U.S. court lets stand Verizon deregulation

COURT DENIES SPRINT'S PETITION AGAINST FCC RULING
[SOURCE: Associated Press 12/7]
A federal court on Friday denied a petition by Sprint Nextel Corp. challenging a 2006 decision that gave Verizon Communications Inc. relief from pricing caps and other regulations on high-speed Internet access and services. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said even though the Federal Communications Commission deadlocked at a 2-2 vote on Verizon's request in March 2006, "Congress had spelled out the legal effect: the petition 'shall be deemed granted."' The court said that when the FCC failed to take action either way, the request, according to the law, immediately won approval. In its challenge, wireless carrier and Verizon competitor Sprint argued that since a majority of the FCC commissioners failed to approve Verizon's request, its deadlocked vote meant the request was denied.
http://money.cnn.com/rssclick/2007/12/07/technology/sprint_fcc.ap/index....

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http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID...
Reps John Dingell (D-MI) and Ed Markey (D-MA): "The Court found what we already knew: On the critical matter of protecting consumers, the FCC failed to do its job. The decision casts the spotlight on the need to reform the forbearance process to ensure written opinions and to eliminate the ability of a forbearance petition to be ‘deemed granted’ simply by agency inaction."
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110nr137.shtml

* D.C. Circuit Denies FCC Forbearance Challenge
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6510847.html?rssid=193

* Verizon Gets Win in Court Over Broadband
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119705599992217408.html?mod=todays_us_ma...