A group of CLECs and ILECs filed a plan with the FCC (www.fcc.gov) outlining a process that allows CLECs to purchase combinations of transport facilities and unbundled loops. For CLECs the result would be a reduction in their broadband interconnection costs.
Filed March 1 with the FCC, the plan was jointly put together by Bell Atlantic Corp. (www.bellatlantic.com), BellSouth Corp. (www.bellsouth.com), GTE Service Corp. (www.gte.com), U S West Communications Inc. (www.uswest.com), SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com), Time Warner Telecom Inc. (www.twtelecom.com), Focal Communications Corp. (www.focal.com), Intermedia Communications Inc. (www.intermedia.com), and Winstar Communications Inc. (www.winstar.com).
The FCC's UNE Remand decision last year ordered that UNE combinations must be provided to CLECs beginning Feb. 17. However, until now, the incumbents and the CLECs have not been able to settle on the details of that order, which in many cases delayed implementation of UNE combinations.
The agreement forged by the carriers outlines instances in which a CLEC would be allowed to use loop-transport combinations. A CLEC would be allowed to combine UNEs when it's the "exclusive provider" of a customer's local service, and when the combination originates at the customer's premises and terminates at the CLEC collocation site.
Calling yesterday's joint filing a win-win for CLECs and consumers, Focal CEO and President Robert Taylor said the plan resolves many of the core issues between the ILECs and the CLECs "about how broadband facilities should be converted to combinations of UNEs." The new agreement, he added, moves the incumbents closer to providing UNE combinations rather than just individual pieces. In turn, this will lower CLEC costs and increase revenues.
In related news, the United States Telecom Association (USTA) (www.usta.org) asked an appeals court to push forward with its appeals of the FCC's UNE Remand and line sharing orders. USTA wants the court to proceed with both appeals without waiting for the FCC to respond to various other petitions on its plate.
"The FCC has a history of taking too long to respond to petitions for reconsideration," USTA President and CEO Roy M. Neel said.
Specifically, the lobbying group says that the FCC, in the UNE Remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, has failed to impose "meaningful limits on the unbundling obligations of incumbents." The FCC's line sharing order likewise means that the ILECs will have to invest vast amounts of time, money and labor to reconfigure the networks and operations. If the appeals court doesn't invalidate these rules, USTA claims such costs will be unrecoverable for the ILECs.
"As long as the UNE Remand order and the line sharing order remain in effect," Neel said, "portions of the network must be unbundled and made available to competitors which go way beyond what Congress intended."
