CenturyLink, Frontier Cite BDS Concerns; BT Offers Plan for Ethernet Under 50 Mbps

of market competition in how it implements any reform to existing grants of Phase II pricing flexibility, noting the particularly competitive nature of the transport market," said the two telcos in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 16-143 on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. In a meeting with the same aide, BT Americas asked the FCC to strengthen enforcement of packetized BDS rates offering data speeds of 50 Mbps or less, it wrote. "The Commission should require carriers filing price caps for TDM services to also file proof with the Commission that the weighted average of their posted Ethernet service rates 50 Mbps and under -- each carrier’s Actual Price Index (API) -- is below a Price Guideline Index (PGI) set by the Commission." Although the mechanism wouldn't constitute price-cap regulation and carriers wouldn't file tariffs for those services, BT said, "in a complaint proceeding, if a complainant could show that the API exceeded the PGI for the Ethernet services at issue, then there would be a presumption that these Ethernet prices charged by the seller were unjust and unreasonable." An Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee filing said the FCC "must treat low-speed Ethernet services" (under 100 Mbps) "no differently than TDM-based DS1 and DS3 services," which the draft proposed to subject to price-cap regulation and cuts. In a filing on meetings with aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai, Consolidated Communications said that proposed BDS rate cuts should be prorated for ILECs that have been price-cap regulated for only a few years under an FCC order adopting an industry CALLS (Coalition for Affordable Local and Long Distance Services) access-charge proposal. Commissioners tentatively plan to vote on a BDS item Nov. 17 (see 1610270054).