Aureon to Cooperate With FCC Tariff Order
Aureon will “continue to work with” the FCC Wireline Bureau on developing a potential refund plan, it told bureau staff in recent meetings, per ex parte filings last week in docket 18-60. The centralized equal access provider also discussed the information it would provide to the bureau about its switched transport tariff rate. Commissioners will consider an order during its Friday meeting that would require Aureon to submit certain information the bureau would need to calculate refunds to customers that paid unlawful charges March 1, 2018, through October 14, 2019 (see 2201280065).
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Aureon hasn’t acted to refund customers or “voluntarily” submit a refund plan, the draft order said. The proceeding stems from a 2017 order that partially granted AT&T’s complaint that Aureon violated the commission’s rate cap and rate parity rules by raising its interstate switched transport rate. As a competitive LEC, Aureon can’t set rates higher than competing incumbent LECs charge for the same access service.
If adopted, the order would require Aureon to submit within 60 days its “actual, historical year cost of service studies” for 2018 and 2019, actual billed revenue from nonrecurring states, documentation that details how it accounts for company-wide investments and expenses, and a justification for all of its investment and expense assignments. Also required would be actual monthly demand billed for interstate switched transport service and detailed information about each customer that it served during the period in question. Aureon and the FCC didn’t comment.
Lumen was the only other provider to lobby the FCC on the item. Lumen backed the draft order, in separate meetings with Wireline Bureau staff and an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per an ex parte filing posted Friday. It expressed concern that the draft “could be misread as suggesting that the order prejudges in some way the potential rights of interexchange carriers … to challenge Aureon’s relevant switched access charges.” Lumen suggested “clarifying language” that the bureau’s 2018 order didn’t “preclud[e] challenges to Aureon’s previously filed rates.” Lumen didn’t comment.
The bureau opened an investigation into Aureon’s revisions and suspended the revised rate in 2018. Aureon’s customers continue paying the disputed rate. A July 2018 order directed Aureon to again refile its interstate switched transport rate, and the bureau suspended those revised rates to continue its existing accounting investigation. The FCC concluded Aureon “failed to provide adequate cost support” to justify its revisions, the draft order said. Aureon filed additional revisions in April and September 2019, which were deemed lawful and took effect Oct. 15 that year.
Aureon and AT&T went to court in May over the tariff dispute, telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia the companies agreed to a settlement in principle (see 2105140053). At issue was the FCC’s 2019 rate tariff order directing Aureon to revise its interstate switched transport rates for its centralized equal access service. AT&T didn’t comment.
The draft order is “part of an ongoing proceeding to investigate the lawfulness of Aureon’s interstate switched transport rate,” the item said, reaffirming the FCC’s decision to delegate authority to the Wireline Bureau to “manage and enforce the specifics of any tariff investigation.” The National Exchange Carrier Association, which files interstate access charge tariffs with the FCC, declined to comment.
Once the bureau calculates appropriate refunds, it would seek comments on its proposed refund plan and issue an order directing Aureon to begin paying. “These refund payments will conclude the investigation into Aureon’s interstate switched transport rate,” the draft said.