The FCC Jump Starts Special Access (Again) and AT&T's Disingenuous Response

[Commentary] Good news, the Federal Communications Commission has decides to one again reboot its seven year old proceeding on “special access.” Given that I have been flogging the FCC since 2006 to do something about this, with occasional reminders since then, I am obviously pleased. AT&T, one of the chief beneficiaries of the current deregulated regime because they face little to no competition in its service territory, is less pleased.

Mind you, AT&T is not alone in this. Telcos generally have monopolies on special access circuits in their service territories, and the three largest telcos -- AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink -- therefore control most of the market. But in its service territory, each telco maintains a near-monopoly on special access. On June 4, FCC Chairman Genachowski told reporters he had circulated and order that would (a) freeze current special access prices, preventing AT&T from implementing yet-another rate hike on some special access services; and, (b) use its authority over the telcos to compel AT&T and the other special access providers to provide data that will prove whether or not the telcos are able to charge monopoly-level prices in their service territories, or not. In its blog post criticizing this move, AT&T’s chief argument against the FCC denying it yet another rate hike and demanding AT&T and the other telcos fork over data critical to determining if they are charging monopoly rents is: “Why you bringing up old stuff?”