A recent U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling on wholesale access rul...
A recent U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling on wholesale access rules will cost small and medium-sized businesses about $4.9 billion annually, according to a study released Tues. by CompTel/Ascent and NuVox Communications. The study said the decision “threatens to…
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prevent” facilities-based CLECs from accessing high-capacity lines they use to deliver phone and Internet services to small and mid-sized businesses. CompTel CEO Russell Frisby and NuVox Vp- Regulatory Affairs Jake Jennings called on the FCC to act quickly to preserve access to DS-1 facilities at cost-based rates while new rules were developed. They said the new rules were “critical to the future direction of competition because the Bell companies already have indicated that they intend to raise wholesale rates unilaterally by the end of the year, if not before.” The study said unless the new rules ensured that CLECs retained “affordable” access to high-capacity lines, CLECs would be forced to pay “significantly more to provide the same service” by buying special access service, and the cost to business customers would rise 25%. It warned most CLECs would be forced to abandon the DS-1 market if required to pay special access rates. “Price increases for DS-1 services will add to inflationary pressures in the economy as small and medium businesses pass through at least some of cost increases in the price they charge for their own products,” it said. The study also estimated costs to small and medium-sized businesses could rise by $464 million a year in N.Y., $428 million in Cal., $351 million in Tex., $266 million in N.J. and $250 million in Ill. ALTS Pres. John Windhausen said in a statement he hoped the FCC would issue “new, permanent rules as quickly as possible to restore our companies’ rights to purchase the essential elements needed by facilities-based competitors. Failure to act soon could impose a dramatic rate hike on American small businesses across America, putting a stake in the heart of the nascent economic recovery.” But an SBC spokesman called the study “a series of guesses pulled out of thin air.” He said SBC’s wholesale customers would have “the same access to our network tomorrow that they have today. The sky hasn’t fallen and no one is taking anything away.” The spokesman said “the door remains open for business-to-business commercial agreements… That’s the best way to provide added certainty for our competitors’ businesses.”