FCC Eliminates Mandated Line Sharing for DSL

The FCC voted 4-to-0 to eliminated the line sharing requirements on facilities-based wireline broadband Internet access service providers. The decision puts DSL operators on regulatory par with cable operators, who are not required to share their cable modem facilities with independent ISPs following the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Brand X case.


Specifically, the FCC determined that wireline broadband Internet access services are defined as information services functionally integrated with a telecommunications component. In the past, the FCC required facilities-based providers to offer that wireline broadband transmission component separately from their Internet service as a stand-alone service on a common-carrier basis, and thus classified that component as a telecommunications service. With the new ruling, the FCC has eliminated this transmission component sharing requirement, finding it caused vendors to delay development and deployment of broadband services to consumers. To ensure a smooth transition, the Order requires that facilities-based wireline broadband Internet access service providers continue to provide existing wireline broadband Internet access transmission offerings, on a grandfathered basis, to unaffiliated ISPs for one year.


The Order also requires facilities-based providers to contribute to existing universal service mechanisms based on their current levels of reported revenues for the DSL transmission for a 270-day period after the effective date of the Order or until the Commission adopts new contribution rules, whichever occurs earlier. If the Commission is unable to complete new contribution rules within the 270-day period, the Commission will take whatever action is necessary to preserve existing funding levels, including extending the 270-day period or expanding the contribution base.


The Order also allows wireline providers the flexibility to offer the transmission component of the wireline broadband Internet access service to affiliated or unaffiliated ISPs on a common-carrier basis, a non-common carrier basis, or some combination of both. Some rural incumbent local exchange carriers, or LECs, have indicated their members may choose to offer broadband Internet access transmission on a common carrier basis.


FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said "the Order that we adopt today is a momentous one. It ends the regulatory inequities that currently exist between cable and telephone companies in their provision of broadband Internet services. As I have said on numerous occasions, leveling the playing field between these providers has been one of my highest priorities. With this Order, wireline broadband Internet access providers, like cable modem service providers, will be considered information service providers and will no longer be compelled by regulation to unbundle and separately tariff the underlying transmission component of their Internet access service."http://www.fcc.gov