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from: MultiChannel news

By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 4/11/2007 7:36:00 PM

The multiple appeals filed against the Federal Communications Commission order that local governments approve competitive franchises in 90 days have been consolidated and will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Action was taken Tuesday by the Judicial Panel for Multi-District Litigation to move the challenges into one court.

The petitioners -- the Alliance for Communications Democracy, the Alliance for Community Media, the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors and the U.S. Conference of Mayors -- each filed a challenge in the district in which the group is headquartered. The Alliance for Community Media filed in the Sixth Circuit.

"We're happy to be the named petitioner," said Anthony Riddle, executive director of ACM. "But that's just a formality of filing. We're still all one group."

The organizations are challenging a March 5 order issued by the FCC. Federal regulators said that when an application for video certification is made in a city by a telephone company that already has facilities in city rights-of-way, the city must act on that request within 90 days. The FCC concluded that current municipal proceedings drag on too long, frustrating competition.

In their challenges, the groups argued that the FCC order violates both the U.S. Constitution and federal communications law.