Incompas, Fiber Providers Make FCC Rounds to Oppose USTelecom UNE Forbearance Bid

Incompas and fiber providers pressed FCC commissioners to reject a USTelecom petition to forbear from requiring large ILECs to provide competitors unbundled wholesale access discounts. The providers "leverage unbundled network elements (UNEs) in key places while they are entering a market and building out their fiber networks," said a filing on a meeting with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly attended by executives of IdeaTek, Sonic Telecommunications, Socket Telecom, Mammoth Networks, First Communications and Access One, posted Tuesday in docket 18-141: If some "experience significant price increases, similar to those they faced" after business data service deregulation, "it could eliminate their ability to provide critical services." Some met Commissioner Brendan Carr (here), an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (here) and Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1807020046). USTelecom and Windstream proposed to delay UNE elimination until February 2021 (see 1806260028).