WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association is urging the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Qwest Corp. rules that require it to offer interconnection with paging carriers amounts to unfairly taking Qwest property.
Qwest, formerly U S West Inc., was upset at a recent ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that confirmed rules implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The FCC rules say a local exchange carrier must stop charging telecom carriers for terminating LEC-originating traffic and must provide that traffic without charge.
Qwest believes the FCC rules amount to an unconstitutional taking under the Fifth Amendment.
“The FCC’s rules therefore also strip U S West of its critical right to use and profit from its property,” said the company.
PCIA believes Qwest’s claims are without merit and that the court should dismiss the lawsuit.
“Qwest simply is being required to use and pay for its own facilities in order to transport its own traffic from its own customers to other carriers,” said PCIA.
The court case actually began almost a year ago, well before the FCC made its final ruling on a number of paging interconnection complaints earlier this summer, but the FCC decision affirmed what it had been saying since 1996.
