FCC Advances Competition, Investment in Business Data Services Market

Recognizing substantial and growing competition in the market for business data services, the Federal Communications Commission eased outdated pricing rules to enable continued robust growth in the market. Business data services, known also as BDS, are dedicated connectivity used by businesses, nonprofits, and government institutions to meet their needs for secure and reliable communications. BDS is essential to the production and delivery of goods and services across the economy, from connecting bank ATM networks and retail credit-card readers to providing enterprise business networks with access to branch offices, the Internet or the cloud.

Relying on more than ten years of study of the market, a massive data collection, and a robust public record garnered from numerous requests for comment, the Report and Order adopted by the FCC recognizes the strong competition present in the BDS market. Given that competition, the order finds that legacy regulation inhibits the investment required for the transition of BDS from legacy time-division multiplexing networks to high-speed Ethernet connectivity. In response, the Order modernizes regulation in significant portions of the market.