What to Expect With the New Federal Communications Commission

It is not a surprise that President-Elect Donald Trump has chosen current FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to chair the FCC in his administration. Carr has been a sitting—and vocal--commissioner and is the most senior Republican on the FCC, having served in this capacity since 2017. Should he be confirmed, he will come to the role with many years of experience as an attorney practicing before the FCC, then as an aide to former Commissioner Ajit Pai.  After a six-month as Pai’s aide, Carr was nominated by the former President Trump and approved by the Senate as an FCC Commissioner in 2018.  His nomination was approved for two successive five-year terms in both 2018 and 2023.  Carr certainly knows his way around the agency, for better or worse.

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The Dawn of AI Litigation: What CCaas and UCaaS Implementors Need to Know

While most vendors position themselves as the invisible layer facilitating customer communications for their clients, they’re about to find out their data-handling policies may bring them new visibility.
As AI continues to be deployed, it’s only reasonable to assume that litigation around its use will become morecommon. We are at the dawn of the age where cases based on some form of AI-generated outcomes will provide the basis for a litigable cause of action. There is also a very hungry group of class action lawyers looking to jump on the next big fertile area of profitable litigation. In any case, it’s time to consider the legal vulnerabilities that are likely to be associated with AI use—particularly in the UCaaS and CCaaS spaces so that entities deploying these tools do so with their eyes open.

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Consider How Big Telecom Deals Affect Underserved Markets

The Verizon/Frontier deal is good news for shareholders – but reminds the rest of us that the telecom landscape may not actually ensure connectivity across the U.S. landscape.
During Labor Day week, Verizon (Verizon Communications Inc.) announced that it entered into a “definitive agreement” to acquire Frontier (Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. in $20 billion all-cash transaction. In calling this move “strategic,” the acquisition will enhance the footprint for Verizon’s fiber network primarily into the southwestern United States. According to Verizon’s press release, Frontier has spent $41 billion over the past four years to both upgrade and expand its fiber network, and Verizon expects to be able to capitalize on this investment to benefit its customers. Currently, Frontier has 2.2 million fiber subscribers across 25 states, while Verizon has 74 million FiOS connections in 9 states and the District of Columbia. Again, according to its press release, Verizon remains committed to existing plans to build out an addition 2.8 million fiber locations by the end of 2026. It’s important to note that while Verizon is certainly one of the most well-known players in the overarching fiber and wireless spaces, the fiber footprint will still only cover 17% of the country.

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Net Neutrality Is On the Ropes – For Now

A recent court decision has taken its cues from this year’s Supreme Court – which could affect how we all use the Internet.
On August 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit put the FCC’s new net neutrality rules on hold, pending another hearing, now set for late October. The decision, and the accompanying concurrence, are clearly written and reflect a deference to perceived Congressional intent over that of the expertise and recommendation of the FCC, which is consistent with a very recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that is quoted within the case. What the court did in early August was simply “stay,” or put on hold, the new regulations that the FCC published on May 22, 2024, pending yet another hearing now scheduled for late in the fall. So for now, and for the foreseeable future, the return of a variation of the net neutrality rules from the Obama administration seems unlikely—at least in the near term.

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How the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decisions Impact Enterprise Communications

Two new verdicts could move technical decisions and implementation away from those who know the policies best, and lengthens the time it will take to accomplish legal adjustments to accommodate technology advancements.
At the end of its current term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued some decisions that absolutely jeopardize the validity of actions taken by federal agencies and essentially moves the interpretation(s) of those rules away from the executive branch agencies staffed with the subject-matter experts who devised the rules in the first place and towards the other two branches of government, legislative and judiciary. In Loper Bright Enterprises et al v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court chucked a 40-year precedent requiring that, in the event of ambiguous or unclear statutory language promulgated by Congress, courts should defer to the agencies where expertise resides for clarification and interpretation. The Chevron Doctrine, which was created by the high court in a 1984 case, stood for the concept that judges should defer to executive branch agencies when interpreting gaps and ambiguities in the laws they implement, so long as those interpretations are reasonable.

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