Competitive telecom providers urged Virginia regulators not to li...
Competitive telecom providers urged Virginia regulators not to liberalize competition tests prescribed for expanding Verizon retail rate deregulation to areas outside seven major cities where deregulation was granted last month. Verizon sought reconsideration of the competition tests, saying they…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
exclude certain widespread forms of local competition. The Corporation Commission order (Case PUC-2007-00008) said deregulation could expand to other exchanges where 75 percent of customers have two alternatives to Verizon for local service, and half of customers have one facilities-based alternative to Verizon operating its own wireline network. Verizon wanted the 50 percent wireline-facilities-based test expanded to include companies leasing Verizon loops to connect customer premises to their own switches and transport facilities. Cox Telecom, XO Communications, and Cavalier Telecom opposed the expanded 50 percent test. They said the commission’s original competitive definition sought to ensure customers in deregulated markets could access a landline competitor not dependent on Verizon for last-mile facilities. They said landline companies dependent on Verizon could suffer if future federal policy repealed or diminished Verizon’s obligation to lease loops to competitors. The state Attorney General’s Office said if the commission expanded the 50 percent facilities test, it also should change the 75 percent competitive availability test to set a higher percentage of 85 percent or more.