What the Data Shows: Special Access is Not Very Special Any More

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AT&T will file our first set of comments analyzing the data submitted in the special access proceeding.

As a refresher course for the uninitiated, the special access services at issue here are not very special at all. They are services sold mainly to businesses which provide pretty low speed data connections – almost 90% of which are 1.5 Mbps. Businesses have traditionally used those connections to provide voice and data services as well as Internet access service. Special access services were deregulated by the Federal Communications Commission back in 1999 (during the Bill Clinton administration) because of the significant competitive fiber investment that occurred in the wake of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

The theory was that regulation was not necessary where competitive fiber had been deployed in a market. However, after deregulation, some carriers continued to complain to the FCC that the agency’s rules had deregulated services even in areas where no one had built competitive facilities. So, some 13 years later, the FCC announced it was going to re-examine the level of competition in these markets. A funny thing had happened in those 13 years, of course. The Internet – and particularly the broadband Internet market – exploded. After 3 ½ years of data gathering, we can finally assert on a data-driven basis that competitive facilities exist wherever we see demand for the obsolete, not-broadband technology of “not so special” access service, and that deregulation of this obsolete technology should actually be accelerated. This shows the FCC was right back in 1999. It also shows that we’ve likely wasted years at the behest of some interests who are looking for a price break on their use of antique technology even if the facts don’t support them. They will no doubt keep arguing, but it’s time for the FCC to move on to more important tasks like advancing investment in broadband. And, one doesn’t do that by re-regulating an old technology that’s already being replaced by far faster and competitive alternatives.


What the Data Shows: Special Access is Not Very Special Any More