Telcos Prod FCC to Open Rulemaking to Give Some RLECs Price-Cap BDS Deregulation Option
Telco officials urged the FCC to launch a rulemaking to permit rate-of-return carriers receiving model-based USF support to opt into relaxed price-cap business data service regulations. There was "only one comment substantively opposing" an ITTA/USTelecom petition for rulemaking, "and that…
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comment was, in reality, an improper attempt to relitigate the Commission’s actions with respect to business data services for price cap carriers," said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-144 on a discussion ITTA, USTelecom and Consolidated Communications officials had with Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and other staffers. Sprint opposed the petition outright, though others raised concerns about some aspects of it (see 1707060051 and 1707070030). The petition "is designed to further move model-based rate-of-return carriers towards price cap regulation by removing one of the last vestiges of legacy rate-of-return regulation applicable to such carriers," the telco filing said. The officials also discussed the applicability of a BDS "competitive market test to model-based rate-of-return carriers, the need for such carriers to continue receiving [Connect America Fund-intercarrier compensation] support and for an associated exception to the 'all or nothing' rule, and the public interest rationales underlying the petition."