Separations Draft Notice, Referral to Federal-State Joint Board Circulates at FCC
An FCC jurisdictional separations item and referral to a federal-state joint board is before commissioners, according to the agency's circulation list, which was updated Friday. The Further NPRM seeks comment on a freeze on jurisdictional separations for rate-of-return incumbent telcos,…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
which expires June 30, said an agency spokesman. Commissioner and Joint Board Chairman Mike O'Rielly has said the referral is "narrow" but he wants to seek "comprehensive reform" (see 1702230051). Rural telco representatives discussed the Part 36 separations freeze -- which they said was intended to last only five years but has been in effect more than 15 years -- and its impact "on the allocation of costs and the development of rates for rate-of-return carriers that chose to freeze their category relationships in 2001," said a Moss-Adams filing in docket 80-286 on a meeting it and Panhandle Telephone Cooperative had with Wireline Bureau staffers. They discussed the potential impact that disparate consumer broadband-only rates could have on Connect America Fund broadband loop support, and answered agency questions on "how to potentially alleviate the disparate allocation of costs and rate development for carriers with frozen category relationships."