Verizon Seeks BDS Equality, Transition; ILECs Reply to Critics; 'Transforming' Draft Seen

aides to all three commissioners, Verizon "stressed the importance of a level playing field and the same set of rules for all providers" of BDS, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 05-25. "We also emphasized the need for a suitable transition period to allow companies to adjust to the proposed detariffing actions and for preserving existing contracts." In a filing posted Friday, CenturyLink and Frontier Communications urged the FCC to reject the arguments of Sprint (here) and Windstream (here) opposing the ILECs' proposal for nondominant BDS regulation (see 1703230051 and 1703280050). Sprint and Windstream "largely retread established ground by complaining that demonstrated competition has not yet yielded the below-market prices that they would prefer to pay," said CenturyLink and Frontier. CCMI telecom consultant Andrew Regitsky called the draft order "one of the most deregulatory decisions ever," saying it "would largely detariff and eliminate pricing rules for most ILEC special access services." It's "a major victory for ILECs and cable companies and a major loss for ILEC competitors," he said in a blog post Friday. He expected "outraged" ILEC critics to seek a court stay, pending further judicial review, and believes "a stay is possible, even likely." Regitsky said critics can argue they "had no idea this type of deregulatory decision was coming from" last year's Further NPRM "and had no opportunity to oppose it," in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. They also can attack the FCC’s market test for DS1 and DS3 channel terminations, "which relies on possible rather than actual competition to classify a county as competitive," he wrote. "We have a draft Order that is truly industry transforming, but is likely to face many legal challenges."