CLECs and ILECs should enter a 30-day negotiation period beginning now to arrive at commercially negotiated rates for local access, said FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, speaking at the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC) General Assembly. If such negotiations fail, Powell said he intends to propose an interim set of rules to protect against precipitous disruptions in services currently delivered by CLECs using ILEC facilities. The interim rules would provide an 18 month moratorium and transition period for existing UNE-P customers. The FCC would also create "new rules to advance local competition" and Powell expressed a willingness to work with state commissioners in developing such rules.
No matter what one's view of the FCC's Triennial Review Order on UNE-p, the recent court ruling overturning those rules, or the likely Supreme Court challenge to that ruling, Powell said "we are confronting an unfortunate period of continued, and perhaps prolonged, uncertainty." The current situation "creates the real possibility that local telecommunications markets will operate in a vacuum of vacated rules and changing interconnection agreements."
Powell urged the industry to move past their entrenched positions and to compromise during the 30 day negotiation period.
He also called on state and federal regulators to work together on four other issues: consumer protection, Universal Service, Disabilities Access, and Homeland Security. http://www.fcc.gov
- Earlier this month, A three-judge panel in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the FCC's Triennial Review Order with regard to network unbundling rules. The FCC rules, which were announced in February 2003 but actually issued in August 2003, empowered state public utility commissions as the decision makers on issues regarding UNE-P unbundling and local competition. The Court of Appeals said the FCC erred by not providing unified, federal guidelines and by pushing many FCC decisions to the states. The court also upheld the Triennial Review Order's exemption provided to incumbent carriers from unbundling for certain fiber-fed loops and for line sharing. The ruling was applauded by ILECs but condemned at CLECs.
- One day after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the FCC's Triennial Review Order with regard to network unbundling rules, SBC Communications issued a public offer to AT&T, MCI and other competitors, inviting the companies "to negotiate commercially reasonable UNE-P wholesale rates ." SBC Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre said, "It is time for those of us who believe in free markets to put those commitments to the test in telecommunications." Whitacre pledged to keep in place the public utility commission approved UNE-P wholesale rules and pricing for 90 days, while offering to immediately begin negotiating commercial UNE-P wholesale rates that all parties can accept.
