USTelecom Won't Oppose Extending Forbearance Comments, Which SBA Also Backs
USTelecom won't oppose motions to extend FCC comment dates on its petition for incumbent telco forbearance relief from discounted wholesale network-sharing obligations and related requirements, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-141 on a discussion officials of the ILEC…
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group, AT&T, CenturyLink and others had with Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and other staffers. Competitors, state regulators and consumer advocates asked the FCC to extend June 7 and June 22 deadlines for comments and replies by two to four months (see 1805210049). The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy backed the previous requests for more time, and the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable asked for extensions to Sept. 5 and Oct. 5. USTelecom said its petition met FCC standards for being "complete as filed," contrary to arguments of Incompas and others seeking dismissal (see 1805110059). "We also assured staff of our readiness and willingness to submit additional confidential and proprietary data (subject to Protective Order), explanations of our data analyses, and other supporting evidence into the record, as the Commission deems necessary and appropriate," said the ILEC group. But Incompas and Windstream said USTelecom failed to include all necessary information. "Even with respect to any public data sources incorporated into USTelecom’s charts, commenters should not have to guess at the values of the actual data in the charts, nor should they have to guess," said a joint filing on a meeting with bureau staffers. "At minimum, the Commission should (1) direct USTelecom to file all the underlying data, including confidential data, (2) adopt a protective order, and (3) reset the comment dates to permit an adequate, 90-day comment period once the Petition is actually complete as filed and the ordinary process for clearing counsel and experts to access confidential materials has been completed."