USTelecom and Qwest urged the FCC to eliminate remaining Open Net...
USTelecom and Qwest urged the FCC to eliminate remaining Open Network Architecture (ONA) requirements, including the obligation to file ONA reports and post Comparably Efficient Interconnection (CEI) plans on company web sites. The requirements, imposed on former Regional Bell…
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Operating Companies and GTE, are no longer needed “in light of the dramatic evolution of technology [and] highly competitive environment,” the companies said in a May 1 filing. “Elimination of outdated regulatory requirements” such as these “is one of the fundamental purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act,” they said. The requirements date back to the 1980s and were imposed as a way of protecting competitors when the FCC decided the Bells could offer information services. The FCC originally required the Bells to provide “information” services through fully separate affiliates and then in 1986 permitted them to integrate these enhanced services with telecom services subject to non-structural safeguards and the ONI/CEI requirements. “The concern was that the companies would use existing market power in local exchange services to obtain a competitive advantage in information services markets by improperly allocating to their regulated core businesses costs that would be properly attributed to their competitive ventures and by discriminating against rival, unaffiliated ISPs… in favor of their own information services,” the companies said. The concerns no longer exist, they said.