Photo of C. Douglas Jarrett

Senior Counsel at Keller and Heckman LLP

Washington, DC


To learn more about Douglas's practice areas, click here.

For better or worse, you decide, the FCC is challenged when adopting policies or making decisions that impact enterprise customers.  This is the first of two entries on enterprise customers and the FCC.


Open Internet Order
.  With no explanation, the FCC excluded high speed Internet access service sold to enterprise customers from the rules

This year’s mergers-and-acquisitions boom is re-shaping industries and contributing handsomely to the bottom lines of leading investment banks. One statutory provision triggered in many transactions–not just those involving major wireless or satellite broadcasting companies–is Section 310(d) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended. This provision requires that the FCC grant its prior consent to the assignment of radio station licenses or the transfer of control of a radio station licensee.
Continue Reading M&A Counsel: Don’t Overlook Section 310(d) of the Communications Act

The appeals of the Open Internet Order have been consolidated in United States Telecom Assoc. v. FCC, No. 15-1063 (and consolidated cases) (D.C. Cir. filed Mar. 23, 2015). Thus, the court that decided Verizon v. FCC will rule on the FCC’s second attempt to extend its jurisdiction over the Internet.
Continue Reading Open Internet Order: Appellate Advocacy at Full Throttle

The entry summarizes the major elements of the Open Internet Order.  An analysis of the FCC’s policy determinations and reasoning for regulating broadband internet access service as a Title II telecommunications service will be provided in a later entry.   

Broadband Internet Access Service Defined.  The Open Internet rules apply to “broadband Internet access service”

The FCC’s Monthly Meeting scheduled for 26 February 2015 is both widely-anticipated and one in series of continuing events.  The FCC will likely adopt its net neutrality order and order preempting certain state restrictions on municipal broadband by 3-2 votes.  Both decisions will be appealed.

The immediate questions are whether the net neutrality rules will

At the CES Conference earlier this month, Chairman Wheeler signaled the FCC would adopt net neutrality rules, including a ban on paid prioritization, consistent with President Obama’s blog post from November. These remarks were noteworthy because the Chairman stated he would circulate a draft net neutrality order for adoption at the February Commission Meeting that would rely on Title II of the Communications Act as authority for the anti-blocking and anti-discrimination rules that the D.C. Court of Appeals struck down last January in Verizon v. FCC.
Continue Reading Draft Legislation Targets Title II-Based Net Neutrality Rules

Few FCC issues have elicited the sustained attention of the general public, public interest groups of all persuasions, the media, and the cable, telco and wireless industries as Net Neutrality. It is one of those rare issues that can drive a united front among the major Internet services providers.
In parallel, the Commission, guided by the Chairman and with the Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis doing the heavy lifting, is in the midst of significant, though less widely reported, efforts to address a far more pressing issue for many of the country’s rural communities: For all intents and purposes, these communities do not have broadband services and find themselves on the wrong side of the “Digital Divide.”
Continue Reading FCC Broadband Policy: More than “Fast Lanes” and “Title II Regulation”— Part I

The manner in which many enterprises procure wireless services needs to be reassessed.  For those interested in deploying M2M networks or experiencing in-building wireless reception challenges (or concerned such challenges may arise), the standard procurement approach is no longer viable.

Wireless procurements typically focus on service and device pricing (with two-year refresh cycles) for generally-available