had Section 706 authority. They argued that retransmission consent was one of those barriers to broadband investment [the more they have to pay in retrans, the less they have for other things] that the FCC has said 706 gives the FCC the broad ancillary authority to redress.