WASHINGTON-Mid-sized incumbent local exchange carriers with wireless subsidiaries got some powerful help last week when 16 lawmakers urged the Federal Communications Commission to forbear from enforcing the separate subsidiary rule.
The “petition provides the [FCC] with a significant opportunity to make productive strides toward a less regulatory, more pro-competitive approach to the mid-sized segment of the local exchange market … In the telecom act, we rejected a ‘one size fits all’ approach to regulating telephone companies, recognizing the special needs of smaller companies vis-a-vis their larger competitors,” said the letter from eight Republicans and eight Democrats.
The FCC will decide this week whether mid-sized ILECs must continue to have a separate subsidiary to offer wireless services. An association representing mid-sized companies wants the FCC to stop enforcing this rule.
The request by the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance is part of a broad forbearance petition filed on Feb. 17, 1998. By law, the FCC must decide whether to grant the petition by Tuesday.
“The message from the Hill is simple-by granting the mid-size company forbearance petition, the FCC can take a significant step toward doing away with unnecessary regulations and energize the competitive efforts of an important sector of the telecommunications industry,” said David Zesiger, executive director of ITTA.
