Verizon refiles New Jersey 271 application

Verizon Communications today refiled its application with the FCC to provide in-region long-distance service in New Jersey under Section 271 of the Telecommunications Act.

According to Verizon, it withdrew its application on March 19—one day prior to the deadline for an FCC decision—due to procedural issues, which the carrier said have been corrected in the refilling. Specifically, Verizon wanted to reduce the rate it charges for hot cuts—the physical act of switching a customer to a competitor’s service—to bring it in line with the rate it charges in New York, which had been reduced by the New York State Public Service Commission in February.

But the FCC sent “a clear signal,” according to a Verizon spokesman, that it would reject the application if the carrier tried to amend it after the filing.

The refiled application not only “eliminates the one issue that remained in serious dispute,” said Tom Tauke, Verizon’s senior vice president of public affairs and public policy, it shows competition in New Jersey has grown since the original filing. Competitors have added 50,000 access lines since December 2001, bringing the total to about 610,000 lines.

In addition to New Jersey, Verizon has 271 applications pending in Vermont and Maine. It has received 271 approval in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The carrier is the fourth largest long-distance service provider in the United States, with 8 million customers in 41 states.

—Glenn Bischoff, senior news writer