The FCC Wireline Bureau didn’t need to give a long explanation wh...
The FCC Wireline Bureau didn’t need to give a long explanation when it approved compliance plans by Qwest, AT&T and Verizon related to cost-assignment rules forbearance, Verizon said. In an opposition filing late Friday, the company opposed a petition…
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by CompTel and others urging commissioners to review the bureau decision (CD Feb 3 p5). The petitioners said the bureau improperly approved the compliance plans without explaining why. The bureau only needed to issue a “simple notice of approval” because the associated forbearance orders “included a detailed explanation of the basis for relief and addressed the arguments raised by opposing parties,” said Verizon. The Administrative Procedure Act, which requires agencies to issue detailed orders, “does not apply to ministerial agency functions such as the Bureau’s approval of the compliance plans,” it said. The FCC has no “legitimate policy basis” to reverse its forbearance decision, especially because Qwest, AT&T and Verizon “have already implemented much of the cost assignment forbearance relief,” Verizon added.