COMPTEL, an industry organization representing competitive carriers and their suppliers, filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging last week’s FCC action that granted broadband regulatory relief to Verizon.
In a statement, Earl Comstock, COMPTEL’s President and CEO, said:
“The FCC’s default grant of forbearance makes Verizon the only telecommunications company in the entire country that is not subject to regulatory oversight. COMPTEL believes that the statutory provision that allowed this situation to occur is an unconstitutional delegation by the Congress to an unelected federal official.”http://comptelascent.org/
- Earlier this month, The FCC granted Verizon’s petition for regulatory relief of its broadband infrastructure and fiber capabilities. In December 2004, Verizon requested that the FCC forbear from applying common carrier regulations and the Computer Inquiry requirements to its high capacity broadband services.
As a matter or proceeding, the FCC failed to deny the petition by the required deadline and thereby the petition was granted.
The decision exempts Verizon from having to provide competitors with access to certain broadband facilities and from having to file proposed price increases for certain broadband services with regulators. It does not apply to traditional special access services (DS1 and DS3 services) and excludes TDM-based optical networking.