Industry Opposes FCC's Proposed Changes to Broadband Data Services Rules
The FCC appears unlikely to move forward quickly on changing its rules for legacy business data services (BDS), as proposed in an NPRM that commissioners approved ahead of their August meeting (see 2508050056), industry officials said. Unlike other reform proposals that are getting enthusiastic endorsement, at least from industry -- including faster copper retirements (see 2509300039) and streamlined wireline siting rules (see 2511170028) -- the BDS changes are seeing little support.
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BDS involves legacy, often copper-based services sold by carriers to businesses, nonprofit organizations and government institutions to connect customers securely and reliably using high-capacity networks. The rates have long been tariffed, though in 2018, during the first Trump administration, the FCC started the process of detariffing some aspects of BDS in competitive markets.
Lawyers who represent wireline carriers said Friday that the FCC’s August order appeared to be based more on theory and the desire to push through additional deregulation than a real-world understanding of what carriers want and what the industry needs. Carriers see BDS as being quickly phased out but also view additional rule changes at this time as an unnecessary complication, lawyers said.
The lack of activity in the record “indicates a lack of urgency from a stakeholder perspective,” emailed Cooley’s Robert McDowell. “The commission may move on to other priorities unless BDS gets hot again.”
USTelecom was among the few groups to file initial comments last month (see 2511190021). “Abruptly detariffing legacy BDS, as proposed in the NPRM, could cause disruption and introduce instability,” it said at the time. Eliminating the remaining tariff obligations "will likely require providers to enter into new contractual arrangements for legacy BDS as well as necessitate changes to carriers’ billing and operational systems.”
Only two parties filed reply comments last week, and both warned against the proposals in the NPRM.
NTCA found “overwhelming consensus ... that comprehensive mandatory regulatory changes as contemplated in the NPRM would be disruptive, rather than conducive, to competition and technological evolution.” Initial comments “lauded the Commission generally” for an interest in allowing greater regulatory flexibility, though all but one commenter urged the commission “to avoid enactment of sweeping measures that could have the unintended effect of undermining, rather than enhancing, regulatory certainty.”
Wide Voice, a competitive local exchange carrier, warned that “competitive alternatives for essential BDS services simply do not exist everywhere.” In Reno, the cost of a DS3 circuit increased nearly threefold from 2020 to 2023, it said. Continuing increases will drive some circuit costs to more $100,000 a month, the carrier added, noting that price increases have forced it “to eliminate entire markets from our footprint.”