FCC embarks on first triennial review of UNEs

The FCC this week began its first triennial review of its policies concerning unbundled network elements (UNEs), as specified by an order issued in 1999. Specifically, the commission will examine the framework under which incumbent local exchange carriers make their UNEs available to competitors.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a statement that the triennial review process “underscores the Commission’s ongoing commitment” to the promotion of facilities-based competition, as well as competition from “newer entrants who supplement their own facilities with network elements leased from the incumbent.”

“I fully support the use of facilities and individual UNEs as means to promote local competition while simultaneously furthering the related goals of encouraging deregulations and innovation,” he said.

While generally supporting the triennial review, Commissioner Michael Copps cautioned that the FCC needs to “show proper restraint” concerning deregulations.

“We must recognize that setting competition policy is the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress,” Copps said in a statement. “The Commission should use these proceedings to understand the marketplace better in our role as policy implementers and not policy makers.”

As part of the review, the FCC will examine the role of state commissions in the implementation of unbundling rules, which pleases the Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel), according to its president, H. Russell Frisby, Jr.

“State commissions have played a critical role in determining rates, terms and conditions associated with the national list of UNEs,” Frisby said in a statement. He called for the FCC to “provide the states a formal means to shape telecommunications policy” in cooperation with the commission.

--Glenn Bischoff, senior news writer