AT&T Asks Court To Combine, Brief Its USF, USTelecom Cases; Motion Unopposed
AT&T asked a federal court to consolidate and set briefing on its legal challenges to two FCC orders affecting price-cap telco USF obligations. The request came in a petition Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit…
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that AT&T said wasn't opposed by the Department of Justice or the FCC. AT&T noted the FCC in December adopted and released an order that partially granted and partially denied a USTelecom forbearance petition seeking price-cap ILEC relief from various obligations (see 1512170052 and 1512280037). The recent order "discussed, but did not resolve in AT&T's favor, the same issues addressed" in a 2014 FCC USF order challenged by the telco earlier in 2015 (AT&T v. FCC, No. 15-1038). In the previous case, AT&T had argued the FCC should have given price-cap ILECs greater relief, including from eligible telecom carrier (ETC) voice USF obligations where they don't elect to receive new broadband-oriented Connect America Fund subsidies. The D.C. Circuit had put the previous case on hold pending commission resolution of the U.S. Telecom forbearance review and related issues in other proceedings (see 1507160032 and 1509030042). AT&T Wednesday filed a petition for review challenging the FCC's December 2015 USTelecom forbearance decision, which again denied price-cap telcos USF ETC voice relief (AT&T v. FCC, No. 16-1002). Given the "overlap of issues" in its two challenges, AT&T asked the D.C. Circuit to consolidate the cases and issue a restarted briefing schedule that would allow DOJ and the FCC at least 45 days to respond to the company's renewed opening brief.