* Transfer of FCC appeal to D.C. puts their ball in favorable court
The RBOC’s appeal of the FCC’s Triennial Review order was transferred from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals last week to the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Chalk one up for the Bells.
By transferring the case to the D.C. Court of Appeals, the Eighth Circuit Court has handed the RBOCs a preliminary win. Though the case has not yet been decided, the D.C. court has twice remanded the FCC’s prior unbundling rules. It may do so this time, too. The Triennial Review did not comply with the demands of that court, according to FCC Chairman Michael Powell. And the USTA said it defies rulings by the D.C. court in 2002 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999 that rejected “blanket access” to the Bells’ unbundled network elements (UNE).
The chief beneficiary of a favorable ruling by the D.C. court would be SBC, analysts say. SBC has so far lost 13% of its retail access lines to UNE-Platform (UNE-P) based competition, compared to 9% for BellSouth and 8% for Verizon.
Without a change in existing regulation, net lines lost to UNE-P will reaccelerate, analysts say. They expect an acceleration in UNE-P line losses at Verizon and Qwest in the second half of this year as new UNE-P players come in and existing competitors expand their reach.
