UNDERSEA CABLE OPERATORS ACCEPT AT&T-VERIZON FEE PROPOSAL

摘要

Private submarine cable operators support a regulatory fee structure proposed by AT&T and Verizon for undersea links, FCC and industry officials said. The operators and carriers are working on wording and implementation but are near formal agreement. The FCC has promised to act by Sept. 29. Level 3 and the other submarine cable operators, which earlier pitched a joint proposal, now believe the AT&T-Verizon plan, while likely to mean higher fees, is more fair, said an industry official close to the proceeding. AT&T, Verizon and submarine cable operators found agreement during a phone conference Monday, the industry official said. AT&T and Verizon may meet as soon as Friday with Chairman Kevin Martin, perhaps with submarine cable operators taking part, the official said. Earlier this month, the submarine cable operators raised concerns about the AT&T- Verizon plan. nnBoth plans would create a per-system fee specifically for submarine cable systems, but they differ in the details. Submarine cables now are charged as international bearer circuits, a classification operators say results in inequitable fee assessments. AT&T and Verizon have called their approach more "nondiscriminatory and competitively neutral" than the operators' plan. Implementing the AT&T-Verizon proposal would mean submarine cable operators pay more, but many operators probably haven't been paying the full amount anyway, the industry official said. Operators report their own data, and loopholes in the IBC fee category let them under-report circuits, lowering fees, the official said. Submarine cable operators now see the Verizon-AT&T proposal as superior to their own because it eliminates opportunities for arbitrage, the official said.