USTelecom Defends FCC Copper Retirement Actions
USTelecom urged the FCC to reject an April filing that sought an “immediate halt” of four Wireline Bureau orders released in March whose goal was to quicken copper retirements (see 2503200056). Filing as the Irregulators, LTC Consulting and X-labs said the bureau shouldn’t be allowed to issue the order on delegated authority without commission debate or public comment.
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“The removal of the legitimate process and the IRREGULATORS right to be heard and defend the Public Interest (including seniors, low income families and rural and inner city residents, and all of us on the other side of the Digital Divide) has been put on mute,” the Irregulators said.
The Wireline Bureau's March action “made overdue, common-sense changes that will help turbocharge investment in advanced broadband infrastructure,” USTelecom countered in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-84. “In each instance, the Bureau thoroughly provided a clear and compelling explanation for why its actions are justified,” it said: “As merely one example, the Network Change Notification Waiver explained that waiving certain filing requirements would further the Commission’s policy to speed the transition to next generation networks and would serve the public interest by freeing resources for providers to devote to deployment.”