DC Circuit Gives AT&T Win in Vacating FCC Decision Favoring CLECs, VoIP Providers
A federal court sided with AT&T in overturning an FCC VoIP symmetry ruling that had allowed local competitors to collect higher switching charges for routing over-the-top long-distance calls to local phone customers. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously reversed the commission's February 2015 ruling that CLECs in partnership with over-the-top VoIP providers were providing the "functional equivalent" of end-office switching and thus could collect associated access charges, instead of the lower charges associated with tandem switching.
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"The Declaratory Ruling does not disclose the Commission’s reasoning with the requisite clarity to enable us to sustain its conclusion," said Judge Stephen Williams in the court's opinion in AT&T v. FCC, No. 15-1059. "We therefore vacate and remand the order to the Commission for further explanation." Williams was the most aggressive questioner of the FCC's attorney at oral argument, Communications Daily previously reported. Other judges in the case were Raymond Randolph and Judith Rogers.
The FCC declined to comment. AT&T had no immediate comment.