A diverse group of ’sellers and purchasers of special access serv...

“establish financial performance and productivity for incumbent price-cap carrier special access by gathering historical data on revenues, costs, and inputs”; identify areas of the country where competition is lacking; evaluate what demand and pricing data from the largest buyers and of services “indicates about competition”; and “identify terms and conditions imposed on purchasers of incumbent price-cap carrier special access that thwart competition.” “AT&T, Verizon and a handful of other incumbent price-cap carriers have dominant positions in the provision of special access in their home markets,” the petition said. It cited complaints by wireless carriers Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, two large purchasers of special access circuits that signed the petition. Both say “they have in most cases, for years, purchased the vast majority of their high-capacity circuits from incumbent LECs -- their competitors in the wireless market,” the petition said. “Careful scrutiny clearly reveals that the market for special access service is not competitive.” The net result of an uncompetitive market is predictable, the petition argued: “Rates for special access service are extremely high. Even the most favorable prices available under long-term contracts are much higher than the regulated, cost-based prices for equivalent unbundled network elements.” Other signers of the petition were the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Integra Telecom, the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Group, tw telecom, BT Americas, Cbeyond and One Communications. “Large incumbent global carriers like AT&T and Verizon still exert unfair control in the business broadband market,” said Don Shepheard, tw telecom vice president of federal regulatory affairs. “Those companies are preventing American businesses, schools and doctors from fully realizing the potential of high-speed Internet service.” Colleen Boothby, lawyer for the ad hoc users groups, said: “For too long, business customers have been forced to accept inflated prices and unreasonable practices in the business broadband market because the FCC de-regulated AT&T, Verizon and other traditional providers even though they face little or no competition.” The filing “by these purchasers and competitors is a reluctant acknowledgment that all parties concerned recognize that the FCC lacks adequate data in this area,” said, Glenn Reynolds, vice president for policy at USTelecom said in an interview. “It’s good to see that they are for the first time offering to provide at least some data on the existence of competition for high-capacity facilities after refusing to do so in response to several previous inquiries by the FCC, the state commissions and GAO, among others.”