CLECs Press FCC to Deny ILECs' Bid for Wholesale Relief; USTelecom Cites Supportive Data
CLECs urged the FCC to deny ILECs relief from an "avoided-cost resale requirement," at least for TDM-based phone service over copper loops, as USTelecom requested in a forbearance petition targeting Telecom Act wholesale network-sharing duties. USTelecom hasn't met its burden…
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to demonstrate that the public and competition "will be advantaged by forbearance from that requirement," and a Dec. 28 AT&T letter "provides no basis for the Commission to conclude otherwise," filed Granite Telecommunications, Manhattan Telecommunications and AccessOne, posted Thursday in docket 18-141. They derided "baseless" AT&T arguments attempting "to explain away the inadequacy" of petition information and data by asserting the FCC need not analyze relevant TDM service geographic and product markets, where ILECs have "substantial and persisting market power." WorldNet discussed its opposition to the petition as applied to Puerto Rico, it filed, posted Friday, on meetings CEO David Bogaty and others had with Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Mike O'Rielly, their aides, aides to other commissioners and Wireline Bureau staffers. Incompas said a Feb. 21 AT&T letter and a Feb. 27 USTelecom letter "further demonstrate that USTelecom’s original Petition fails to meet the basic procedural requirement that forbearance petitions must be complete as-filed." The FCC should grant a petition dismissal motion of Incompas and others, filed the CLEC group, posted Thursday. USTelecom and members "discussed publicly available data and data in the record" supporting its "request for a finding that Section 251(c) unbundling and resale mandates are no longer necessary," filed the ILEC group on meeting an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. The data "demonstrate significant competition for voice and broadband service for consumers and businesses."