Verizon exemption could make businesses pay

VERIZON EXEMPTION COULD MAKE BUSINESS PAY
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
Earlier this week, the Federal Communications Commission acknowledged that Verizon Communications had been exempted from regulation on its business-broadband service. The exemption essentially gives Verizon the power to charge its business customers and competitive carriers, who use Verizon's local access network to connect to businesses, any price it likes for using the network. It also frees the phone company from making contributions to the Universal Service Fund. For Verizon and possibly other local phone companies like AT&T, which also plans to file a petition, the inaction of the FCC and the eventual granting of the exemption is great news. Verizon has effectively succeeded in freeing itself from regulation that required it to share its network with competitive carriers and dictated prices it could charge customers. But for business customers, which buy services directly from Verizon, and competitive carriers, such as Level 3, Sprint Nextel and Qwest communications, which use Verizon's local network to sell services to business customers, prices for the use of this network could rise significantly, say critics. "The chairman's action represents the height of irresponsibility by a federal official," Earl Comstock, president and CEO of Comptel, an association representing Verizon's competitors, said in a statement. "Competition and consumers are now at the mercy of Verizon's financial self-interest. If history is any guide, there will be predictable adverse results."
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