Potential Change Needs Scrutiny
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.
The issue of overlapping telecommunications regulatory authority between state and federal governments has been around for a very long time, and it is moving to the forefront once again.
A case is now pending in the federal 8th Circuit Court of Appeals with regard to Minnesota’s assertion of regulatory authority over Charter’s local service using non-nomadic VoIP technology.
The FCC has weighed in on the case in an amicus brief filed in support of Charter, claiming that states cannot regulate non-nomadic local VoIP service.
Congress addressed the issue of split jurisdictional authority over eighty years ago in Section 2(b) of the Telecommunications Act of 1934, which proscribes the FCC’s ability to regulate intrastate services.
The telecommunications industry and technology today is vastly different from the way it was in 1934, so perhaps Section 2(b) is an anachronism. But nonetheless, it remains the law.