California VoIP Provider Seeks Wholesale Conditions on CenturyLink/Level 3
CenturyLink’s buy of Level 3 may reduce wholesale options unless conditioned, VoIP provider Telnyx said in Monday comments at the California Public Utilities Commission. Telnyx bought unbundled switched-network interoperability services from Inteliquent, but that company is exiting the market, Telnyx…
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said. Two alternatives are Level 3 and Peerless, but Level 3’s sales team refused to sell the product to Telnyx “because after the merger the combined CenturyLink will not offer the product to competing service providers,” the VoIP company said. That leaves only Peerless, Telnyx said. But in California, Telnyx won’t be able to serve at least 21 rural rate centers because Level 3 is the only provider of the interoperability services, the VoIP company said. “If the Commission does not take action to prevent Level 3 from removing itself as a potential competitor in the market for any or all of these wholesale services, the Commission may indirectly increase rates for wholesale services and place additional barriers on competitors.” Telnyx’s late entrance to the fight isn’t unusual when the CPUC reviews major transactions, Tellus Venture President Stephen Blum blogged. “Consideration of the Level 3 deal is still in an early stage -- the scope of the review has not been established.” California and New Jersey are the only remaining state regulatory OKs that CenturyLink needs (see 1708010074). CenturyLink disputed similar Telnyx comments in April at the FCC, citing a "misunderstanding" about what the Level 3 sales staff told Telnyx and saying that no decision has been made about whether the combined company will offer the Level 3 services sought by Telnyx (see 1704280034).