Free Press Faults FCC BDS Draft's Lack of Packetized Ethernet Rate Regulation
Free Press criticized an FCC draft order on business data service regulation circulated last week by Chairman Tom Wheeler. The liberal watchdog group said the record shows incumbent BDS providers are exercising market power and charging inflated rates for both…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
packet-based Ethernet services and legacy TDM-based services. "Unfortunately, the preliminary summary of Chairman Wheeler’s proposed final rules (released last Friday) suggests that the Commission might fail in its mission to regulate such non-competitive packet-based BDS services -- opting instead for continued monitoring alone, while kicking the can down the road once more in this decade-plus proceeding," said a Free Press filing posted Wednesday on a recent meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. It attached a recent letter from various consumer/public-interest groups urging comprehensive BDS reform. The Wheeler draft would target increased regulation of legacy DS1 and DS3 (with speeds below 45 Mbps), where market power evidence was strongest, but apply lighter-touch regulation of traditional services with speeds above 45 Mbps and all packetized services, where competition is emerging, said a "fact sheet" summary and senior agency officials (see 1610070027). Other parties made filings in docket 16-143 posted Tuesday, but they generally didn't address the summary. Incompas CEO Chip Pickering pushed for "meaningful reforms" that reduce "excessive rates" for both legacy BDS services and packet-based Ethernet services, said a filing on an Oct. 5 meeting with Wheeler, his aide Stephanie Weiner, General Counsel Howard Symons and Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero. Citing a Tuesday meeting with an aide to Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, an NCTA filing argued against any Ethernet rate regulation, urged a sunset date for rate regulation of TDM-based service to encourage transitions to IP-based service, and said common carrier regulation of cable BDS wasn't justified because those companies provided service on a private carriage basis. Competitive fiber providers made a filing opposing "benchmark regulation" (which the FCC didn't propose), and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) made a filing voicing general wariness about BDS regulation.