Small Broadband Companies Claim FCC Win Over AT&T and Verizon

The largest US telephone companies in 2018 asked regulators to kill limits on the rates smaller carriers can be charged for connecting to the giants’ networks. Now the small carriers are claiming they have successfully defended the regulations as the Federal Communications Commission nears conclusion of a proceeding it has acted on in parts. "We see it as a huge victory,” said Chip Pickering, chief executive officer of the trade group Incompas, whose members are smaller companies that offer broadband service and need to connect through lines controlled by companies such as AT&T and Verizon. The regulations are designed to ensure small companies have access to lines that carry traffic for businesses, schools and homes -- and can use those connections to expand broadband competition by building new fiber links. In June, USTelecom, a trade group with members including AT&T and Verizon, withdrew its request to remove rules around fiber lines that can carry signals from town to town, usually in less populated areas. And in July it withdrew its request to kill rules about local lines that can carry broadband. Incompas, representing the small service providers, says it scored victories with the withdrawals by USTelecom of portions of the petition in June and July.