FCC can’t please anyone

The Federal Communications Commission’s decision to significantly weaken unbundling requirements for the Bell companies caught no one by surprise, but that didn’t stop some complaints about the ruling’s impact from both sides.

Pro-consumer groups, and the dissenting two Democratic members of the commission, claimed that the ruling limits the ability of non-Bell companies to reach customers, particularly in densely populated business districts where many CLECs find their best opportunity. The Bell companies, however, say the FCC didn’t go far enough.

"We are extremely disappointed in the new tests to assess impairment in the areas of transport and high-capacity loops," said Herschel Abbott, BellSouth vice president, governmental affairs, in a prepared statement. These rules do not appear to follow the court's order to take into consideration potential competition as well as actual competition. For example, there are BellSouth central offices in Charlotte, Miami, Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale that house a dozen or more competitive fiber networks that apparently could not meet the new high-cap test, thus requiring BellSouth to continue to offer broad unbundling."

The final details of the order must still be released, but following its meeting today, the FCC issued a statement that spells out where and how CLECs can still expect to have access to unbundled network elements.

• Dedicated Interoffice Transport--CLECs can still get access to DS-1 and DS-3 lines, as well as dark fiber, between Central Offices that house less than four collocated competitors or fewer than 38,000 lines.

• High capacity loops--CLECs can still get access to DS-3 loops except in densely populated areas, defined as buildings served by a central office of 38,000 lines or more and housing four collocated competitors. CLECs can get access to DS-1 loops except to buildings served by a central office of 60,000 lines and four or more collocated competitors. CLECs cannot get access to dark fiber loops.

• UNE-P--As expected, CLECs can no longer lease local switching along with loop access in order to simply resell an incumbent’s service.

Where CLECs have to give up access to unbundled elements, the FCC defined a 12- to 18-month transition plan and interim rates that are slightly above what CLECs pay now.

Among the calmer responses to the FCC’s order was that of Covad Communications, which has been highly active in competing and in lobbying for CLEC rights.

As part of a prepared statement, James Kirkland, Covad’s senior vice president and general counsel, hailed the end of an era of regulatory uncertainty.

"While some aspects of the order discussed at today's FCC meeting could have been improved upon, we hope that this order ushers in a new era of stability in the regulatory arena, and look forward to competing in the marketplace under the new rules," he said.

Covad was particularly gratified that access to high-capacity loops was retained, Kirkland said.

Similarly, Z-Tel COO Frank Grillo said he was disappointed but not surprised by the change and that his company would use the transition time to position the company to be a facilities-based carrier, using voice over IP technology, and to try to negotiate individual deals with Bell companies, something it already did with Qwest Communications.