What Happens Next
Steve Goodman has been practicing telecommunications law since 1983, when he began working at the Federal Communications Commission. He now represents a wide variety of clients, including telecommunications equipment manufacturers, satellite service providers and international carriers.
Now that the Open Internet Order has been released, the question is what happens next. The FCC expended significant effort in producing the Open Internet Order, but it has not yet completed its work, because the Open Internet Order exposes significant regulatory gaps that the FCC needs to fill. The Open Internet Order identifies numerous particular follow-on tasks that it will need to undertake. In addition, the Open Internet Order suggests other issues that it may address in subsequent or ongoing separate rulemaking proceedings.
The Open Internet Order indicates that it will initiate additional Further Notices of Proposed Rulemaking to determine what rules are necessary in connection with Section 214's market entry and exit obligations, and the following:
Foreign ownership restrictions (paragraphs 342 and 438);
Treatment of mobile Broadband Internet Access Service (BIAS) rules under Title III (footnote 1384);
Whether to require BIAS services to contribute to the Telecommunications Relay Service fund, which subsidizes services to hearing or vision-impaired individuals (paragraph 375);