Access - Regulatory
XO seeks to raise up to $900M
XO Communications is seeking to raise up to $900 million in debt and equity, the carrier said in regulatory filings today...
SEC threatens Sycamore with civil action
Investigators at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have recommended that the SEC take civil action against Sycamore Networks regarding that company’s stock option grant procedures and accounting...
CLECs fight for forbearance reform
A trio of CLECs warned federal regulators today against freeing incumbent carriers from obligations to lease network elements to competitors...
FCC OKs local, long-distance integration
AT&T and Verizon are now free to merge their in-region local and long-distance operations under an order issued by the Federal Communications Commission just before the Labor Day weekend...
Supreme Court backs dismissal of Bell anti-trust suit
The United States Supreme Court this week ruled in favor of Bell companies in upholding a district court’s dismissal of an antitrust suit against the carriers. According to the Court, the plaintiffs lacked enough facts to justify what it pointed out would be a very expensive evidence discovery process...
Level 3 predicts CDN patent fights
In the midst of a much-publicized patent dispute between voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider Vonage and Verizon Communications, Level 3 Communications today foreshadowed increasing conflicts over intellectual property in the future and plans to participate in those fights in the content distribution arena...
Iowa telcos seek FCC pressure on incumbents
A group of Iowa telcos and their conference calling partners are in Washington this week, hoping to convince the Federal Communications Commission to pressure large incumbents such as AT&T, Embarq, Qwest and Verizon to stop blocking calls and start paying about $20 million in back access charges...
OIF OKs E-NNI IA
The Optical Interworking Forum (OIF) has approved an implementation agreement (IA) designed to ease the provisioning of optical networks...
Broadband advocate outlines eight steps to national plan
The Baller-Herbst law firm, a vocal broadband advocate best known as a supporter of municipal broadband, has published an eight-step plan to achieve a national broadband strategy...
BPL freedom from unbundling no panacea
The FCC moved to level the regulatory playing field between broadband over powerline, or BPL, and other forms of broadband this month, though BPL is not...
FTTH Con: Muni broadband advocate sees ‘rosy picture’
LAS VEGAS--After years of fighting to protect the rights of municipalities to provide broadband and other telecom services, Jim Baller, an attorney with the Baller-Herbst Law Group, has to admit he’s breathing a lot easier these days...
California to issue video franchises
California late last week became the latest state to create a statewide video franchise program, a move that had been expected since both sides of the state legislature and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had earlier expressed support for such a law...
NCTA-funded study claims $100 billion in savings
A study commissioned by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association is claiming consumers and small businesses could save up to $100 billion over the next five years because they now have a choice for local telephone service...
Disaster recovery: Should voice mail be free?
A couple of communications industry veterans believe the telcos should add something to their disaster recovery lists--free voice mail service in the event of large-scale disasters. This is the second in a series of special reports on business continuity...
TIA: Video franchising bill must pass
The Telecommunications Industry Association, whose membership consists of many network equipment manufacturers that cater to both telcos and cable TV companies, wants see national video franchising legislation be approved quickly by the U.S. Senate, or it may run the risk of slowing broadband deployment....
More states pursue video-franchising bills
As the federal video franchise debate forges on, telecommunications service providers are taking the issue into their own hands at the state level...
NECA says all aboard the packet train
Competition alone is not a realistic solution to the universal availability of broadband services, National Exchange Carrier Association Director of Demand Forecasting and Rate Development Victor Glass said today while introducing an outline of the organization’s latest study on the state of broadband in rural America....
IRS buckles on long-distance tax
The tax created 107 years ago to pay for the Spanish-American War has finally been repealed. The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it is conceding the long-running legal dispute over the federal excise tax on long-distance telephone service...
Academics say FCC flunking on USF
A group called the Keep USF Fair Coalition, comprising mostly representatives from American universities, issued a report yesterday highlighting the steep price the academic community would pay if the FCC moves forward with its proposed flat-fee charge for the Universal Service Fund on all phone numbers...
Seniors rally against flat USF charges
Hoping to derail FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s proposal for a per-line charge to fund universal service, The Seniors Coalition (TSC) today released the results of a survey showing half of all older Americans would have to cut back on long-distance calls if their monthly bill was raised by $1 to $2 every month...
