CenturyLink, Frontier Press FCC on BDS Concerns, Cite Wireline Importance
CenturyLink and Frontier Communications voiced concern to FCC leadership that the agency's proposed framework for business data services wouldn't reflect how carriers negotiate in the BDS market, including for wireless backhaul. "Market conditions have shifted considerably since the FCC’s 2013…
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data set, which was not accurate and which is now three years old," said a joint filing posted Wednesday on company officials' meetings with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Ajit Pai, and various staffers. "We also explained that price regulation will distort and deter competition in the BDS market; prices set too low will preclude competitors from entering the market." They said wireline networks are critical to helping wireless providers meet "exponential" wireless data growth. "In 2015, for the first time, more wireless data traffic was offloaded onto a wired network than data carried over wireless infrastructure and that trend is increasing," the filing said. "The current BDS rulemaking would reduce, not increase, incentives to invest in much-needed wireline fiber-optic infrastructure that provides the foundation for offloading wireless data. We reiterated that it is important that any regime the FCC adopts does not deter investment, especially in rural areas." Also making recent filings in docket 16-143 were Comcast, FairPoint Communications, Incompas, Level 3, USTelecom, Windstream and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D).