Access Stimulators Have Time Enough to Meet Compliance, FCC Says In New Order

order in docket 18-155 and Monday's Daily Digest. Commissioners voted to change the definition of access stimulators that could put more LECs at risk of the designation (see 1909260055). They changed the rules so such LECs would have to pay for certain long-distance transport traffic and tandem fees. The agency cited evidence that LECs should be able to "relocate their traffic in days, if not hours, rather than weeks and months." It rejected a request from FailSafe for a three-year phase-out of access charges due to independent phone companies' provision of emergency communications services. It suggested LECs that can satisfy standards of showing heavy financial burdens from the new rule should feel free to seek a waiver. The agency noted "there is a distinction between how much time it will take for an entity to come into compliance with the rules and how much time it will take to change their business model in light of the change in the rules." Responding to Joint CLECs, the agency clarified that "an access-stimulating LEC is responsible for all of the charges for tandem switching and tandem switched transport of traffic from any intermediate access provider(s) in the call path" between an interexchange carrier and the access-stimulating LEC. "It is neither unjust nor unreasonable to treat access-stimulating LECs differently from non-access-stimulating LECs," it said. The FCC modified Section 214 authorizations for Aureon and SDN: "The mandatory use requirement does not apply to interexchange carriers delivering terminating traffic to a local exchange carrier engaged in access stimulation." Only LECs engaged in access stimulation and IXCs delivering traffic to them will be affected by those changes for Aureon and SDN. The rules take effect within 75 days of Federal Register publication.