Telcos Urge FCC to Undo 2016 Tariff Investigation Order; Rivals Disagree

Telco rivals disagreed on what the FCC should do about a business data service order that ruled certain ILEC tariff practices unlawful. Reacting to a remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, AT&T and Verizon said the commission should reverse the 2016 tariff order after earlier this year finding the BDS market is highly competitive. The tariff order "is irreconcilable with both (1) the D.C. Circuit’s decision in BellSouth Telecomms. Inc. v. FCC ... (D.C. Cir. 2006), and (2) the economic realities of an expanding and intensely competitive market for [BDS], in which the legacy DS1 services at issue will soon be obsolete," said AT&T in a comment posted Tuesday in docket 15-247 on a public notice (see 1711030050). Tariff discount plans "did not weaken or harm competitive markets" and should be found lawful, said Verizon, noting its revised offerings were allowed to take effect after the tariff order. Windstream, Incompas and Sprint said the FCC should affirm findings of the order and expand remedies to "help facilitate the transition to IP-based networks and promote competition. Reversing the Order ... would sabotage a critical prediction underpinning the Commission’s entire policy framework for [BDS], and would enable the [ILECs] that currently dominate the market for low-bandwidth BDS to unlawfully maintain their monopoly."