TELECOM CUSTOMERS COMPARE FORBEARANCE TO SEC DEREGULATION

摘要

The FCC should reconsider forbearance decisions related to accounting rules approved for Verizon, Qwest, AT&T, Frontier and Citizens Communications, the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee said. The FCC is "doomed to repeat the kind of misguided deregulatory mistake" made by the SEC, and the public will "suffer the consequences" if it does, the committee said. It criticized compliance plans submitted by AT&T, Verizon and Qwest. The FCC can expect Verizon and Qwest to propose cost- assignment compliance plans that will lack substance and be susceptible to carrier manipulation, the committee said. The FCC granted AT&T forbearance from accounting rules over the opposition of competitors that have use them against the incumbent in commission proceedings. The FCC extended to Verizon and Qwest the conditional forbearance it gave AT&T because the reasoning of the AT&T order applies to Verizon and Qwest, AdHoc said.