CompTel, CLECs Aim to Strengthen Political Position

CompTel divided its top staff position last December, making industry veteran James its CEO and former Republican congressman Salmon president. The CompTel search committee had searched for a single candidate, but saw advantages to have one person handling business and another tackling regulatory strategy, explained Salmon. It’s “a set-up for success,” Salmon said.

Salmon’s regulatory role will make CompTel more politically active, James and Salmon agreed. Thanks to his background, members believe CompTel will use political power “wisely,” James added. This year, Qwest forbearance is “far and away the most pressing” policy issue, Salmon said. Though CompTel had a strong hand in getting the Verizon forbearance request denied last year, “you're going to see us get involved at a much deeper level” in 2008 on Qwest and other regulatory issues that impact CLECs, he said.

In an election year, the FCC is unlikely to rule on controversial issues, Salmon said. And the commission is under investigation by Congress, he added. On the Hill, CompTel is “extremely interested” in a bill by House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., to amend Section 10 to end deemed granted approvals of forbearance requests. It’s also watching special access and a net neutrality bill by House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., Salmon said. But Salmon doesn’t see Congress deciding on the issues in 2008, he said.

CompTel had a “full sellout” of the exhibit hall at the Nashville show, James said. Registrants exceeded 2,200 and 900 passes for the exhibit hall were distributed, he said. -- Adam Bender

CompTel Notebook…

It shouldn’t take two forbearance filings to get the FCC to decide whether switched access charges should apply to VoIP, CLEC lawyers told CompTel in a regulatory workshop Tuesday. Forbearance petitions by Embarq and Feature Group IP aim to “force the FCC’s hand” to make a decision, said Covad Government Affairs Director Angela Simpson. But the FCC doesn’t need to make a determination on the requests until next year, after Chairman Kevin Martin’s likely departure, she said. Q2 2009 is the earliest the FCC will act, predicted Gregg Strumberger, Level 3 corporate counsel. The commission already made decisions on how CALEA, E-911 and other matters apply to VoIP, noted Ed Cadiux, Nuvox senior regulatory counsel. “I don’t know why they can’t do the same thing with access charges.” The FCC delay is frustrating, agreed John Messenger, Paetec associate general counsel. As a business, “it’s a travesty to have to exist in an area that’s been this uncertain for this long,” he said. “You don’t know how to behave.” Technological change warrants immediate FCC action, he said. “The rules that we're dealing with were written in a day when the structure of a call was a lot simpler,” he said. “It was presumed there was a LEC and an IXC and then another LEC. We're in a world today where there could be six different providers in that chain.” It’s no longer clear “what point you stop being an IXC and start becoming a LEC,” he said. The Embarq and Feature Group petitions also highlight problems with the forbearance process, noted Lisa Youngers, XO Communications director of federal regulatory affairs. Feature Group’s petition asks the FCC to forbear from imposing switched access charges on VoIP -- assuming that was the policy before. Embarq’s petition says VoIP carriers are already exempt from switched access charges, and requests the FCC forbear from the exemption and make VoIP carriers pay for access. Asking to forbear from a policy that might not be the policy is “improper,” Youngers said. And the diametrically opposed nature of the petitions shows why the “deemed granted” language should be eliminated from forbearance, she said. If the FCC doesn’t make a decision by the time the two petitions expire, it will have effectively declared both “deemed granted.” Such a scenario would leave the switched access issue even more muddled, Youngers said.