VERIZON REFILES SEC. 271 APPLICATION FOR MASS.
Verizon resubmitted its application to FCC Tues. to offer long distance service in Mass. under Sec. 271 of Telecom Act. Verizon Senior Vp Thomas Tauke said new version incorporated company’s original application “and adds further evidence demonstrating that the company provides competitors nondiscriminatory access to DSL-capable telephone lines.” Verizon filed original petition Sept. 22 but withdrew it Dec. 18 after FCC Common Carrier Bureau said it didn’t have enough information to substantiate Verizon’s claim that it offered competitors nondiscriminatory access to DSL lines. Similar concerns were expressed by Dept. of Justice in Oct.
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Tauke said new application should ease FCC’s concerns. He said it also would show that Verizon offered DSL competitors “parity of service for installation and repair” for lines they leased from Verizon. Filing contains updated statistics showing company installed 95% of those leased DSL lines on time, that about 96% of them were trouble-free each month and when there was trouble Verizon “repairs them in a timely and nondiscriminatory manner.” New document also said Verizon’s performance in offering line sharing was equally strong.
New data were validated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which confirmed that results met guidelines agreed upon by other carriers and adopted by Mass. state regulators, company said. “Refiling puts to rest any concerns that interested parties did not have adequate opportunity to comment on all issues,” Tauke said. He said competitors now had 800,000 lines in Mass., 100,000 more than when application first was filed, and 18% of retail lines in state, which were “greater than the level in either New York or Texas at the time those 271 applications were filed.”
AT&T said Verizon “still didn’t get it right.” According to AT&T Vp Len Cali, Verizon’s refiled application doesn’t adequately address “shortcomings” of original application: “This ‘new’ application still fails to offer unbundled network elements at a price that comports with the Act’s cost standard.”