COMPTEL, industry orgs ask FCC to protect competition in ILEC IP transition

COMPTEL and a group of organizations that represent businesses and competitive Internet service providers have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking the regulator to include in their technology transitions an order that will protect and promote competition, universal service and public safety while ensuring business and residential customers can get services as telecommunication companies migrate their networks to all-IP.

While COMPTEL and their constituents are not opposed to the IP transition, a chief concern is that businesses and consumers need to be able to get equivalent services at similar prices from a number of providers. Similar to the telecommunication industry's migration of the voice network from analog to digital switching in the 1970s and 1980s, the group says that the transition to IP should provide similar benefits in terms of services and competitive choice for users. "Prior transitions, such as analog to digital, yielded substantial benefits for residential and business users alike--from a technical standpoint the IP transition should likewise yield substantial benefits," the group wrote in its letter. "But the Commission must take action to ensure that network users are better off as a result of technological advances." One of the key elements that COMPTEL and its competitive local exchange carrier member companies such as Windstream and Granite Telecommunications have continued to fight for in the IP transition has been access to wholesale special access services.