McCain takes another shot at dereg

Aug 2, 2002 12:00 PM

Specifically, the bill would deregulate retail provisioning of residential broadband services and prevent competitive carriers from accessing new high-speed data facilities deployed by telephone companies, while maintaining competitor access to legacy networks.

It also would require the FCC to commission a study within two years of the bill’s enactment to determine whether state regulation of consumer broadband service quality is “appropriate or necessary.” In addition, the bill would prevent the FCC from imposing open access requirements on any provider, regardless of the platform used to provide consumer broadband service.

“Today a multitude of ISPs (Internet service providers) rely on access mandated by the FCC to serve their customers,” McCain said in introducing the bill. “The bill would allow the FCC to continue to enforce these obligations during a transition period, but would mandate the sunset of such requirements unless the FCC determines their continued enforcement is necessary to preserve competition for consumers.”

The bill does not include an open-access requirement for cable companies, as had been previously rumored.

McCain said he was taking this action because consumers have yet to benefit from the Telecom Act – a bill McCain did not support – six years after its passage.

“If I had my way, I would throw out the 1996 Act and start from scratch,” McCain said.

The McCain bill’s introduction is a positive development because it is yet another attempt to find a solution to “the perverse regulatory structure that governs high-speed service from telephone companies,” Herschel Abbott, vice president of governmental affairs for BellSouth, said in a statement. However, at first glance, Abbott suggested the bill doesn’t go far enough.

“We are frankly puzzled by the apparent failure of the bill to provide regulatory relief for broadband services in the business arena,” Abbott said. “Business customers already have the most competitive choices for high-speed data service and no company is dominant.”

-- Glenn Bischoff, senior writer

Reporter’s Notebook

As reported by Telephony yesterday, SBC Communications today filed tariffs with the FCC aimed at protecting itself, its shareholders and its end-user customers from the financial risks associated with providing services to financially troubled telecommunications providers. Among the provisions is a requirement that credit-impaired customers that owe SBC at least $1 million make a one-month deposit or pre-pay for one month’s service. Credit impairment would be determined by benchmarks used by nationally recognized credit-rating organizations.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday urged the FCC to review issues raised by several CLECs regarding Verizon Communications’ pricing of unbundled network elements, but otherwise recommended the commission approve the carrier’s applications to provide long-distance service in Delaware and New Hampshire. Earlier in the week, the DOJ cautioned the FCC concerning the need for advance disclosure by BellSouth of changes the carrier may make in calculating metrics used to report its commercial performance. The DOJ urged the commission to review its concerns in this matter, but otherwise recommended approval of BellSouth’s five-state application to provide long-distance service in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Qwest Communications received similar treatment from the DOJ regarding its five state-application covering Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa and North Dakota. The DOJ expressed concerns about electronically auditable wholesale bills provided to CLECs for Qwest’s UNE platform. The DOJ also expressed concern regarding allegations that Qwest entered into “secret” interconnection agreements with certain CLECs. However, the DOJ acknowledged that Qwest had submitted meaningful information to address these concerns and otherwise recommended approval. The DOJ has three categories pertaining to its evaluations – reject, neutral and approve – and Verizon, BellSouth and Qwest all fell into the “approve” category.