FCC Removes Unnecessary Rules on Phone Company Transport

In light of increasing competition in the marketplace for transport services, the Federal Communications Commission largely eliminated pricing regulation of lower-speed, legacy transport offered by price cap incumbent carriers as part of their commercially available business data services (BDS) or as unbundled network elements. The FCC continued its push to eliminate needless and burdensome regulation and incentivize investment in modern networks by adopting a two-part item that provides the following regulatory relief for price cap carriers’ transport services and facilities:

1. The Report and Order on Remand section of the item affirms the FCC’s previous findings in the 2017 BDS Order that widespread and ever-increasing competition in the supply of business data services transport justifies relieving price cap carriers of ex ante pricing regulation and tariffing.
2. The Memorandum Opinion and Order section of the item partially grants USTelecom’s request for forbearance from decades-old requirements that price cap carriers provide their competitors with dedicated transport facilities between wire centers within their local networks on an unbundled basis at regulated rates.