BellSouth Urges Court To Send Tariff Case Back To FCC

BELLSOUTH URGES COURT TO SEND TARIFF CASE BACK TO FCC
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 10/12, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
BellSouth urged the federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to send back to the FCC a case involving a longstanding and unchallenged government interpretation of an anti-discrimination section of the Communications Act. The complaint against the telecommunications company, originally brought to the FCC by AT&T, alleged that BellSouth priced special-access services on a wholesale basis at deep discounts to its own long-distance subsidiary, slighting AT&T and others. Ironically, the Justice Department on Wednesday approved a $78 billion merger between AT&T and BellSouth. AT&T originally backed the FCC in the case but withdrew its involvement in May. Qwest Communications International and Verizon Communications filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the Commission. Various telecom carriers need access to BellSouth's network to complete long-distance calls on behalf of their retail customers, the FCC's brief said. That access price is a major component of the retail rates that a long-distance provider charges its consumers. AT&T complained that BellSouth violated the 1934 act, and the FCC agreed. The agency held that BellSouth could offer discounts to its affiliate -- through its Transport Savings Plan -- but only if it makes them "available on a nondiscriminatory basis to all unaffiliated [long-distance] carriers."
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