Federal appeals court upholds co-location

The United States Court of Appeals-District of Columbia Circuit today upheld the right of competitive carriers to co-locate their equipment within incumbent carrier premises.

Verizon Communications, along with co-petitioners BellSouth and SBC Communications, had argued that the FCC’s interpretation of Section 251 (c) (6) of the Telecom Act was “overly broad” because it allows for co-location of CLEC equipment even when interconnection or access can be obtained through the use of off-site equipment.

The petitioners had also argued that the FCC had acted “unlawfully” by allowing CLECs to co-locate switching and routing equipment and by allowing competitors to co-locate multifunctional equipment without first demonstrating that “each function is necessary for interconnection or access.”

In addition, they argued the commission has “no authority” to order carrier-to-carrier cross-connects and alleged the FCC’s space assignment rules “grant competitors unwarranted rights to control the specific location of their equipment within the incumbents’ premises.”

The D.C. Circuit rejected all of these arguments. In doing so, it “closed the door on yet another wasteful, time-consuming challenge to competition cooked up by Bell company legal departments over the past six years,” said a spokesman for AT&T.

A spokesman for Allegiance Telecom said today’s decision, coupled with last month’s Supreme Court decision that affirmed the TELRIC (total element long range incremental cost) pricing formula for unbundled network elements, is a sign that “telecom competition is inevitable.”

“Instead of competing in the marketplace as required by law, the Bells litigate, legislate and stonewall their competitors to death,” he said. “What else can you expect from utilities that are led by lawyers and lobbyists instead of businessmen and entrepreneurs?”

A call made to Verizon for comment was not immediately returned.

--Glenn Bischoff, Senior Writer