USTelecom Bid for Targeted ILEC Nondominant Relief Draws Familiar Opposition, Support
A USTelecom request for ILEC relief continued to draw resistance from rivals and state commissions, and support from incumbent telcos, in reply comments posted this week in FCC docket 13-3. The battle lines were basically the same as in initial…
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comments on USTelecom's 2013 petition asking the FCC for a declaratory ruling that incumbent telcos are nondominant in the provision of switched access voice services (see 1602230069). The FCC asked parties to refresh the record (see 1601210066). "ILECs remain dominant in the switched access marketplace, and USTelecom has been unable to offer sustainable evidence otherwise," said Incompas, representing CLECs and other ILEC competitors, urging the FCC to deny the petition. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Dakota regulatory commissions also said (here, here, here) USTelecom hadn't made the case for the requested relief. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said it based its opposition on the data in the FCC's October 2014 local competition report, which "indicates that the ILEC provision of switched access service still remains a dominant service." The USTelecom petition is premature, it said. But USTelecom said no parties opposing its requests offered "any tangible or new evidence to dispute the overwhelming facts in the record clearly demonstrating that [ILECs] are not dominant in the provision of switched access voice services because they no longer possess sufficient power to control prices in that marketplace." USTelecom said it wasn't seeking blanket deregulation of those services. It wants ILECs to have the same rights as others to (1) file tariffs on one day's notice and without cost support, (2) face a 30-day (instead of 60-day) waiting period for discontinuance applications to be granted and (3) be eligible for presumptive streamlined treatment for more types of transfers of control under Section 214 of the Communications Act. It said the relief wouldn't affect special access services, wholesale obligations or forbearance decisions. AT&T said the current regulation imposes administrative costs and hurts dynamism by "inhibiting carriers' ability nimbly to adjust to changes in consumer demand in today's hypercompetitive marketplace." Alaska Communications also backed the petition.