January
18, 2000
The Honorable William E. Kennard
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20554
Dear Mr. Chairman:
We are writing with respect to Section 272 of the
Communications Act of 1934 and the need to extend the competitive
safeguards contained in that provision. Congress enacted the
competitive safeguards in Section 272 to complement Section 271, the
process by which Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) operating
as incumbent local exchange carriers obtain approval to enter the
long distance market in a particular State.
We believe that the
Section 272 safeguards play an important role in a successful
transition to a fully competitive market after RBOCs enter
inter-LATA information service markets. Even in the most competitive
of the RBOC markets, New York, the incumbent still controls an
overwhelming majority of local access lines, and has significant
opportunities to favor its own affiliate in the provision of
inter-LATA information services absent the transparency and
nondiscrimination protections that the Section 272 safeguards
provide. The Commission
itself has recognized the continuing power of incumbents to control
the local loop, even after receiving Section 271 approval. If these safeguards are
allowed to expire concurrently with the initial RBOC entry into
in-region, inter-LATA services markets, an important protection of
the Telecommunications Act of 1996 will have been lost.
Moreover, the Section
272 safeguards that Congress adopted for interLATA information
services were designed for the Commission to build a record
important for its enforcement role. For instance, the biennial
audit provision of Section 272(d) is itself designed to provide the
Commission with a record of RBOC participation in the inter-LATA
information services market before the Commission decides whether
the requirement should sunset.
In the absence of any such record, it would be premature to
sunset these protections only a month after they have taken effect
for inter-LATA information services.
As you well know, it
has only been one month since the Commission approved the Section
271 application of Bell Atlantic in New York State. Until that approval, the
Commission had unanimously rejected each previous application,
ruling in each case that the market-opening requirements of Section
271 had not been met.
Anticipating the possible need to extend the Section 272
sunset for RBOC provision of in-region, inter-LATA information
services, Congress built flexibility into the statute and granted
the Commission the authority to extend the Section 272
requirments. Given that
Bell Atlantic in New York State has only recently become the first
RBOC to gain Section 271 approval, we urge the Commission to extend
the Section 272 safeguards so that they work in concert with Section
271 as intended.
Extending these congressionally-designed safeguards during a
reasonable transitional period to evaluate the competitive effects
of RBOC entry into these markets is a prudent measure most
consistent with the market opening structure of the 1996
Telecommunications Act.
Sincerely,
Barbara Dooley
President, Commercial Internet
eXchange
