The Federal Communications Commission voted to lift some regulations on AT&T’s broadband business.
Source: solokay.blogspot.com
It was a divided FCC that partially granted AT&T this request. The request made was for FCC to relax rules that will govern what the company can charge its business customers and rivals for accessing some of their high-speed Internet lines. In a statement, the chairman of FCC, Kevin Martin said, "This relief will enable AT&T to have the flexibility to further deploy its broadband services and fiber facilities without overly burdensome regulations."
The FCC has the authority, under the telecommunications law, to waive some regulations if it thinks the market has become sufficiently competitive. Its action will be able to remove a key requirement that AT&T file tariffs with the agency disclosing the rates it charges businesses and rivals for high-speed access.
But Robert McDowell the Republican commissioner has said that the agency had left other key regulations in place and created a new process for handling complaints about the rates AT&T charges for access. According to him, "With this partial grant of AT&T’s…petition, the commission is striking a thoughtful balance between deregulation and consumer protection," This was the conclusion that was reached just before a midnight deadline to act on AT&T’s request. Amongst the people in the Commission where 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats; the former agreed to the motion while the later did not.
According to the two Democrats, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, there was not an adequate proof of competition to support AT&T’s request. On the contrary, they mentioned indications that the market for high-speed access was "anything but competitive." This is the statement AT&T issued praising their decision, "We have not reviewed the order yet, but the FCC appears to have continued its successful pro-investment broadband policy, allowing for multiple providers to build out new wired and wireless networks to better compete for business customers."
An analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, David Kaut said that removing the tariff rules would give AT&T a leg up in negotiations with rivals and business customers seeking to lease access. Last year, FCC lifted regulations on Verizon Communication’s high-speed business services. The petition from Verizon Comunication was not approved by the agency. It went into effect when one of the commissioners removed himself from the case and the remaining four could not reach a consensus.
Still pending before the agency is a comparable petition by Qwest Communications International. The company’s request was put on hold by the FCC the previous month. Opposed to these requests are smaller rivals like Sprint Nextel Corp, Time Warner Telecom Inc and XO Communications. Their argument is that they have a limited alternative to have access to the high-speed lines they need and also face rising prices by the dominant carriers.
A number of commissioners and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have also expressed their concerns on easing the regulations on AT&T at a time when the FCC is conducting a broader study on whether to reimpose related pricing rules on the "special access" lines needed to provide business broadband services.
