Big long-distance carriers condemned an emergency petition by sma...

carriers. The RLECs want the FCC to put the order on hold until the commission decides on their petition to preempt the board. In opposition filings last week, Qwest, Verizon and Sprint Nextel said the FCC has no authority to intervene, because the Iowa order concerned intrastate traffic, which states have the only jurisdiction over. No FCC decision has upheld the access revenue arrangements between the rural carriers and free conferencing providers, Sprint said. Verizon called the emergency petition “the latest in a series of meritless filings by traffic pumpers” that “engaged in pervasive fraud against” the Iowa board, “the Commission, and interexchange carriers and their customers.” The big carriers say the board’s order is limited to Iowa intrastate traffic, but meanwhile they are citing the decision in similar disputes across the country, said Ross Buntrock, an Arent Fox lawyer representing the RLECs in the FCC proceeding. “They can’t have it both ways.” Buntrock said he hasn’t found anything in the Iowa order clearly stating whether the decision applies to intrastate or interstate traffic or both, and the big carriers haven’t cited anything to that effect, he said.