FCC OKs Verizon 271 bid in Pennsylvania

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted Verizon Communications permission to provide long distance service in Pennsylvania. The vote was 3-1, with the lone dissent coming from Commissioner Michael Copps.

Though he described Copps as an “acolyte” of the pro-CLEC Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., Robert Sanders, an analyst with The Eastern Management Group, said the commissioner delivered a “thoughtful and lengthy” dissenting opinion.

“You could see some of Hollings’ flavor in his writing, but Copps felt there were legitimate concerns over e-billing issues, whether e-billing is as good as traditional forms of billing,” Saunders said. “Obviously, the other commissioners didn’t agree.”

Before his confirmation in May, Copps served 12 years as Hollings’ chief of staff and had served as assistant secretary of commerce for trade development at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Hollings chairs the powerful Senate Commerce Committee.

Though the Section 271 process was particularly contentious at the state level, Saunders said it was oddly quiet at the federal level.

“The state’s Public Utility Commission got behind the FCC application once the issue of whether Verizon was going to structurally or functionally separate its retail and wholesale businesses was put to rest,” said Saunders. “The only hiccup was at the Department of Justice.”

In July, the DOJ refused to endorse Verizon’s application, citing concerns over the electronic billing system. According to the carrier, the problem stemmed from mapping issues and that the company simply hadn’t gone through enough cycles at the time to satisfy the Justice Department.

However, the Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) took the FCC to task for "overlooking a mountain of evidence" that indicates Verizon did not have a "commercially viable" carrier-to-carrier wholesale billing system at the time of its Section 217 application, and still doesn't.

"Given that UNE-P (unbundled network element-platform) has been shown to be the only practical vehicle to bring telecommunications competition to residential and small business consumers, it is especially unfortunate ... that the FCC did not address a critical issue like wholesale billing," H. Russell Frisby, CompTel's president, said in a statement.

Saunders believes the approval is good news for residential and business customers in Pennsylvania, based on what has occurred in New York, where incumbent Verizon has been providing long-distance service.

“WorldCom, for example, has decided to go into local service to offset the long-distance business it has lost to Verizon,” he said. “I see more of the same happening in Pennsylvania.”