11th Circuit Denies Saturn Challenge to FCC Orders Siding With AT&T on UNEs
Federal judges denied a Saturn Telecommunication Services challenge to two FCC orders that dismissed the company’s complaint against AT&T for allegedly violating duties on discounted wholesale access to its unbundled network elements (UNEs). Saturn failed to raise any new objections…
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that weren't covered by a 2006 settlement with AT&T, a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a short per curium order Friday (Saturn v. FCC, No. 14-15422). “Under the Settlement Agreement, Saturn released ‘all Demands, Actions, and Claims, whether known or unknown, asserted or which could have been asserted, against [AT&T] related to the'" 2006 dispute, the 11th Circuit panel said. The judges said the agreement “broadly and unambiguously releases all claims that relate to the 2006 dispute and had accrued” as of the effective date. Saturn said AT&T engaged in post-settlement violations. But the Enforcement Bureau, in an order upheld by the full FCC, said Saturn’s new complaints closely related to or were the same as those that were raised or could have been raised in 2006, said the court, which agreed with the commission view. Saturn thus “fails to allege a new, independent violation as opposed to a continuation of the same released misconduct,” the judges said in upholding the FCC decisions. Saturn had no comment.