An FCC order clarifying interconnection rules won praise from a g...

An FCC order clarifying interconnection rules won praise from a group of VoIP providers. Acting on a Time Warner Cable petition Thurs., the Wireline Bureau said incumbent LECs must give cable operators and other companies VoIP interconnection rights and exchange traffic with cable systems and state efforts to prevent such action run afoul of FCC rules (CD March 2 p2). The order is favorable to a wide range of VoIP providers, said the VON Coalition, whose members include AT&T, Covad, Earthlink, Pulver.com and Skype, among others. “The FCC was right to find that states cannot unilaterally twist the meaning of the Telecom Act to hang up on broadband-enabled voice competition,” VON Coalition Pres. Staci Pies said in a prepared statement: “The problems that Time Warner faced in South Carolina and Nebraska were not isolated. They threatened the competitive availability of VoIP services overall.” AT&T, which had supported the Time Warner petition, told the FCC that state rulings that not all telcos must provide interconnection violated the Act. Verizon declined comment. The FCC rulemaking, at first glance, doesn’t seem to intrude on state rights, NARUC Gen. Counsel Brad Ramsay told us: “It does appear the FCC really tried to take a minimally intrusive approach with respect to state jurisdiction in the decision. I'm not sure they succeeded.” NARUC, however, didn’t participate in the rulemaking, he noted, adding the order “was an obvious effort at comity.” - JM