An attempt by incumbent telephone companies to cut off competitors’ access to leased lines was slowed down a bit by the Federal Communications Commission on Friday. The deadline for reviewing a request by telco lobbyists that has the potential for killing off many, if not most, independent Internet service providers was extended by two months.
USTelecom, a lobbying front for big telcos, such as AT&T and Frontier Communications, as well as small incumbents, asked the FCC to eliminate rules that require telcos to lease copper DSL circuits and other facilities on a wholesale basis to “competitive local exchange carriers” (CLECs). The lobbyists invoked a fast track procedure – a petition for forbearance – that skates around some of the FCC’s usual due process when major decisions are made.
It would be a major decision. Without wholesale access to telco copper, most independent ISPs, which typically register as CLECs, would be left without a wireline pathway to subscribers.
The FCC is still considering a motion made by another lobbying group, Incompas, which represents a variety of content, equipment and independent telecoms companies. It asked the FCC to simply dismiss USTelecom’s petition, because it didn’t include the complete set of back up information that the fast track process requires.
The California Public Utilities Commission seconded that request, at least to the extent that “all of the data USTelecom relies on to support its petition…must be in the record”. Yesterday, Central Coast Broadband Consortium (CCBC) filed a letter with the FCC, also asking it to toss out USTelecom’s maneuver…
In its petition, USTelecom proposes a radical overhaul of telephone industry regulation. Extraordinary conclusions require extraordinary evidence. USTelecom’s petition3 is a mundane recitation of self-interested opinion backed by the barest summary of cherry picked data. Full disclosure of all underlying data is essential for proper consideration of its request.
Full disclosure: I drafted and filed the CCBC’s letter.
Additional information and comments are now due on 6 August 2018, with rebuttals due a month after that.