FCC's other decision aims to spur local broadband

Lost in the clamor over the Federal Communications Commission's vote last week to approve net neutrality rules: a separate measure to encourage the spread of local broadband networks.

The agency approved an order that pre-empts laws that have prevented the city of Wilson, N.C., and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tenn., from expanding their locally owned Internet services.

The five-member commission voted 3-2, the same result as with the more well-known one on the agency's net neutrality rules with chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel voting to approve and Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly, the two Republicans on the commission, voting against it.

Local officials had petitioned the FCC to intervene because state laws prevent expansion of high-speed 1 gigabit-per-second broadband networks. And President Obama had called on the FCC to "push back" on laws in 19 states that prevent local governments from creating municipal Internet services.

Wheeler noted that the agency had also been asked by Congress to help expand the availability of broadband. These laws restricting municipal broadband expansion

The FCC's action "gets rid of state level red tape that serves as nothing more than a barrier to broaden competition," Wheeler said, "(and) will allow communities to determine their won broadband future. ... Here we are acting to ensure that communities in Tennessee and North Carolina can take steps to ensure their citizens don't get left behind in the 21st century."

After the decision, Will Aycock, the general manager of Greenlight Community Broadband, the Wilson, N.C. Net provider, said that "all possibilities are now on the table, whether through public-private partnerships or municipally-owned broadband networks, to ensure North Carolina's businesses and residents remain competitive in the global economy."

More cities might now consider municipal broadband, said Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa. "I believe that other communities around the country, both those that have deployments and those that are contemplating them, should see this as an opportunity to take action for themselves and petition the FCC to have restrictions that they face lifted."

Doyle, a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, was among those in Congress who urged Wheeler and the FCC last year to municipal broadband. "(It) can bring game-changing speeds to our schools and libraries, create new businesses and grow our local economies, and bring much-needed competition to the broadband marketplace," he said in a statement after the FCC's vote.

Just as the net neutrality rules are expected to be challenged in court, so might the FCC's municipal broadband exemption. The issue could wind up in the Supreme Court, which previously found that the agency cannot pre-empt state laws on the issue, said Lawrence Spiwak, president of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies. "The FCC continues to lack any authority to preempt such laws," he said.

In his dissent, commissioner Pai agreed. "The FCC simply does not have the power to do this. ... Whatever the merits of any particular municipal broadband project — and to be clear, on this question I take no position, deferring to affected voters and elected officials — I do not believe this agency has the power to pre-empt."

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