The FCC Wireline Bureau overstepped its bounds when it required m...

Masergy, an MPLS provider, sought clarification of a recent edit to the FCC’s form 499A characterized by the bureau as a “nonsubstantive” change. “The imposition of such an obligation is beyond the Bureau’s delegated authority,” Sprint said. “MPLS services are information services not subject to USF obligations, and the Bureau did not have the authority to determine that MPLS information service providers should be treated otherwise.” BT Americas agreed, saying “MPLS is not a type of telecommunications but is in fact a technology used to offer services that constitute information services.” But big phone companies said the FCC has already clarified it’s not requiring contributions on an information service. In separate filings, AT&T and Verizon cited an April letter (CD April 3 p15) from the FCC to the Universal Service Administrative Co., in which the bureau said companies need only pay a universal service contribution for the telecom service aspects of multi-protocol label switching. “It is clear that the addition of MPLS to the list of services that might be subject to contribution did not alter in any way the Commission’s rules and policies, or expand in any way carriers’ obligation to contribute on revenues derived from MPLS services,” AT&T said. The bureau’s letter to USAC was only somewhat enlightening, said NTT America. “In the absence of a more formal and definitive clarification issuing from the Commission itself, regulatory uncertainty will persist for Form 499 filers that may use MPLS technology in some of their service offerings.”