CenturyLink Knocks CLEC Arguments on FCC Special Access Authority
CenturyLink became the latest ILEC entity to attack CLEC special access arguments about FCC discretion to regulate incumbent telco business market services. In a filing posted Monday in docket 05-25, CenturyLink said Birch Communications, BT Americas and Level 3 effectively…
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had asserted the FCC has "virtually limitless authority to impose every conceivable type of wholesale regulation of ILEC business data services," including by reversing enterprise broadband forbearance relief, scrapping DS1 and DS3 pricing flexibility, reimposing price-cap regulations and reducing price-cap rates. The CLECs believe the FCC can "adopt whatever special access regulation it wants -- regardless of the evidence, or lack thereof -- as long as it mouths the necessary findings, based on its status as an expert agency," said CenturyLink. "In other words, the Joint CLECs suggest, the results of the special access data collection are secondary: the Commission can and should decide now (before even receiving public comment on the special access data) to impose utility-style regulation on ILEC special access and enterprise broadband services, knowing that it can later construct the justifications necessary to have that decision upheld by a reviewing court. The Commission should reject the Joint CLECs’ cynical arguments, which are both wrong and flatly inconsistent with the Commission’s stated intention of employing a data-driven review of its special access regulations." The CLEC proposals would lead to the FCC being reversed in court and "years of investment-choking regulatory uncertainty," CenturyLink said. USTelecom and AT&T previously made similar filings (see 1509250043 and 1509290036).