FCC, Incumbent Telcos Oppose Request for 8th Circuit Stay of BDS Order

The FCC and ILECs opposed a bid for a court stay of a business data service order that critics said unjustifiably deregulated monopoly ILEC services and will cause irreparable harm to BDS competitors and business consumers (see 1707050032). BT Americas, Incompas, Windstream and the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee "argue the Order 'removes price regulation,' 'abandon[s] rate regulation,' and 'almost totally deregulate[s] rates,' leaving them 'without remedy if BDS rates rise,'" said an FCC filing (in Pacer) Thursday opposing the parties' request for a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. "Those contentions are false. The Order only eliminates one form of regulation -- setting prices in advance through price cap tariffs. It leaves in place a robust regulatory regime that protects petitioners from unjust, unreasonable, or unlawfully discriminatory rates and terms." The decision to streamline BDS price regulation was based on a substantial record and reasonable analysis, said the FCC, which attached a July 10 Wireline Bureau denial of a request for an agency stay of the order (see 1707100028). AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom also opposed (in Pacer) the request for a court stay: The order "eliminates unnecessary regulatory burdens and spurs investment by modifying outmoded rules governing certain [BDS] offered by incumbent telephone companies over legacy technologies." The stay movants have asked the 8th Circuit to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit, which the agency and some ILECs also opposed.