Posted: 07/1999
(C/I)LEC Death Match
The Fight of the Century is Happening This Summer
By Jonathan E. Canis
| Jonathan Canis |
Smack! Ugh! Aargh!
The unbundled network element (UNE) death match continues.
Early this year, the Supreme Court slapped the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by reinstating virtually all of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) rules implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that the 8th Circuit had vacated. The one exception is the definition of UNEs that incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) must provide to competitive LECs (CLECs).
The Supreme Court told the FCC it did not correctly apply the test mandated by the Telecom Act, which requires proprietary UNEs only if they are "necessary" for competition, and other UNEs only if failure to get them would "impair" competition.
The FCC started a proceeding to redefine UNEs using these tests. Predictably, ILECs are arguing that UNEs should be eliminated, and competitive carriers are demanding new UNEs. The FCC is expected to reach a final decision next month.
Combinations
CLECs want to be able to combine loops with transport so they can provide service to end users without having to collocate in every ILEC end office. These combinations are essential because ILEC deployment of technologies such as integrated digital loop carrier (DLC) systems may make it impossible to hand off unbundled loops to CLECs. The Supreme Court made it clear that the FCC has the authority to require ILECs to combine UNEs, and the FCC needs to use this authority to make interconnection more generally available and less expensive.
Data UNEs
The most important issue in this proceeding concerns CLECs' ability to employ UNEs--individually and in combination--to provide high-capacity data services. The ILECs are mounting a full-scale effort to restrict UNE usage. In New York, for example, combinations of loops and transport can be used only for "predominantly local traffic" and may not be used to provide services in excess of 1.544 megabits per second (mbps). Similar restrictions are under consideration in Texas.
This is, of course, a flagrant attempt to freeze CLECs out of the market for the most important and lucrative new services that are now becoming available--in particular, high-speed Internet access and data services made possible by digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. Such restrictions fly in the face of the FCC's recent policy decisions that promote the deployment of broadband services. It is clear that both incumbent and competitive networks are becoming all digital, and that the future lies in a carrier's ability to provide high bandwidth services to residential and business users.
Transport
Because there are some competitive providers of interoffice transport in some markets, ILECs are arguing they should be relieved of any obligation to provide transport UNEs. Clearly, however, CLECs do not have access to competitive transport ubiquitously within an ILEC's service area, and would have to re-engineer their networks if the transport UNEs they currently rely on were eliminated.
Expect CLECs to lobby hard throughout the summer to defend this UNE.
