WASHINGTON-Public utilities that want to enter the telecom industry had many of the barriers to such action removed by the Federal Communications Commission last Thursday. Commissioners voted unanimously to streamline the FCC’s procedure for determining who meets the criteria to be an “exempt telecommunications company,” five months ahead of a congressional mandate to do so.
“These rules are deregulatory and procompetitive,” said Lawrence Spiwak of the FCC general counsel’s competitive division. “Consumers already have seen the benefits of this through new, one-stop-shopping call centers that have been set up.”
Adopting the order eliminates the guessing game in which 13 recently designated ETCs have been playing. Those companies, which include CSW Communications, Entergy Technology Co. and several incarnations of Southern Information Holding Co., were granted ETC status prior to adoption of the new rules and were operating in the dark as far as what they could or could not do. Two other companies-280 Security Holdings (which plans to provide alarm-monitoring services) and Nees Communications-have petitions for ETC status pending at the FCC.
According to a new section included in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law last February, registered public utility holding companies now are allowed to provide telecom services through acquiring or maintaining a relationship with an ETC, without first petitioning the Securities and Exchange Commission; the FCC now will determine who meets the criteria. ETCs also may have to comply with certain state restrictions.
Applicants seeking to become ETCs first must submit to the commission a brief description of the type of telecom services it wishes to provide-i.e., utilities management, fiber-optic networking, personal communications services, etc.-along with a sworn statement that it meets Telecom Act strictures. Applications may be put up for public comment.
Sean Stokes, UTC counsel, thinks the impact of this streamlining probably will be over soon, as there are few utilities that are covered by the Public Utility Holding Company Act [PUCHA]; most of them already have filed for, and have been granted, ETC status. More filings could come down the road as telecom and information-service companies align themselves with utilities, as has PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. and Texas Utilities; and BellSouth and Duke Electric.
“The word `exempt’ was an unfortunate choice by Congress,” said Sean Stokes, a UTC counsel. “These utilities are not exempt from anything but filing with the SEC. It just levels the playing field.”
The FCC will host a brown-bag lunch Oct. 2 to explain the new ruling in depth.
