Nov, 2001 : CompTel Urges FCC to Establish Guidelines
📅 - The Competitive Telecommunications Association (comptel.org) yesterday petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (fcc.gov) to establish pro-competitive procedures and standards for conducting a three-year review of the unbundled network elements that incumbent local exchange carriers must make available to their competitors.
"Over the past three years, competitors have wasted vast amounts of time andresources fighting premature attempts by the ILECs to remove UNEs from thenational list," said CompTel president H. Russell Frisby, Jr. "Thesecarriers need to know when and how the FCC plans to conduct the three-yearUNE review so they can devote their time and resources to providing acompetitive choice to telecommunications consumers as required by the '96Act."
The FCC's 1999 UNE Remand Order compiled a list of UNEs, or networkfacilities, that ILECs are required to offer to requesting carriersnationwide at cost-based rates under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Thestatutory UNE regime is the heart and soul of the 1996 Act - this regimeembodies Congress' understanding that requesting carriers must be permittedto use the existing ILEC infrastructure, rather than build a redundantnetwork at the outset, to provide competitive telecommunications services atlower prices to U.S. consumers.
In the UNE Remand Order, the FCC stated that it would reevaluate thenational UNE list every three years. CompTel's petition asks the FCC toimplement the following proposals, which will focus discussion and debate onthe appropriate policy issues and maximize the involvement of all parties inthe three-year review:
1. Establish May 18, 2003 as the earliest date upon which any party couldfile a petition to have a UNE removed from the mandatory list in order tocreate greater certainty in the market;
2. Convene a Federal-State Joint Conference to obtain feedback from thestates given their critical role in implementing the UNE regime;
3. Clarify that the three-year UNE review is not an inquiry into allnational UNEs, so any party seeking to scale back or remove a UNE bears theburden of proof; and
4. Announce that the Commission will not consider removing or scaling back aUNE if the requesting ILEC has not complied with its obligation to providethe UNE for a commercially reasonable period of time.
CompTel's Annual Convention and Trade Exposition will be taking place March3-6, in Miami, Fla.
"Over the past three years, competitors have wasted vast amounts of time andresources fighting premature attempts by the ILECs to remove UNEs from thenational list," said CompTel president H. Russell Frisby, Jr. "Thesecarriers need to know when and how the FCC plans to conduct the three-yearUNE review so they can devote their time and resources to providing acompetitive choice to telecommunications consumers as required by the '96Act."
The FCC's 1999 UNE Remand Order compiled a list of UNEs, or networkfacilities, that ILECs are required to offer to requesting carriersnationwide at cost-based rates under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Thestatutory UNE regime is the heart and soul of the 1996 Act - this regimeembodies Congress' understanding that requesting carriers must be permittedto use the existing ILEC infrastructure, rather than build a redundantnetwork at the outset, to provide competitive telecommunications services atlower prices to U.S. consumers.
In the UNE Remand Order, the FCC stated that it would reevaluate thenational UNE list every three years. CompTel's petition asks the FCC toimplement the following proposals, which will focus discussion and debate onthe appropriate policy issues and maximize the involvement of all parties inthe three-year review:
1. Establish May 18, 2003 as the earliest date upon which any party couldfile a petition to have a UNE removed from the mandatory list in order tocreate greater certainty in the market;
2. Convene a Federal-State Joint Conference to obtain feedback from thestates given their critical role in implementing the UNE regime;
3. Clarify that the three-year UNE review is not an inquiry into allnational UNEs, so any party seeking to scale back or remove a UNE bears theburden of proof; and
4. Announce that the Commission will not consider removing or scaling back aUNE if the requesting ILEC has not complied with its obligation to providethe UNE for a commercially reasonable period of time.
CompTel's Annual Convention and Trade Exposition will be taking place March3-6, in Miami, Fla.
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