Law360

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr, a longtime opponent of net neutrality rules, blasted the idea of bringing back regulations now that Democrats have a majority at the agency again. He said that recent Supreme Court law makes clear that a net neutrality revival would not survive legal challenges, meaning that any effort to craft rules would sap time from a FCC that should be focused elsewhere.

A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit explored what would happen if the Federal Communications Commission's fee collection to support telecommunications subsidies were overturned, as they dissected the legality of giving the Federal Communications Commission and the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) power to levy the fees.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently proposed that the FCC adopt new standards for what qualifies as broadband internet access service and for determining whether broadband deployment is sufficient to meet American needs. Chairwoman Rosenworcel is proposing to raise the minimum speed for broadband to 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. This would be consistent with the standard adopted in the most recent FCC universal service auction, which required participants to offer the same downstream and upstream speeds.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has banded with industry and consumer advocates to press the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reject a challenge to fees on telecom services that pay for multiple Federal Communications Commission subsidy programs. In a flurry of filings, members from both sides of the aisle joined trade groups including USTelecom to argue that the FCC's reliance on the Universal Service Fund (USF)–a separately run body that oversees the collection of fees–is not only legal, but "essential" and aligned with congressional goals.