Small and midsized incumbent local exchange carriers supported a ...
Small and midsized incumbent local exchange carriers supported a Cincinnati Bell petition seeking a waiver of an FCC rule requiring incumbents to tell consumers that they have a choice of long-distance providers. The equal-access scripting rule also requires ILECs…
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to read potential customers a randomized list of stand-alone wireline providers on request. The rule applies only to small and midsized companies. “It has been more than two years since the Commission relieved AT&T, Qwest, Verizon and their ILEC affiliates from these outdated, unnecessary, and market- distorting rules,” CenturyLink, Frontier, Iowa Telecom and Windstream said in joint comments this week. “The time has come to extend comparable relief to … all small and mid- sized ILECs.” ILECs face heavy competition from competitive LECs, wireless carriers, cable companies and VoIP providers, said the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association said equal-access scripting “is no longer a cost-effective consumer disclosure requirement because not all long distance providers are required to update and provide the list to new subscribers and because listing only wireline providers will omit segments of the competition.” The FCC is also considering a USTelecom petition to kill the scripting rule for its members. Carriers had uniformly supported that petition (CD Sept 15 p2).