Grants AT&T leeway in pricing for broadband infrastructure, fiber capabilities
The FCC announced today that it will grant AT&T relief from pricing restrictions for its broadband infrastructure and fiber capabilities, despite the objections of some telecom providers.
Despite the objections of some telecom providers, the FCC announced today that it will grant AT&T relief from pricing restrictions for its broadband infrastructure and fiber capabilities.
In a 3-2 vote, the commission granted AT&T forbearance from federal limits on the amount that the company can charge others for using its infrastructure to deliver last mile connections to customers. FCC chairman Kevin Martin said today that granting AT&T relief would give it “the flexibility to further deploy its broadband services and fiber facilities without overly burdensome regulations.” Martin also said that the majority of the commission thought there was significant enough competition within the broadband industry to allow AT&T leeway in determining prices.
Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein dissented from the majority opinion and argued that AT&T’s infrastructure is not merely comprised of commercial broadband and fiber services, but of special access services that other carriers need to deliver last-mile connections to their customers. Letting carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Qwest charge competitors whatever they choose for using special access services could end up hurting rather than spurring competition, they argued.
“There is substantial data available in this and other proceedings to indicate that the special access market is anything but competitive,” they said. “We should not be granting forbearance for rules covering special access services without a rigorous analysis of competition for these services.”
The pricing relief granted to AT&T was similar to the relief granted to Verizon in 2006. In that case, the FCC failed to officially rule on Verizon’s forbearance petition by its allotted deadline, and thus deemed its petition granted by default. Qwest has also filed a similar forbearance petition.
Earlier this month, representatives from both local and national telcos told the House Energy Subcommittee that they worried that granting AT&T and Qwest relief from pricing regulations would hinder their ability to compete. Larissa Herda, the CEO of Time Warner Telecom, said that if the FCC lifted price regulations for major infrastructure-owning telcos, then those companies would be able to price their competitors out of the market. This, she said, would stilt the spread of Ethernet services to American businesses.
