Communications Law Bulletin, April 2008

The Month In Brief

April, 2008, brought continuing developments at the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission"), the state commissions, and on Capitol Hill, on issues ranging from net neutrality to the DTV transition to video franchising.  Those developments are covered here, along with our usual list of deadlines for your calendar.

Provider Changes And Customer Retention Efforts In FCC Spotlight

In two different proceedings, the FCC is considering issues surrounding provider changes by customers and customer retention efforts by carriers. 

In one proceeding, Verizon has filed a petition for declaratory ruling, asking that the FCC declare that incumbent cable operators are required to accept video service cancellation requests from a new video provider that has won a customer (such as is done in the voice service context).  Verizon alleges that although voice service