The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) ruled that Verizon Communications Inc.’s unilateral interpretation of a court order was in error, and told the BOC it must negotiate with competitors prior to cutting them off from the unbundled network element platform (UNE-P).
“We observe that the provision of UNE-P has assumed substantial importance for the development of local exchange competition,” according to the PUC ruling.
In ending a four-year-old dispute between Verizon (www.verizon.com) and MCI Telecommunications Corp., now part of WorldCom Inc. (www.wcom.com), the PUC (http://puc.paonline.com) ruled that Verizon's interconnection agreement with MCI required it to negotiate with its competitor before terminating the sale of the UNE-P.
The UNE-P, in which competitors lease and then combine certain UNEs of a Bell’s network in order to serve their customers, is a market entry strategy that is provided for under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The issue of UNEs and UNE-P has become increasingly controversial as some competitors call them crucial to doing business.
In this Pennsylvania case (Docket No. A-310236F0002), MCI's ability to purchase certain elements of Verizon’s network, instead of being forced to buy a Verizon-chosen package, was key to the competitor’s ability to serve its customers and advance local telephone competition, the PUC ruled.
The dispute between MCI and Verizon began in 1997 when the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down FCC (www.fcc.gov) rules requiring the Bell companies to offer UNEs to competitors.
Verizon, then known as Bell Atlantic, interpreted this ruling to mean that it could begin rejecting MCI’s orders for UNE-P, which the incumbent began doing in March 1998. MCI promptly filed a petition with the PUC seeking an emergency ruling and enforcement of its interconnection agreement with Verizon.
During this time, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with the 8th Circuit Court and sent back the case to the lower court. The PUC, which said that the federal ruling didn’t pre-empt its authority, included a requirement for UNE-P in its 1999 Global Order on local telephone competition.
Since then, Verizon has been providing UNE-P service to competitors, but the PUC decided to finish up the case with a formal ruling on it.
