A Year in Review: The FCC and the US Phone Transition (Part II)

[Commentary] In part I of this article, we looked at the Federal Communications Commission's fast start under Chairman Tom Wheeler to address the transition of the phone system from traditional, landline service over copper wires to a broadband- and wireless-based system. With other issues pressing for attention at the FCC, momentum slowed during the summer of 2014. As we noted in Part I, Tom Wheeler had a sense of the huge agenda the FCC faced even before his confirmation. In addition to the telephone transition, the FCC was charged with fashioning an auction that would incentivize television broadcasters to sell spectrum -- the first regulatory body to attempt that. The FCC would also have to continue work to promote universal access to broadband and diversify media ownership. A funny thing happened on the way to the (telecommunications) forum, however. On January 14, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down key elements of the FCC’s Open Internet rules (commonly known as net or network neutrality) which required broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic equally. During his confirmation process, Wheeler had also vowed to protect the open Internet. So he now had a new, major undertaking. Then, on February 13, Comcast announced it had entered into an agreement to buy Time Warner Cable for approximately $45 billion. The FCC would have to determine if the transaction is in the public interest. That announcement was followed by AT&T's agreement to buy DirecTV for about $48 billion. That transaction would also require FCC review. The momentum on the telephone transition, to say the least, was interrupted.