SBC Communications filed an emergency petition with the FCC asking the commission for an immediate ruling clarifying that the Telecom Act does not require terms of voluntary, commercial agreements to be filed with state commissions in their entirety. It also asked the commission to pre-empt any state filing requests beyond what is required by the Act and to halt any existing requests to do so.
SBC said it was concerned that some states may try to interfere with commercial negotiations on UNE-p issues by seeking to approve and regulate the commercial deals between the consenting parties.
"Only in the bizarre world of telecom regulation would companies be expected to negotiate commercially sensitive business issues in public and then have the results put into jeopardy by state regulatory interference. And only those competitors intent on sabotaging the process would make such a demand," said Paul K. Mancini, SBC senior vice president and assistant general counsel. http://www.sbc.com
- CompTel/ASCENT, which represents competitive carriers, issued a statement questioning why SBC believes that UNE-p agreements should "be shrouded in secrecy such that federal and state regulators (as well as other carriers and the general public) are kept in the dark about these matters."
