AT&T Special Access Game Plan Is To Delay FCC Action, Pickering Says

act  --  even though it has just completed the largest data collection ever undertaken by the FCC in any proceeding," he said in a blog post. "With data in hand, now is the time for the Commission to act promptly to address this broken market. Finally ending monopoly pricing, and eliminating punishing terms and conditions, which are locking up customers and locking out competition." The FCC could issue a Further NPRM in April or May in its broad special access rulemaking and an order in its ILEC tariff investigation (see 1603210048). Pickering said AT&T "likes to take a helicopter view of the market" that looks at competition by census block. "But let me ask you, when was the last time someone said, 'I work in a census block?' Never," he said. "That is because real people work in buildings  --  school buildings, hospital buildings, and fire station buildings." Pickering said ILECs have connections to virtually every commercial location in their monopoly-derived territories. "They are the only provider of special access services to the vast majority of these locations. That’s market power," he said. Pickering dismissed AT&T's suggestion that competitors don't need reasonably priced last-mile access to ILEC special access facilities. "If building to locations was as easy as the incumbents claim, why haven’t they (with hundreds of billions more resources than any competitor) built much, if at all, outside their incumbent regions?" he said. Pickering questioned AT&T arguments that cable provides "fierce competition" to ILEC special access services. "In reality, most cable services are not special access services (i.e., dedicated services)," he said. "Nonetheless, NCTA’s special access filing only demonstrates the ineffectiveness of a duopoly. It asserts more competition would be bad because it would force providers to improve service and lower prices ….um, YES, that is exactly what competitive market forces are intended to do." He called on the FCC to "address the abuse of market power," including over ethernet services, and voiced hope it would do so under Chairman Tom Wheeler, "who's been consistent in his efforts to promote and preserve competition."