BDS Parties Agree on Proposal to 8th Circuit for Briefing Schedule Running Through Fall

Business data service litigants proposed a consensus briefing schedule and format to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reviewing four petitions challenging the FCC April BDS order (see 1704200020). Opening briefs of two sets of petitioners that basically believe the order was overly regulatory or overly deregulatory would be due Sept. 26, with the brief of respondents FCC and DOJ due Nov. 10, briefs of different intervenors supporting different parts of the order due Nov. 17, and reply briefs of petitioners due Dec. 11 (final briefs incorporating an appendix would be Jan. 2), said a motion (in Pacer) filed Thursday by CenturyLink on behalf of "all other Petitioners, Respondents, and Intervenors" in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296, and consolidated cases. The motion, which proposed word limits for briefs, said it tried to streamline the arguments and briefs. It said telco petitioners CenturyLink and Citizens expect to argue the order reduces price-cap ILEC rates more quickly than justified in areas that remain regulated. It said petitioners Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee, BT Americas, Granite Telecommunications, Incompas, Sprint and Windstream joined by Access Point, Alpheus Communications, New Horizon Communications and Xchange Telecom expect to argue the order deregulated price-cap ILEC rates in areas without adequate competition and without adequate notice, justification and factual support. Telco intervenors AT&T, CenturyLink and USTelecom, and cable intervenors NCTA and Comcast expect to defend different aspects of deregulation, while intervenors Ad Hoc and others expect to defend rate reductions, the motion said.