FCC joins in the stay motion for cable modem case

A day after cable operators filed a motion to get a stay in the Brand X case, the FCC today made a similar filing that asks the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to postpone the effective date of its ruling that cable-modem offerings are telecommunications services.

Without the filings, the appeals court ruling would have become effective tomorrow and cable-modem services would cease to be information services that are largely unregulated—a situation that could create problems, according to the FCC’s filing.

"At that point, difficult and possibly urgent questions would arise whether cable operators that provide cable-modem services are subject to the myriad federal and state regulatory obligations that apply to providers of telecommunications services—obligations that do not now apply to providers of "information services,’" the FCC document states.

Yesterday, National Cable & Telecommunication Association and three cable operators—Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Time Warner—expressed their intent to file an appeal with the Supreme Court and asked the Ninth Circuit to stay its ruling until that process is completed. The FCC echoed this sentiment in its filing.

"The uncertainty and market confusion surrounding those issues likely would spawn complex and burdensome court and/or agency proceedings at the federal level, and possibly at the state and local levels as well," the FCC document states. "Those proceedings would be entirely unnecessary and wasteful, if the FCC’s classification of cable-modem services as information services ultimately is upheld after Supreme Court review."