The FCC defended its regulatory-flexibility analysis, in an order about local number portability between wireline and wireless carriers, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, representing small rural incumbent local exchange carriers, wants the court to stay the intermodal order and send it back to the commission. But in oral argument Monday judges appeared hesitant to rebuke the FCC.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
The FCC should reset the special access rates of AT&T, Qwest and Verizon, overhaul the agency’s methods for assessing competition, and collect more market and pricing data, said a report commissioned by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (CD Feb 21/07 p5), and written by the National Regulatory Research Institute.
The FCC’s denial last week of a forbearance petition by FeatureGroup IP “is not the end of the story,” CEO Lowell Feldman said Friday. FeatureGroup, a competitive local exchange carrier serving VoIP providers, still wants a ruling that access charges don’t apply to Internet-based traffic which interconnects with public switched telephone network carriers. But a reconsideration petition isn’t necessarily the company’s next move, Feldman told us.
The FCC denied a FeatureGroup IP forbearance petition late Wednesday, avoiding a decision on whether access charges apply to interconnected switched-IP traffic. The commission was required to release an order by midnight Wednesday under a statutory deadline. Commissioners voted 3-0 to deny the forbearance petition, which asked the FCC to rule that the competitive local exchange carrier doesn’t have to pay access charges for VoIP traffic that interconnects with traditional public switched telephone network carriers.
Officials debated the effectiveness of government grants for spurring broadband deployment, at a New America Foundation forum Friday. A House economic stimulus bill announced Thursday called for $6 billion in spending on broadband loan and grant programs throughout the government (CD Jan 16 p5). Broadband stimulus should include tax incentives for higher speeds and capital spending, said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. Atkinson estimated that tax incentives would inject almost 80 percent of the government’s money into the economy within the first year, double the proportion of grants. But others said it would be harder for the government to direct money using tax credits. “That’s a way to quickly lose the money and not know where the money is going,” said Derek Turner, research director for Free Press. Fortune 500 companies are more likely to use tax credits to increase speeds in markets where they already do business than build into rural areas, said Wally Bowen, founder of the Mountain Area Information Network. “Any CEO who redirects his company’s investment strategy toward markets that aren’t a good fit for that Wall Street business model is putting his career at risk,” he said. Some said the economic stimulus bill isn’t the place to pass major broadband reform. The point of stimulus is to create jobs, and there will be more opportunities in the future to pass broadband reforms, said Debbie Goldman, research economist for the Communication Workers of America. The government’s one goal should be “as much investment in as fast a time as possible,” Atkinson said. Attaching rules to broadband stimulus, as the House has with speed and openness requirements, will discourage investment by major broadband providers, he said. Turner disagreed, saying open access conditions would ensure that the U.S. builds the kind of networks that led to today’s open Internet.
The FCC could face a court deadline to respond to a 2005 remand on its Universal Service Fund high-cost rules. In a petition for writ of mandamus filed Wednesday, Qwest and three state regulators urged the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to force the FCC to respond within 90 days of the writ’s release. Qwest, the Maine Public Utilities Commission, Vermont Public Service Board, and the Wyoming Public Service Commission said the FCC unreasonably delayed issuing new rules for its non-rural, high-cost fund, ignoring mandates from Congress and the 10th Circuit.
As a Feature Group IP forbearance petition on VoIP access charges heads into its final week, the company is seeing little support and much opposition from the rest of the industry. Feature Group IP, a competitive local exchange carrier serving VoIP companies, wants the FCC to rule that VoIP providers need not pay access charges to interconnect with traditional public switched telephone network carriers. Chairman Kevin Martin has circulated two orders, one granting and one refusing relief. The FCC must issue a decision by Jan. 21.
Competitive local exchange carriers sounded alarms on CenturyTel’s proposed acquisition of Embarq (CD Oct 28 p6). In comments last week, CompTel and other CLECs urged the FCC to reject the deal, and sought several conditions if the FCC approves it. The only other body to weigh in was the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, which said the FCC should seek “additional information and commitments from the Applicants.”
The FCC commissioners should review a Wireline Bureau decision approving compliance plans by AT&T, Verizon and Qwest, Sprint Nextel said Tuesday. The companies had to get bureau approval of the plans to satisfy a condition in forbearance orders granting them relief from cost-assignment rules (CD Jan 5 p1). “Because the decision was announced without any analysis or explanation, we believe it requires the full review of the commission,” a Sprint spokesman said. His company or another opponent of cost-assignment forbearance could file a formal request for review soon, he said. Multiple reconsideration petitions on the forbearance orders are at the FCC. Opponents want to keep the ball in the air until more sympathetic commissioners take over, a wireline industry official said. Opponents would probably be less likely to file such a request if a harsher FCC were expected, the source said. The Wireline Bureau approval makes it tougher for Sprint and other opponents to overturn the original forbearance orders, the official said. Once rules are carried out and new processes put in place, they will be harder to rewind, the official said.
The FCC looks set to make a decision by Jan. 21 on whether access charges should apply to switched-IP traffic. That’s the commission’s deadline to answer a forbearance request on the question by Feature Group IP. Last week, the FCC circulated two draft orders on the Feature Group petition, which asked the commission to declare that switched-IP traffic isn’t subject to access charges applying to switched traffic. Chairman Kevin Martin put out versions of the order granting and refusing relief, an FCC official said. Feature Group is a competitive local exchange carrier that provides service to VoIP companies. If the FCC doesn’t answer the petition by Jan. 21, it will be deemed granted under the statutory forbearance rules. A commission spokeswoman declined to comment. Meanwhile, the FCC is likely to extend the due date on a contrary forbearance petition by Embarq, which asked the FCC to declare that access charges do apply to switched-IP traffic, two FCC officials said. The 12-month deadline for the Embarq petition is Sunday, but nothing has been circulated, they said.