Seeking to better its chances of getting into the long-distance business in Missouri, SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com) yesterday pulled its Section 271 bid at the FCC (www.fcc.gov).
The nation's second largest phone giant plans to provide additional evidence supporting its Missouri long-distance application, and then will re-file it as soon as possible. That will effectively restart the 90-day review period at the FCC.
"It is ... important that our application record include a comprehensive response to several new issues raised since our Missouri application was filed," said Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, an SBC senior vice president, in a statement. "We would rather the FCC vote on the most current information available."
FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell said in a statement yesterday that during the FCC Common Carrier Bureau's review of SBC's Sec. 271 application, "concerns surfaced related to cost-based pricing in its region and operations support systems (OSS)."
Given these concerns, Powell said that SBC chose to withdraw the application. The FCC now has terminated the proceeding "until SBC has addressed these issues and is prepared to resubmit its
application."
SBC specifically plans to address questions raised by the U.S. Department of Justice (www.usdoj.gov) and some of its local competitors over SBC's original application, as well as provide updated evidence of continued compliance with the requirements of Sec. 271 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
While the DOJ did not recommend that the FCC deny SBC's application, it said that the FCC should review several issues: adherence to TELRIC cost-based pricing rules, non-discriminatory access to installation and repair databases, and compliance with a recent court decision on the resale of advanced services.
The Competitive Telecommunications Association (www.comptel.org) and the Association for Local Telecommunications Services (www.alts.org), which both lobby Congress on behalf of competitive carriers, also had asked the FCC to require SBC to provide more detailed information on issues such as carrier-to-carrier performance measurement reports.
"Our recommendations, if implemented, will provide all interested parties greater access to state-specific performance data," said Maureen Flood, director of regulatory and state affairs for CompTel.
"SBC is on firm ground on these issues, and we want to make sure the FCC has the latest and most reliable information," Hill-Ardoin said in her statement yesterday. "We have worked closely with the [FCC] to respond to questions regarding very complicated operations systems.
"These are issues which the FCC and SBC are addressing for the first time," said Hill-Ardoin. "But, as was the case in Texas and Massachusetts, the need for a thorough review doesn't stop the 90-day clock from ticking."
Competition in the local Missouri phone market continues to thrive, SBC says, with competitors serving between 9.2 percent and 14.2 percent of SBC's access lines.
Over the past two and a half years, SBC says it has worked closely with state regulators and CLECs in Missouri to review and verify the company's efforts to open the local market in the state to competitors, which included an independent third-party review conducted by Ernst & Young of SBC's OSS and performance measurements.
SBC updated its draft application for interLATA relief in Missouri to the Missouri Public Service Commission in June 2000. On March 6, the Missouri PSC voted 5-0 to endorse SBC's application. SBC formally submitted its Missouri application to the FCC April 4. That clock would have stopped in July.
SBC chief executive Edward Whitacre and FCC Chairman Powell earlier this week discussed local competition during the SUPERCOMM 2001 show in Atlanta, and it appeared as if they weren't on the same page.
Whitacre expressed displeasure with the current regulatory environment and publicly offered his support for the adoption of broadband Internet relief for the Bells.
Whitacre also said there are several flaws with the Telecom Act, which he said granted the Bell companies approval to enter the long-distance market if they agreed to open their local phone service markets to competitors.
SBC has done so, he said, and therefore expected to gain approval to enter most of its long-distance markets by 1999, but to date that hasn't happened.
Powell, whose discussion followed Whitacre's at SUPERCOMM, said that the tides are turning.
The industry is now migrating away from the old regulatory school and the FCC also must do so in order to remain useful, Powell said.
Under a revamp, the new FCC will focus on regulation that encourages competition and innovations, Powell said.
