FCC Mum on CLEC Forbearance Petition until Deadline Loomed
The FCC circulated an order dismissing an OrbitCom forbearance request before it made the carrier’s petition public, acting nearly a year after Orbitcom filed the petition. The agency never posted a public notice seeking comment. The 12-month statutory forbearance deadline is Aug. 27. The situation raises red flags about FCC openness and the forbearance process, industry officials said in interviews.
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OrbitCom filed Aug. 27, 2007, for forbearance from sections 61.26(b) and 61.26(c). It sought to tariff rates for interstate switched access that mirror its intrastate tariff rates. The petition didn’t appear until Tuesday on the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System. On Aug. 6, Chairman Kevin Martin circulated a draft order to deny forbearance, an FCC spokesman told us.
OrbitCom, a competitive local exchange carrier in Sioux Falls, S.D., wants forbearance to “recover some transport costs resulting from serving rural customers and higher loop costs,” it said. Its three-paragraph petition runs shorter than recent forbearance petitions by other carriers. Not counting attachments, a recently denied Qwest forbearance petition for four metropolitan statistical areas filled 32 pages. Verizon’s pending forbearance petition for Virginia Beach ran to 39 pages.
“Because the petition was so deficient on its face, the commission did not seek comment on this forbearance petition,” an FCC spokesman told us Wednesday. “Of course, to the extent any of the commissioners believe that this petition should be granted, the item is currently on circulation and the commissioners now have the opportunity to vote either to grant or dismiss it.” OrbitCom didn’t respond right away to a request for comment.
“Disturbing” events enveloping the OrbitCom petition raise questions about agency operations, said Mary Albert, CompTel general counsel. The FCC shouldn’t be ruling “in the dark,” she said. The commission should put “everything” up for public notice, though it isn’t required to, said Gregory Kennan, One Communications federal counsel. The FCC at least should have added the petition to ECFS so interested parties could comment, Albert said. The commission ruling may have policy effects, and CompTel would have commented had it been given the chance, she said.
Regardless of its merits, OrbitCom’s “bare-bones” petition offers no basis for action, Albert said. A Sprint Nextel spokesman agreed, saying “a cursory look at the petition shows it’s substantially deficient in satisfying statutory forbearance criteria.” OrbitCom’s handling of its own case was “wrong” and an “abuse of the forbearance process,” Albert said, adding that the petition itself underscores why the agency needs rules on how to handle forbearance requests.