Granite Says Wholesale Voice Costs Would Spike if USTelecom Bid Is Granted
Granite Telecommunications urged the FCC to deny USTelecom’s forbearance request to lift incumbent telco obligations under the Communications Act to give competitors discounted wholesale access to voice-grade channels. The ILEC Section 271 duties and a requirement under Section 251 to…
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offer a 64-kbps voice channel over fiber where copper loops are retired act as a regulatory “backstop” for CLECs seeking wholesale access, said Granite in a filing posted Monday in docket 14-192. Without the mandates, Granite estimates its costs for leasing lines through wholesale voice commercial agreements (also called “UNE-P replacement agreements”) would jump by about 159 percent. “Granite does not believe that any competitive service provider can sustain a business entirely using resold service given the relatively small margin for those services,” the CLEC said. Granite suggested the FCC examine the company’s wholesale agreements with AT&T that the latter filed with the FCC and certain state public utility commissions. Verizon last week backed the forbearance relief request (see 1510230034). The FCC has until Jan. 4 to decide on a USTelecom petition, which includes other requests (see 1509250046).