New special access rules must permit geographically large swaths of...
New special access rules must permit geographically large swaths of pricing flexibility, AT&T told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnr6kr). Relief in areas that are too small will turn the contract negotiation process into a “logistical nightmare,” the telco said,…
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arguing for continued relief on a metropolitan statistical area basis. A “building-by-building” approach to pricing flexibility would be a “non-starter” because it would be “analytically and practicably unworkable,” failing to account for special access competition that occurs due to CLECs’ large fiber rings that can readily connect to buildings located nearby, AT&T said. Nor should the commission use a “Horizontal Merger Guidelines ‘market power'” approach, which was developed to evaluate the effect of mergers, not whether an existing firm has market power, AT&T said. Proposed “econometric analyses” to link observable marketplace measures to the existence of “competitive prices” in particular areas would also be impractical and counterproductive, as there is “no non-arbitrary way” to determine what a competitive price is in a particular location, AT&T said. The telco also criticized CLEC calls for a “de minimis” exemption to limit the scope of the special access data request (CD Sept 27 p4).